The Sarvasva Tower, designed by Indian studio Spasm Design to stand out from the neighboring grey buildings in Mumbai, India, houses a single-family home.

The house, named Sarvasva, is housed in a 12-story tower designed to make the most of its location in the dense urban environment.

The tower, with its concrete frame, is encased in a rainscreen made of terracotta panels and features a facade in a striking color that stands out from the gray buildings surrounding the site.

“The entire building is clad in a ventilated facade made of terracotta panels, which are highly sustainable,” studio co-founder Sangeeta Merchant told Dezeen.

“The color harmonizes well with the green of the large acacia avenue on which the project stands,” she continued.

“There is no dust to be seen on this self-cleaning facade and the color stands out in the otherwise gray and boring vertical neighborhood.”

Responding to the density of the urban terrain, the family home rises over twelve floors and is designed to accommodate vertical living, which Spasm Design hopes will mark a departure from standard building practices in the Indian capital.

“A vertical single-family home in a dense urban environment is a difficult undertaking considering that most construction projects in Bombay are driven by developers and their focus is on greed for living space,” said Sanjeev Panjabi, co-founder of the studio.

A geometric void of intersecting rectangular cutouts extends up one side of the tower and is dotted with black spiral staircases and plantings, as well as outdoor spaces such as balconies and terraces.

“We conceived a body that would propose a new way of vertical living, absorbing breezes, inviting butterflies and birds, and allowing life to flow outside,” Panjabi continued. “The vertical void lights up to give the neighborhood a sense of greenery and an atmosphere of naturalness.”

“The outdoor spaces and the small connections through the black spiral staircases provide a unique opportunity to experience the green void, which is an extension of the interior spaces,” he explained.

Inside, each interior room of the house is set back into the tower and flanked by jagged terraces of varying shapes that run along the edges of the cavity.

Each terrace is surrounded by black railings and dotted with greenery, while some levels are connected by external spiral staircases that add an additional black accent to the exterior.

Behind the front void, the interior spaces on each level are connected to the terraces by sliding glass doors and floor-to-ceiling windows.

At the bottom of the tower there is a basement and two parking and service floors. The first main floor of the house above the parking floors is designed as a guest suite with several guest rooms and bathrooms.

White walls can be found throughout the rooms, complemented by black accents and dark wooden surfaces.

Above the guest rooms, the next levels of the tower house the family kitchen and living area, while the next three floors contain bedrooms, including two master bedrooms, each taking up an entire floor, and a children’s room flanked by a playroom.

Above the bedrooms is an additional floor with a formal living area with double height ceilings, finished with timber wall panels and modern furnishings. The living area is overlooked by a dining room on the mezzanine level.

Near the top of the tower, a terrace holds a swimming pool lined with tiles of varying green tones. Lounge spaces sit behind the pool, which can be opened or closed to the space outside by white floor-length curtains and sliding glass doors.

Designed as a casual living area, the lounge area features a small kitchen with light blue cabinets and polished black flooring, as well as a living area with orange armchairs that echo the color of the facade.

Above the swimming pool, the tower has an additional level with a gym, embedded in a black volume with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Above the tower is a split-level roof terrace, consisting of three staggered levels connected by an additional black spiral staircase. The main terrace, paved with dark grey floor tiles, offers planting areas and an open area for relaxation.

Other Indian homes recently featured on Dezeen include a brick house modelled on a docked ship and a house with multi-level courtyards designed to encourage community living.

Photography by Jacob Nedumchira / Photographix India.