By – Mr Gaurav Mavi,
Co-founder,
BOP Group

A trend that is gaining popularity in the evolving real estate market is Smart Homes. As a real estate consultant with years of experience, I have seen that there is a rise of homes with modern technology that suits our daily life. Lighting of the house activated by voice and security systems which are automated are examples of resources that are now becoming necessities for nowadays home owners, rather than wishful futuristic technologies. Let us see why smart homes are more than just a fancy quirk and how they will change how we live in the future.

Benefits of a smart home:

Control at your command: Smart homes give the ultimate convenience of controlling household appliances, and even electrical systems from your smartphone or tablet, wherever you are. This can eliminate the fear of forgetting to turn something off and saving a tonne of time.

Energy Efficiency on Autopilot: Smart homes can help you become more environmentally conscious and potentially lower your electricity bills, making it cost-efficient in nature.

Enhanced Security and Peace of Mind: Security is a major advantage of smart homes. Smart features like remote monitoring which allow you to view live camera feeds of your home from anywhere and automated alerts which can notify you of unusual activity. Smart locks can be controlled remotely, so you can let someone in even if you’re not home.

Smart Homes in India: Boon or Buzzword?

India’s real estate sphere is experiencing a surge of demand of smart homes and the numbers are expected to increase by the year 2025. A reflection of this rising wave speaks volume on two fronts — affordability and accessibility. Security is an essential factor in driving the demand for smart homes, with the features of remote monitoring and automated alerts fuelling the curiosity in security conscious societies.

However, some practical considerations exist. The setup of a smart home system demands investment in compatible devices plus new systems — an initial expensive outlay. Moreover, smart homes have an insatiable appetite for consistent internet supply since functionality can be easily hampered by irregular speeds or outages; not forgetting that smart device operation can be curtailed by frequent power cuts (a stark reality in some parts of India). In short: Demand grows as cost blooms amidst these technological vulnerabilities imposed by geographic contexts.

Smart homes in India are now becoming more practical. However, affordability, internet reliability, and user-friendliness are still aspects that need improvement for widespread adoption. As technology matures and the market expands, smart homes are likely to become a more practical option for many Indian households.

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The new age home buyers are tech-savvy, appreciate fine living, and are high-income individuals who prefer a luxurious blend of extravagant house designs with modern amenities. To cater to their altering requirements aligned with the latest home interior trends, modern home buyers always look out for homes, designed with thoughtful and practical features, providing them with all the facilities they need. Considering the customer’s evolving preferences in making homes more personalized, real estate developers constantly endeavor to include unique features to fulfill customers’ needs, wherein the Modular Kitchen feature is gaining utmost popularity.

The real estate industry has made modular kitchens a standard inclusion due to the growing popularity of these types of kitchens among today’s younger generation. Today, a housing property is designed with pre-installed modular kitchens, high-tech amenities, and contemporary interior design. Let’s take a closer look at some of the factors responsible for the growing demand for modular kitchens in the real estate sector. 

Ideal for all properties:

Modular kitchens are suitable for all kinds of properties, no matter the size of the apartments, whether they are small and compact apartments or luxurious duplex apartments. They are designed and installed according to the size and shape of the property and customers’ needs. Hence, they are ideal for all types of properties.

Hassle-Free Cooking Experience:

One of the most hectic tasks involving household chores includes meal planning, preparation, and storage. Kitchen work can become extremely overwhelming with a lack of planning and organization. The customized approach involved in setting up a modular kitchen helps provide a hassle-free cooking experience as the kitchens are designed keeping in mind the frequency of kitchen use, food cooking preferences, and family size. 

High Durability:

Modular kitchens are manufactured using high-quality materials including waterproof and boiling waterproof features that essentially contribute to enhancing their durability. These kitchens are also prepared to withstand the regular wear and tear of kitchen tasks, hence, this can be considered a great investment in the property.

