It was one of our earliest commissions – a large 2,000-square-foot home for a family of four, parents and a sister who lived with them. It was a typical Mumbai apartment typology – two 2-bedroom apartments combined to make a 4-bedroom apartment, what is, in the local language, called a Jodi flat. The clients were old acquaintances, simple people – with very minimal requirements. The whole floor was theirs, and we had to begin the design from the lift lobby itself. A shoe rack unit/divider was conceived as the entrance wall to the apartment – and was designed in dark Wenge wood. At the outset, 3 types of wood were identified – dark Wenge wood, light Cedar, and Red Bubinga. All furniture was designed as a mix of these 3 types of wood. The living room and the main bedrooms were in dark Wenge, while the sister’s room was in white Cedar and the parents’ bedroom was in the Red Bubinga. The design had very Indian, local elements – such as an Indian seating area in the living room and also a low sit-down dining table – which is how the family was always used to eating until now. The house was also the site of our first experiments in sculptural wooden furniture design.