HomeLAB, Ahmedabad

​​​​​​​​For us this space is like a hidden forest, a sanctuary where the outside world merely exists in the background. A place of quiet observation against noise and spectacle. We see the light change through the day, notice the many shades of orange, and often find monkeys huddled together in groups around the chikoo tree. It’s almost like living becomes a form of slow observation. ​The spaces are flexible, not rigidly defined by program, but by mood, season, and instinct. A dining room becomes a workspace. A corridor becomes a gallery. A kitchen becomes a theatre. It adapts very easily, in fact it’s almost easier for the space to adapt than be as is.

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Home is such a strong marker of our identities. It’s a place where we grow up, as individuals, with family and friends, it's where we gather to eat around a table, where we make memories, where we have conversations that shape our lives. We feel nurtured here. It’s the preliminary space for the forming of a community. While designing a space for us, it was important for us to create a space that safeguards these feelings.

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We constantly asked ourselves how can this programme go beyond ideas of domesticity? Can it become a site of cultural production? A place where community is not merely housed, but nurtured. To call a home a cultural institution is to imagine it as an incubator; not of artefacts, but of people and practices. It must house traditions, ideas, and at the same time be flexible to accommodate any alternative futures. 

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