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Source: Beautiful house design. Free public | Free Photo – rawpixel

There can be a multitude of reason why you’d want to change the elevation and exterior of your villa house. It could be because of the recent constructions around that makes your villa the odd-one-out. It can be another reason to beautify your home because you’re getting an extended family after a wedding or childbirth. Whatever the reason, the meaning of having a villa is emphasising luxury, spaciousness and comfort over ‘just having a place to live’. Certainly, the basic necessities have to be simplified and shall be functional but the form of your villa can be changed over time to create a more attractive view for the house in the eyes of visitors and yourself. So, let’s start with the changes-

Flooring

The flooring of any house speaks measures about the lifestyle of the residents. The moments people set foot into your house they will always look at the floor first. Keeping your flooring a plain concrete texture can be a choice but not many are going to see the true reflection of you in that style. There are multiple materials that one can use to give an aesthetically pleasing look to the interior of the house and improve your elevation in the process. Most of the time you can choose to change the flooring when you’re adding a different paint or colour scheme your villa. Choose from wooden, stone, tiles, marble and even glass. You can either choose your favourite material and create the colour scheme of your villa around it or choose the best suitable material according to your chosen colour scheme.

Source: Serene Mansion | Exclusive Venue (exclusive-venue.com)

Exterior elevation

The exterior view of your villa is a crucial element to consider when trying to add aesthetics to your villa. Most of the time, a person or even yourself passing by your villa will view it from the outside, hence having a stunning exterior is as important as a good interior. Your villa shall be clearly visible from the connecting roads and should have a fresh coat of paint every season. Adding elements like roofing tiles and designer windowsills can have a glamorous effect on the view of your villa. There will always be a better-looking elevation element that you can add your exterior, just widen your view and see what fits your windows and roofing.

Source: House window home building. A brick building with a window and flower boxes – PICRYL – Public Domain Media Search Engine Public Domain Search

Ground game

One of the most inviting features of a luxury villa is the surrounding grounds, no matter the size. The villa may be complimented with a vineyard, a small courtyard or a well-maintained terrace garden. A garden space is directly proportionate to aesthetic appeal. The more variety you add to your garden the better your villa will appear from the outside. In case your garden grounds are small and can only hold a backyard full of palms and small hedges, try to utilize your terrace space and build a homely garden with different shades of green and some flowering plants that will pop out when viewed from outside.

Source: File:Villa Arcadia Plaque and garden.JPG – Wikimedia Commons

Water features

The human sight has a certain affinity towards water. Which is why many luxury villas and hotels incorporate water as a feature in their elevation. Water in the shape of functional or non-functional features adds a charm to the villa and makes it more soothing to looks at. There are two forms of water being used as a feature. One of them can be a functional feature in the form of pools or a jacuzzi, while the non-functional features can be a small fountain, cascading waters with stepped rocks or a small aquarium pool with fish on display. The pool can be either outside the villa, or a jacuzzi can be fitted inside in a courtyard for a private chill space. The fountains can be placed in the centre of the courtyard or can be right in front of the villa in the lawn space. The cascading water spout can be fixed on the outer front walls giving it a feel of old-time castle built on a stream. Play with water and you can have a richer appeal to your villa.

Source: Charity Greenhouse Water Feature | Conferred a 2013 Exceptio… | Flickr

Landscaping

The natural vibe of your villa shall be on top of your priorities if you want to make it look like a dream home to visitors and guests. A patchy lawn or one with no grass will spoil the whole meaning behind having a luxury villa. Ill-maintained plants and rotting leaves in pots are going to create a look negativity and lack of care. Get creative with your landscape, create a green wall around the property or maybe add creepers to an existing concrete boundary. Whatever you do make sure it holds originality and differentiates the feel of your villa from the surrounding architecture. There can be a gazebo if you have a big enough lawn, or adding a green shade to the porch with creepers and vines. Improvise as you fit in things, it could also be handy to hire an interior exterior designer who could bring some fresh ideas to the board.

Source: Rendering, Single Family Home, Villa, cloud – sky, sky free image | Peakpx

The elevation of a villa can be modified with a hundred pieces, but the appeasing results come from the ones that really fit your villas base look. At Delvin Infrastructures, we excel with design consultation and interior makeovers. The real beauty of your building can be polished with the right vision and a ‘ready to redesign’ team. Contact us for more info on how to modify your old or newly built villa.

