The farmhouse belongs to renowned developer Harsh Constructions in Nashik. This is the family’s vacation home, a lush 8-acre property on the city’s outskirts. The client met us in 2017 at an exhibition in Pune where Messung was participating. They liked our solution and asked the team to visit them in Nashik.
“Unlike commercial space automation, where the group and efficiency outweigh the individuals, home automation is all about the people who will stay in that space—every one of them. That’s why we ask everyone to participate, and they all do with curiosity, excitement, and lots of suggestions.”
Messung has a strong network of system integrators around India who work with Messung on implementation. But there are those rare projects in between, where our team is directly involved. Birari Farmhouse was one such project. Our team met the Birari family in Nashik, where we took a property tour and had elaborate discussions with all members on their expectations, lifestyle, choices, and aesthetic preference. We enlightened them with all possibilities, which is often the point of intrigue. It often leads to follow-up questions like, can I have these functionalities on my phone, what kind of scenes can we have, and can we change the icons. This time also, it was no different.
The family stressed on quality. They wanted good quality products that could withstand the different seasons and inconsistent usage, as it is a vacation home. On the functionality side, both external and internal areas were to be fully automated.
It was a massive property with an open design. An extensive landscape with perfectly trimmed grass and trees on different levels complement the built-up space. The architecture merges the inside with the outside with a sequence of French windows across the home. Much like the external and internal architecture interplay, the external and internal automation needs to play together to create the desired experience. Let’s look at different aspects to understand what that means.
Lights get less credit than they deserve in shaping the environment and appearance of a home. We appreciate both the stylistic value and convenience that lights add to a house. For the interiors, we deployed DALI lights with adjustable luminance and color to adapt to the mood of the residents. For the exterior, simple ON/OFF lights were used that are scheduled to turn on and off on set times. So, no one needs to struggle in the dark outside; there will always be lights when required. Similarly, no one needs to enter the washroom in the dark. Sensors are placed in all restrooms that trigger lighting whenever they detect the presence and switch off the lights after a few seconds when the person leaves—so no wastage of energy.
As we mentioned, the house is covered with French windows. There are average-sized curtains, big curtains, and then there are massive curtains—all on aluminum motorized shutters. They needed to be specifically programmed to get the timing right. They can be controlled using keypads, mobile app, or voice control. Specific scenes were also made to trigger the opening and closing of curtains.
HVAC control was set up for the property. Smart functionalities were built to manage the temperature with minimum energy consumption. The overall experience was improved by eliminating the dependency on the dozens of remotes to control the AC. Now, that can be done using the mobile app or the stylish touchpads that are simpler to use and provide information like the mode, speed, and temperature in a clearer way. Ceiling fans can also be controlled in the same way, and regulating the speed is a delight with a seamless slide of a finger. The in-built thermostats and temperature probes monitor the temperature and adjust accordingly; the temperature information is shown on the home screen. The entire HVAC ecosystem is integrated with curtains and lights that together provide the power to transform any space in a single click—and save a lot of energy (20-30%).
A clutter-free entertainment experience—exactly what is needed on vacation. The audio-video set up in the home theater was brought on automation, reducing the handful of controllers to one. An intuitive UI was built to make operations easy for even the most non-techy person in the house. One-touch experience was curated by making the climate, lights, curtains, and audio-video work intelligently in unison.
Security is a major concern in properties this big and especially where the owners visit occasionally. To appease the concern, we implemented bespoke panels that helped control and monitor the entire property. The panels controlled outside lights, sprinkler system, alarms, generator supply, and electricity. The controls were brought on the smartphone app, so the owners can even watch and control the property remotely. Windows and doors were integrated to trigger an alarm in case of any attempts to break in. Gas detectors were also linked to the panel to give warning and open the windows in case of gas leaks.
Ten personalized touchscreen keypads were designed and implemented across the home. These keypads are used to control all the functionalities we talked about. Each area has its keypad with relevant controls. A central panel has additional master functions to manage the entire property from one place, saving many unwanted long walks. The design was customized to match the interiors and the owners’ preferences.
The Birari Farmhouse project ended up becoming one of our most reputed projects. The client was happy to see the rugged keypads, seamless functionality, and convenience of smart automation, making the farm experience many folds better.
