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Architectural Digest India •

This bungalow in Kerala’s Thelliyoor is a naturally cool escape even in peak summer

The brief didn’t just call for any house, it called for one to replace an ancestral predecessor. It was a tricky thing, creating a home for today and yesterday. “The lives of people here are a cross-weave of ancient rituals and modern living,” says Kishor, “so the design approach was therefore not to blindly replicate the past, but keep the home on par with its surroundings.” What began with the traditional—ornamental pillars, a pair of beautiful courtyards, and sloping roofs—slowly culminated i...
Architectural Digest •

This 16,000-square-foot bungalow in Karnataka’s Kundapur refuses to be ordinary

There is a particular kind of tragedy reserved for buildings: the tragedy of being merely fine. Such was the case for one bungalow in Karnataka's Kundapura—a perfectly serviceable modern shell, going up brick by brick, minding its own business, until its owners took one look and decided that 'fine' simply would not do. What they wanted, with the steady resolve of people who know exactly who they are, was a house that remembered where it came from. The owners in question, Sampath and Sonali Shett...
AD Middle East •

This Heritage Resort in the Himalayan Mountains Was Once an Indian Freedom Fighter’s Refuge

Original timber, hidden stone masonry and a rich family legacy guided Design Legends' revival of this 150-year-old heritage resort tucked high in the mountains.Following his release from British house arrest in 1937, Indian freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose spent six months in the picturesque mountain town of Dalhousie recuperating from tuberculosis. Surrounded by the mist-veiled peaks of the Dhauladhar hills, his time in the tranquil retreat was spent mostly in quiet seclusion, famousl...
Architectural Digest •

This wellness centre in Kerala's Puthoor proves that healing begins with feeling at home

What is home? Most people will tell you it's as much a feeling as it is a place. Yet no two people perceive it in quite the same way. Some crave crisp minimalism; others believe there's no such thing as too many books, heirlooms or cushions. Home, it turns out, is one of the few things that refuses to be one-size-fits-all. But that rule, as architects Nanda Kishor, Vivin Shankar and Sebastian K John would argue, doesn't necessarily apply to wellness centres. When the founders of Kollam-based studio The Design Room were commissioned to design Aswanimodam Ayurveda, an Ayurvedic retreat in Kerala's Puthoor, they arrived at an unexpected conclusion: if healing is universal, perhaps the feeling of home can be too. Their answer was to create a space that evokes the warmth, familiarity and comfort of home—a place where, for once, one size might just fit all.
Architectural Digest •

A publisher and wildlife conservationist's Wayanad home lies amid the wilderness

Site visits were meant to be about mud walls. For this Wayanad home, they kept turning into bird walks. "We'd go up expecting to check on the construction," laughs architect Thressia Paul, "and end up on a nature walk instead, with a running commentary of fascinating facts about everything we saw"—every butterfly, every startled squirrel, every rustle in the undergrowth flagged and named by the clients before anyone had so much as looked at the walls. Which, in hindsight, tells you almost everyt...
Architectural Digest •

This Thrissur, Kerala bungalow has green pockets that function as its lungs

It’s often said that distance makes the heart grow fonder—but when the distance in question is between a new home and old, it tends to make the heart a touch more inventive too. This theory, or theorem, as architect Manuraj CR insists it is, held true for one NRI couple, who put their inventiveness to good use when designing a holiday home in their childhood town of Thrissur, Kerala. The home, as they imagined it, was shaped by memory—unfiltered and familiar, and layered with the textures they grew up with. In other words, a space that was, somewhat paradoxically, more Keralan than many of its Keralan neighbours. Their rationale was simple: if they were coming back to Kerala, to Kerala they would come. “It had to register as a homecoming in every sense,” explains Manuraj, founder of Thrissur practice i2a Architects Studio, who was assisted on the project by associate architect Sanjukta Chakraborty. “A homecoming, with the ease—and comfort—of a hotel.”
Architectural Digest •