Source- File:Latin Quarter of Panjim in Goa, India 0212.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Goa, famous for its amazing yet crowded beaches and infamous for its cheap booze and racy parties. Of course, who doesn’t love a little sinfully stimulating fun but the beauty remains in the simplicity of Goa’s serene terrain and natural landscapes. And the Goan landscape is ornamented with the dispersed houses that give a sense of the colonial era Goa. Portuguese designers didn’t have much space to work about in the streets of Portugal at that time. The empty fields and humble hills, however, gave them a large canvas to portray their menagerie of culture and architecture.

The Indo-Portuguese culture started taking hold in India and especially in Goa after the Portuguese settlers moved from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) towards the East and West Coasts of India. Most of their influence over culture and architecture is seen in the states of Tamil Nadu and Goa. They are quite famous for the old Portuguese houses and small apartment complexes. In Goa, they still attract a lot of investors and preservation enthusiasts who want to restore or retain the beauty that these Portuguese houses hold. From old whitewashed churches to the colour palate of the Fontainhas in Panjim, Portugal brought with it a medley of cultural sermons which made Goa what it is today. However, understanding the beauty in these complex architectural pieces, is uncomplicated.

Portuguese Town Planning

Source: Goa Panorama 1886 – An old map of a city with a lot of buildings – PICRYL – Public Domain Media Search Engine Public Domain Search

Let’s talk first about the narrow streets lined with towering Portuguese villas in areas like Assagaon and Benaulim. The main reason behind these parallel narrow roads is the Portuguese style of town planning. If you see the road mapping of Goan towns, you’ll find a main road connecting one town to another, while the streets with settlements and houses are connected perpendicular to this main road. On the other side of these housing streets, or vaddos, you can find another straight road going through, with large Portuguese bungalows lining it up. Now the main road which connects towns stays on the lower levels, the vaddos move up to the second connecting street, which houses grand Portuguese villas which are built on a higher plinth. This town planning design is the result of defence tactics of Portugal called castrensian. So, that the the aristocracy of the town is at the uppermost level, watching over their lands and belongings and right underneath are the citizens who can use the streets to go to their adjoining chapels and grottos, while the principle main street connects them to the rest of Goa.

Portuguese Villas of Goa

The alluring grandiose of the Portuguese bungalows and villas in Goa brings many a vagabond home. A large number of international tourists who want to retire from life have invested in these villas to live a serene and susegad life in the midlands of Goa. Portuguese houses have a special feel to them with their ornamental facades in the front to the grand pillars on porches, their symmetrical designs also absorb in them a memory from the renaissance period. Especially the heritage churches of Goa like Bom Jesus’ Basilica in Old Goa and the Church of Immaculate Conception in Panaji are windows to the fast-paced development of the past.

Source: File:Afonso Guest House, 173, Fontainhas – 19th-20th century (4275516387).jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Portuguese houses in Goa tell a story of cultural synergy through its Portuguese Stuccos on window shutters that are adorned with Muslim designs consisting flowers and climber branches. Since, Portugal also had a Muslim influence in its earlier years, it still does have the designs embedded in its architectural ornamentations.

Source: Period Portuguese era furniture at Panjim Inn | Period furni… | Flickr

There are some outstanding features that are consistent in all Goan Portuguese houses. You might be familiar with roosters on the gates and roofs of houses, it is the cultural change that came with the Portuguese. The rooster is the national bird of Portugal and is considered lucky. Another cultural synergy that you will find is the lion on the gates of the same houses which have a rooster on top. They come from the Kadamba dynasty of the Western Ghats and represent courage and strength on part of the owner of the house. The Portuguese accepted this idea and put lion statues on their gateways. The rarest structure you’ll find on old Portuguese houses is the soldier on the gate. This was the conveyance to people that a member of the family is in the military. It used to represent the military respect that the family commands, which was to be considered before taking judicial action on the family.

The beauty of symmetrical embellishments and China clay adorned windows combined with meaningful symbolism makes Old Portuguese architecture the backbone of Goan landscape. It enlivens the spaces and gives all the feel of a gothic baroque era in the modern world.