Built-in appliances provide a stylish touch:

Modular kitchens provide an option to arrange a dedicated and customized space to install built-in equipment which also enhances the overall aesthetic of the kitchen. Today, a kitchen design trend of providing hidden cabinets is catching up wherein bulky structures can have their dedicated hidden space in the kitchen such as water purifiers, microwaves, food processors,s, etc. Such trends not only boost creativity and innovation in the kitchen space but also significantly contributes to enhancing kitchen appearance.

Space Organization:

Modular kitchens are specifically designed to provide better and more efficient storage. These kitchens provide a variety of design ideas to organize the kitchen space and provide sufficient space to arrange the necessities without making the room seem crowded. Today, kitchen corner space utilization designs are becoming popular amongst customers as they help make optimum utilization of the kitchen area. 

Smart storage concepts, personalized space design, and space management ideas are some of the key highlights of a modern modular kitchen, due to which there is a growing demand for modular kitchen concepts amongst customers.  Also, the growing number of partnerships between real estate developers and modular kitchen manufacturers is one factor that is expected to push the demand for modular kitchens in the coming years.

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To maintain our mental state, it is very important to maintain peace or to keep ourselves busy in some work, so that our attention is kept and our thinking is also positive. For this, we should first try to distance ourselves from any kind of negative thinking. We should also make our home environment so that our thinking is positive and we get positive energy.

Holy Basil
By planting a basil plant at home, happiness and peace are maintained. Also, this plant is also a source of positive energy.

Oregano
Nowadays, oregano is used in most of the fastfoods eaten. Not only for food, people also use it to bring positive energy in their home. You can also give it to someone as a gift.

Jasmine
People like its fragrance very much. In many countries of the world, the plant of Jasmine is considered very sacred and revered. Jasmine flowers are believed to increase self-confidence, increase love and friendship among themselves, and strengthen relationships.

Rosemary
Planting a rosemary plant at home makes one feel pure. Apart from this, you will reduce anger, depression will not come in you nor will you feel lonely. Rosemary plant creates peace in your inner being.

Lily
Lilies are also considered sacred. This flower is considered a symbol of happiness. It brings happiness in the home and removes all negative things from the house.

Aloevera
Aloevera is a plant that is used in medicines and beauty products. This plant does not require much care. Also, this plant also removes the negative energy of your house.

Money Plant
This plant produces positive energy in the house

Rose
The rose flower is a symbol of peace, love and positive atmosphere. This holy flower removes negative energy from your surroundings.

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A journey from an Entrepreneur to an Artrepreneur !! Entrepreneurship is a marathon and when one starts thinking entrepreneurial, the marathon gets even better. From professionals to Entrepreneurs and now Artpreneurs, here is an inspiring story of a few young minds from Mumbai, India.

Background

‘ASA’ is an established Architecture and Interior Design Studio formed by Principal Architects’, Rajnikant, Parag, Rachana and Ankit Savla. We develop creative and innovative design solutions by understanding people and their lifestyle. It helps us develop empathy with the target user and has evolved as a base for our Design Thinking process. This Design Thinking process helps us systematically extract and apply human-centric techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way – in our designs, in our business and in our lives. We innovate and explore new building technologies and have constantly focused on delivering the projects par excellence. We have designed and executed Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Healthcare projects locally as well as globally. You can further browse our website www.asastudio.in

Design Thinking Expanded

Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems by challenging assumptions and creating ideas for innovative solutions. The process involves five stages of Empathise, Define (the problem), Ideate, Prototype and Test. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods. Design Thinking helps us in tackling problems that are unknown by creating many ideas through brainstorming sessions.

The Pandemic has challenged and changed the way we carry out our lives with work, with home and most importantly with work from home defining the New Normal. One of the immediate challenges was with our existing projects that had to be redesigned based on the New Normal. Exploring design solutions to solve problems in creative and innovative ways for office considering social distancing as well as for residential spaces considering work from home was the approach for redesigning. Even when the solutions provided may seem or sound simple, the implementation called for a number of iterative processes of thinking and designing. The idea of space got redefined and was now more sensitive to human ideology. Prior to the pandemic, spaces were designed considering social bonding, but suddenly the new approach for designing was to consider social distancing for the betterment of the community. We were in the midst of a chaos and were trying to ease the way out. This furthermore evolved a deep interest in developing an understanding of the people for whom we are providing our services. It sparked an idea to develop and launch a product that can be useful to the society.

