You would have thought Pune resident Anurag Srivastav, an advisor at a health insurance company, would be reluctant to relocate from what he admits was “a comfortable two-bedroom apartment in a nice building,” with a swimming poolto boot. But, says the father of six-year-old Aayushi, when my daughter turned four, my wife Namita and I left the need to look out for another place. The Srivastav came across an apartment in Kharadi – 24 km from srivastav’s office, on the eastern outskirts of Pune – and decided to move it.Emerald city built by Gera Development has, says the couple, a host of features inside the house, and in the building complex that suit their daughter’s needs: the height of the railing outside the floor-to-ceiling windows; shock-proof switches; a no-traffic-zone podium where kids can play; a music roominside the parking lot with different instruments. There’s even a telescope that stands on the terrace.Namita, a 33-year-old healthcare implementation consultant says, I love how they have separate playgrounds for older and younger kids. That way, I don’t have to worry about Aayushi being bullied. Her 34 year-old husband talks eagerly of the pentagon-shaped room in their new two-BHK, relieved that it ha no sharp corners that could hurt Aayushi.The Srivastav aren’t the only ones looking for homes designed keeping kids in mind. Around the country, builders selling apartments to the Indian urban middle-class are designing spaces keeping their tiny inhabitants in mind, replete with low wash basins, anti-skid tiles, arounded wall corners, crèches and libraries.

Cricket pitches are last season

In Mumbai, Firdos Irani will move into a two-BHK flat in Thane, a north eastern suburb, later this month. The director of a hospitality firm lives with his wife and 11-year-old son Aryan in a one-bedroom home in Andheri one of Mumbai’s most centrally-located suburbs. Irani reason for moving is a building complex built by Rustomjee, which has a play are with cushioned turf, lamp-posta to ensure no dark nooks and a video-phone at the door for ‘enhanced security’.

A high-end surveillance system is one way to hook potential buyers. A common hobby riim for the kids is another. The Iranis, for instance are also excited about the six Leon World concept rooms in their complex. These interactive learning centers are designed on the theory of multiple intelligences conceived by American psychologist Howard Gardner. Each houses tools – musical instruments or models of planets – to stimulate different types of intelligence among the kiddie residents – linguistic, mathematical/logical, musical interpersonal or kineasthetic.

Rustomjee has nine such ‘child-friendly’ housing projects in the pipeline.

In Bengaluru, sobha developers launched  sobha Habitech nearly three months ago dominated by child-friendly features. Marketing head Vivek Jaiswal admits that whitefield, where the complex has come up, is an IT-heaven. Gadgets gizoms and buyers with an income to support this lifestyle are aplenty, here.

Not surprisingly, each apartment  has a ‘panic button’ that has the capacity to trigger an alarm that alerts neighbours and security staff and sends out messages to mobile phones (say, a relative’s or doctor’s). cameras set up in the complex are linked to residents cellphones, allowing them to monitor their children while at work, say jaiswal. The group is planning similar projects in Chennai, Mysore, Coimbatore, Pune and New Delhi.

The builders have a reason

Paresh Kapadia, honorary general secretary of the Indian institute of Architects, says, “child friendly features may be appreciated by all, but they’re only intended for a few.” He is right: the two and three-bedroom apartments in the 15-floor buildings developed by Sobha Developers (the complex has 318 apartments that range from 1,342 sq ft two-BHK to 2,225 sq ft four-BHK penthouses) command between rs.82 lakh and rs.1.10 crore. That’s up by 15 per cent since when the project was announced. An upcoming child-friendly project by Rustomjee in Thane, is designed for young working couples, says director percy chowdhry, and ranges from rs.7200 to rs.8500 per square foot.

A possible explanation for this urban housing trend can be found in new housing norms in some Indian states.

Kapadia explains the recent changes in Mumbai’s housing norms that allow builders to utilize up to two per cent of the area for recreational amenities, without craving it out of their floor space index allowance, introducing such amenities doesn’t add substantially to their cost, and ends up luring home buyers, he feels.

A global phenomenon

Yet, Maharashtra isn’t the only state experiencing the trend. It’s already a global phenomenon. Kentucky-based architect Roberto de Leon of De Leon & primmer architecture workshop offers an example of the child-friendly design his firm won an American institute of architects award for.

The clients, a young tech and design-savvy couple had two rambunctious boys and the primary criterion was to design a series of spaces that would allow the family to live and play together, he says.

To ensure no room was off-limits to the kids, de Leon’s team created a home where toys could be stashed, and thought up a space that had the potential of function as an impromptu gallery for the children’s artwork. This translated into concealed storage, built in bench-seats perfect for story –telling-time and large wall spaces for digital art and games to be project on.

To encourage a sense of curiosity about their environment, de Leon designed windows to frame the hackberry and pin oak trees that stood in their backyards.

A risk, or an investment?

Leon’s design incorporates the requirements of one family, but child-friendly design as a standard feature in mammoth projects would require builders to assume that most, if not all, their customers have children (and little ones at that). What about the single working professional, or the DINKs (double income no kids couples)?

Nayan Raheja, director of 22-year-old Raheja developers admits, we wouldn’t dedicate an entire room exclusively to kids in our budget projects that house two-BHK homes.

Yet, after the success of child-friendly complex Atlantis, in Gurgaon, they are planning to roll out similar features in all their forthcoming high-end residential apartments, including the Raheja revanta. All the 1600 square foot, three-BHK homes (priced at rs.7000 per square foot) will have lowered counters in one of the bathrooms and some with rounded edges.

Raheja says a 2005 market research led them to consides kid-friendly features. As nuclear families grew, child-friendly elements began to mushroom in 2008 and 2009.

When the Srivastav moved into their apartment, Aayushi got a “pre moving party” to introduced her to her new neighbours. This, the builders claim, is part of their intention to cater to families need – even “unarticulated ones”. It’s not just a home that they are sellin, it’s an aspirational lifestyle.