A Unique housing project in Belagavi is taking shape on Bauxite road – THE FORMIST COVE

The Formist Cove is a unique experiment in housing that has hitherto never been attempted for mass housing projects, in India or anywhere else for that matter, and it is taking shape, right here in Belagavi.

This is a neighborhood of 33 villas nestled in a housing layout of around three and a half acres. The layout, which has successfully converted a barren land into a verdant neighborhood is the brainchild of The Formist Group, a new-age real estate company with several projects in Bengaluru.

Generally, Housing projects are characterized by monotony, sameness, and a lack of variety to cater to the diverse needs of our equally diverse lifestyles.

At Formist Cove, the home buyer is put in the driver’s seat, by enabling him/ her to design their own homes by using a modular approach to space.

An App to design the spaces of your life

An Android App, exclusively developed for this community of 33 Villas, becomes the interface between the homeowner and the Designer / Builder.

The Architect of The project, Praveen Bavadekar, has this to say about the approach to design:

“Among other things, it reimagines several established tropes in such projects:

The role of the Architect and the Builder is that of an enabler, rather than as an enforcer, of space.

Mass housing is conceived as a landscape of subtle difference and continuous variation, not straight-jacketed in the binaries of either monotonous repetition or its other extreme, cacophonous variation.

The role of a home buyer is reconfigured as an active participant in the design process rather than as a passive recipient without agency.”

An Infrastructure at par with the best

Beyond the unique architecture of the villas, the layout also has some unique features, as the MD of The Formist Group, Architect Amit Kulkarni elaborates:

“We wanted to create a neighborhood that truly sets the gold standard for such developments. Our team as well as I take the transformative power of design very seriously.

With the way we have integrated services such as underground stormwater drainage to gas piping, we are committed to giving the residents a future-proof environment where their every need and aspiration is catered to. To this end, we have roped in some of the finest consultants and are executing the project with a highly professional team of Architects, Engineers, and Contractors. We all are working as a team to ensure that we give Belagavi a neighborhood that it can be proud of.

Landscape as memory

Architect Sudhir Choughule, a Belgaumite and an accomplished Landscape architect from Bengaluru, has

Created a landscape in the Cove that capitalizes on the unique micro geography of the site. He is another person on this team of designers and entrepreneurs who is deeply passionate about this project:

“With this project, I have looked at the western ghats as a starting point for my exploration into creating a densely rich green neighborhood.

I also looked back at the Belagavi that I grew up in, where streets were not just for cars, but also for children to play, and we used to pluck fresh fruits from the branches of our neighborhood trees during the summer holidays.

We have looked at planting some 800 trees in this small patch of land and out of these, there are at least about 30 which are indigenous and also ecologically endangered. We imagine that these trees will flourish and also become mother trees from which the whole region’s ecology may benefit.

Our landscape design uniquely combines indigenous trees and ground cover, fruit-bearing trees that will become a part of everyone’s lives. Furthermore, a sensitive program based design for the gardens will appeal to people of all ages and lifestyles”

Overall, The Formist Cove is a multi-pronged effort into creating the right mix of design and technology.

The Formist Group Director, Marie Raghavan, who not only happens to be a Belgaumite but who is also a published Poet sums it up succinctly when she says:

“Ultimately, the spaces of your life should give you joy, and should be a place where you can contemplate on what life has to offer. I am sure, staying in this neighborhood will bring out the hidden poet, painter, or sculptor who resides in each and every one of us”

You can connect with Veena Manohar at +91 89044 26451 for more information about this project.