The sparks fired up the ignition and a series of brain storming sessions were followed by adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and testing the product. This innovative process of evolution of an idea which would lead to the demand in the new emerging market and create a sustainable community has made us launch our new venture ‘Peek-a-boo Art Store’, by Parag and Rachana Savla.

‘Stay Safe’ within as well as protect the ‘Mother Earth’ were our initial thoughts that led us to explore this idea of ‘Reusable’ Designer Masks. Wearing a mask had to create a sensorial value of positivity and happiness. As wearing a mask is a new normal in these times of a Pandemic, we thought of giving a unique touch to it. The person’s identity somehow gets lost in the crowd, where all are wearing similar masks. The thought of adding some fun element and an artistic touch to this ordinary thing made us create, unique graphical designs as well added some taglines to make a statement.

Further exploring designs for the masks, led us to incorporate multiple colours, art, cultures and creative tags which keeps the spirit up and creates a sense of happiness in our daily lives. In addition to this, we also opened up an opportunity for people to customize their own masks, with respect to names, logos for corporate clients and their own artwork as well. Eventually there was a good response and demand for our designer masks. Especially Kids, they are so excited to wear a mask with their name on it. Taking our ideas further, we collaborated with few Artist. Look forward to some more innovative product introductions through the collaborations.

Besides the creative and designer approach, we used our Design Thinking process to provide for a functionally reusable and comfortable mask as well. As wearing a mask all day can bring strain to the ears, we launched our new product range of Headband with a button. For all the frontline workers, Health care community and all those who have to wear a mask all day can now do so by hooking in to the head band.

Road Ahead

In this process of constantly exploring new ideas and innovating creative design solutions, the team is looking forward to launch new home decor and daily use range of designer products, by positively strengthening collaborations with Artists and promote Art Work and Handcrafted products.

Do try their exclusive range of designer masks and keep looking for the upcoming products. You can find them on Instagram as @peekaboo_artstore and the Facebook handle @Peekaboo Art Store.

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In today’s world having a home with basic amenities is not enough, more and more people are opting for luxury homes and spending a lot on designing them. Interior design not just stands with look and beauty, added to beauty it also has ability to showcase even a studio apartment as residence which has enough space with the help of proper design and comforting lighting. Interior designers are experts in creating more spaces, improving the space efficiency; the functional usage of space, the lighting effect, the colour effects, the textures, patterns, scale, size etc. They are also experts in selecting fittings & equipment. To be precise, it is all about transforming people’s lives and makes their life a better one. Hence interior design is much important than it seem and most people are opting to getting their house equipped with most of the modern techniques and designer house hold items that are available in the market .

Designing your space increases the aesthetic value and gives your home a personal touch. Designing improves the quality of lifestyle that one needs in today’s time. People are not only going for themes but also luxury items such as chandeliers, Jacuzzi, home theatres opting for more lavish lifestyles. Every member of the family wants to get their room designed according to their comfort and preferences. The standard of living of people is rising. Social gatherings of people which take place within the premises of their house add to the need of good Party spaces, good ambience, lighting and some would also like to have a dance floor and surround sound system in their house. This has definitely increased the demand for more efficient and technologically advanced designers. Beds that dismantle with the touch of a button on the remote also help in creating more space in the house.

Even when the architect constructs a new project he has to keep in mind how the basic Interior of the space would be. However as life is turning out to be more busier day by day the luxuries that we have are turning us Into more lazy and unhealthy humans. From gym to pool to movie area everything lies within the premises of the house so one doesn’t have the occasion to go out and get some fresh air, social life also is staggered, kids should be encouraged to play in playgrounds and not in the play area of their house.

Just like every coin has two sides too much of luxury can be a drawback and lead to unhealthy lifestyle.

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