Channa Horombuwa

This three storied, seven bedroom house, owned by Vijitha & Lalith Lokuge sits on a 23 perch land facing Abeyratne Mawatha in Boralesgamuwa. The owner being very fond of adopting modern technology into his day to day activities wanted the Architect to design a spacious, modern house to capture lot of day light into its interior.

This L-shaped house with its tall blind walls cut down the noise and congestion of the main road and fully opens out to the garden designed next to the adjoining open land. The ground floor consists of two bedrooms in addition to the Living, Dining, Pantry, Home theatre room and other service areas. The First floor facilitates, three bedrooms including the master bedroom and their attached bath rooms in addition to the TV lobby and gallery space. The second floor consists of two bedrooms with two bath rooms and a study area. Leading out from the terrace of the second floor is a glass stairway to the roof top garden and bar; a fantastic space for entertaining under the stars.

The main feature of the house is the floating staircase made out of stainless steel and wood. Two straight flights run parallel to each other through the triple height volume in the centre of the house. The large double height living room opens out to the garden and has been located towards the right side of the entrance lobby to maintain privacy. The tile cladded double height back wall of the living room supports the glass panels which touches the roof ceiling to maintain the floating effect of the single sloping roof of the living hall.

Use of Porcelain tiles can be seen in all floors with a combination of contrasting colours to create a floor pattern. In addition to the majority of plastered walls of the interior, couple of selected walls were cladded with porcelain tiles in horizontal direction. All internal and external balustrades are out of stainless steel. All external canopies are out of tempered glass supported with stainless steel brackets.

White has been selected as the main colour for both interior and exterior while few selected walls were painted with colours having a subtle contrast. White on the other hand helps to maintain lot of daylight inside the house. Every bedroom has a theme colour for the back walls and all bedroom accessories and curtains follow the theme.

Use of large glazed panels help to bring lot of day light into the house and as a result the every corner of the house is well lit with reflected sunlight. Direct and indirect light effects maintain a dramatic appearance inside the house at night. Selection of light fittings too has been made to strengthen the modern look of the house. 

The owner and the Architect have made a visit to China to select the most appropriate items for the house including, Tiles, Furniture, Light fittings, Bathroom Accessories and even paintings/ornaments.  This has helped a lot to maintain the house under one modern theme. 
More than everything, the Architect highly appreciates the clients’ decision taken to give free hand to design this house and to select materials/items as per the Architect’s choice, without any interference. Archt. Channa Horombuwa considers this as a rare opportunity which most clients do not understand and highlights that as one of the main factors for the success of this unique modern design.