Architect Vineet Vora and his partner, Prachi, pull up four inches of flooring and knock down walls to connect a cherished home to a patio shaded by a 100-year-old rain tree.
After growing up in this top-floor flat in Mumbai, India, with his parents, grandparents, and brother, Vineet Vora has a lot of fond memories of the home. There were the cricket games he played down the long hallway with his cousins and next-door neighbors. There were the times he helped his mother with Diwali prep by ferrying pickles, peppers, and papadum wafers out to the terrace, where they would sit to ferment or crisp. And then there was the swing on the balcony that Vineet loved to access by jumping through the living room window.
Vineet Vora sits on the apartment’s balcony with the rain tree in the background, circa 1988.
Courtesy of Studio Urban Form + Objects
Vineet with his grandparents, Mr. D.D. Vora and Mrs. Gunvanti Vora, snacking in the kitchen. Vineet’s grandfather designed and built the apartment in the 1950s in the Art Deco style, which Vineet says was a widespread influence in Mumbai. “Interestingly, they were all following the style, not knowing that they were doing it,” he says.
Courtesy of Studio Urban Form + Objects
Vineet was about 14 years old when the family moved out of the apartment in 2000 in exchange for a bigger place. They retained ownership of the building, which was originally built in the 1950s by Vineet’s grandfather, Mr. D.D. Vora, a civil engineer and contractor. Twenty-five years later, Vineet and Prachi Parekh, life partners and architects at the firm Studio Urban Form + Objects, decided to return to the family flat and make it their own.
Vineet and his brother and cousins enjoy a snack on the balcony in 1990.
Courtesy of Studio Urban Form + Objects
See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: In Mumbai, an Architect Gives His Childhood Home a Renovation Guided by Memory
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