Throw a stone and it will probably hit an apartment project in progress. A city that conservatively clung on to the idea of bungalows not long ago, now finds almost every respectable square foot of land in it bearing apartments. In the beginning, apartments came up in the city centre and largely bore staid names. Names that reflect the idea of home, the city’s links to spice trade, exotic flowers, precious gems — all became apartment names.
However, apartment names today have shaken off the cloak of everydayness. As apartments move out of city centre to the outskirts, they grow in ambition too. From mere living spaces they are marketed as dream spaces that deserve a befitting name. Names of well-known landmarks, ancient history or even European languages are being found apt for apartment complexes. One can now step out of Windsor Castle at Paroppady or live in Acropolis located off the Thondayad by-pass. The slopes of Palazhi could bear the Bella Encosta. As the structures grow taller and fatter, they call themselves Rio Vista, Metropolis, Kings Spear, Corinth, Highlands, Palazzio Azure and so on.
“A name points to the quality of an address,” says Baiju M Nair, managing director, Queens Habitats. A name here is a delicate blend of aspiration and reality, one that gently massages the pride of the customer. “Every project today falls into a pattern — it has to have unique selling points. Ordinary names like rose, lilies and daffodils work no more. If we have a project that has British style architecture and great facilities what better name than Windsor Castle, a royal residence and the epitome of luxury,” asks Baiju.
Landmark Builders’ magnum opus, with seven towers and over 500 apartments, had to have a name befitting its sprawl. The builders went back to ancient Greece for inspiration. “Acropolis is a township project on a hill-top and the idea is to create a city. The real Acropolis is the lost city of Greece,” says Mohammed Shamshad, marketing manager. The brief of a “city on hill-top” was the starting point for the creative team and before long they agreed upon Acropolis. “Now we have elements of Greek architecture in the seven towers,” he adds.
A project name cashes in on the physical surroundings, elements of architectural style borrowed from diverse traditions and, may be, references to a city’s history. The name is the final polish of exotica. Christening projects are serious business, says Anilkumar Gopalan, vice president and area head, Kozhikode region, Sobha Limited. For a firm opening its innings in the city, Sobha had to offer something suitably stylish and hence Bella Encosta. “It is inspired by Portuguese architecture and landscape design. ‘Bela Encosta’ means ‘beautiful hillside’ in Portuguese. The project is coming up in a picturesque hill-side at Palazhi. Thus, the name connects the character of architecture and the location,” he says in a e-mail reply. Another upcoming apartment project of theirs is by the Chaliyar — ‘Rio Vista’ which in Portuguese means ‘river view’.
A project name is often a team effort, and a worthy name could happen in a meeting or take a month, says Shamshad. “About 10 per cent of clients are attracted to the name,” says Baiju. A buyer, says Gopalan, “is concerned with anything and everything about a home, even the name is important, though it is not a critical reason to purchase a home.” Udayavarman K.N., who owns an apartment at Acropolis, remembers being intrigued by the name. “I enquired about it with the builders and they explained the meaning to me. I appreciated the effort they took to find such a novel name,” he says. The name pleased him and he believes it is a value addition to the product.
Almost all builders say there is a general preference for international names. It has much to do with the target clientele. “Acropolis is on the most sought after stretch of real estate and we were looking at the cyber parks set to come. The average apartment is priced over Rs. 50 lakhs, so we are looking at a particular clientele,” says Shamshad. About 60-70 per cent of possible clients are non-resident Indians, he says. “A lot of our customers are in the 35-45 age-group who are NRIs and ‘new-generation.’ They connect better with international names,” says Baiju.
Gopalan agrees: “Though it is not necessary, western names are usually more secular in nature and are appealing to a greater number of people. They facilitate the development of project brochures and advertisements in English as well in regional language. Indirectly, this helps to have better visibility in new-gen media such as search engines.”
Dream and realityVineetha Menon, professor of anthropology at Kannur University, sees this tangle of international names and indigenous projects as a mesh of dream and reality. It works at two levels, she says. “By giving an apartment complex a name that is alien to Kerala culture, possible occupants are allowed to be in an imagined international space without ever travelling to it. They are given a sense of being in a space that is exotic, almost dream-like. Creating a house becomes part of creating a dream. For the NRI clients, the major takers of these projects, it works differently. These landmarks or spaces are something they are familiar with and they create a sense of what they aspired for at home,” says Menon.
An exotic name, believes Menon, could work well particularly for the NRIs. It systematically wipes away the unpleasantness, say of unemployment, they might have left behind when they went abroad, and allows them to habitat a dream on their return. “Sure there is nostalgia but they also know practicality. They know the large ancestral houses are not possible today with labour and maintenance issues,” says Menon. She also believes an exotic name is part of the plan to dispel apprehensions about living in an apartment. “Customers are encouraged to imagine a panoramic view. A name may mean multiple things to multiple people. For some, it is catching a dream.”