Inside a Thane restaurant designed to feel like a lived-in home

Most couples spend the weeks before their wedding agonising over seating charts and sangeet playlists. Architects Kasturi Wagh and Vineet Hingorani had those too—plus a few extra items on the to-do list that most brides and grooms don't. “We were finalising upholstery, marble, and lighting details alongside outfits and guest lists,” Wagh says, making it sound almost normal to be swatch-testing limewash tints between fittings for a lehenga. “We often joke that this restaurant was our 'other wedding,'” she adds. “Thankfully, our project lead, Yadavi Ganguli, held the fort on site, ensuring the project reached the finish line while we were at our own.” For the co-founders of Mumbai studio kaviar:collaborative, wedding planning and a restaurant build-out weren't competing priorities—they were two projects running on the same deadline, in the same breath.
Architectural Digest •

Inside a 150-year-old Dalhousie resort once favoured by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

Sometime in the summer of 1937, following his release from British house arrest, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose retreated to the picturesque mountain town of Dalhousie to recuperate from ill health and tuberculosis. It was here, amidst the mist-laden peaks of the Dhauladhar hills, that Bose sought sanctuary for six months, meditating in seclusion and, as legend has it, seeking healing in the medicinal properties of the spring water at Subhash Baoli. Much about Bose's stay in Dalhousie remains shroud...
Architectural Digest •

AD Small Spaces: Inside the prettiest French cottagecore-inspired Mumbai apartment

Artist Rudranee Chiman's hand-painted details deserve their own round of applause. Appearing on the crockery unit, the mandir shutters, the master wardrobe, and around the guest room mirror, they give Rêverie the feeling of a storybook that someone has very lovingly illustrated, cover to cover. Every room then picks up the thread. The canopied master bedroom, dressed in Borastepeter wallpaper and billowing fabric, is the sort of space that makes you want to read in bed until further notice. The...
Architectural Digest •

This Mumbai production studio is designed like a film that slowly reveals itself

More often than not, when it comes to creating a space, architects Aashna Shah and Ruchir Jain of Mumbai-based RAD co + lab like to resort to a bit of make-believe. “We like to imagine first and design second,” says Shah. For one home, that story might unfold in a sun-dappled English garden. For another, it could begin with a postcard from Japan and end somewhere delightfully wabi-sabi. So when the duo were commissioned to design the office of a leading Mumbai production house in the suburb of S...
Architectural Digest •

Housed in a 70-year-old building, this Puducherry boutique feels almost monastic

Task architect Deepak Jawahar and designer Justine De Penning of Chennai-based The Architecture Story to conjure a space, and chances are, they’ll begin, crucially, by taking things away. Not stripping it bare necessarily, but editing—gently, patiently—until what remains feels almost inevitable. That approach finds its perfect counterpart in fashion designer Naushad Ali’s new boutique in Puducherry, housed within a 70-year-old building in White Town, where, as De Penning explains, the intention...
Architectural Digest •

This 17th-floor Chennai apartment measures space in everyday moments

High above Chennai, on the 17th floor of a tower that gathers both heat and horizon into its embrace, a Sunita Yogesh Studio apartment looks out over a city that never quite settles and, beyond it, a strip of sea that appears and disappears with the light. Inside, however, there is none of that restlessness. The mood is composed, considered, hushed—less about effect than about the art of living well. The home, in a way, mirrors its owners: a couple in their thirties, both in demanding IT careers...
Architectural Digest •

This architect’s Chennai studio is a home disguised as an office

Set on a bustling street in Chennai, the studio occupies a 1980s building that once functioned as a family home. The owners still live upstairs; life continues above in its original domestic register, while the ground floor has passed through years of commercial tenants, each leaving behind their own alterations. Yet beneath those layers, Menon found something intact—a quiet, unshowy integrity. The mosaic floors were what first caught her. Different in every room, slightly irregular, distinctly...
Architectural Digest •

This architect couple gave their parents' 40-year-old Chennai home a delightful upgrade

Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." Husband-and-wife architect duo Kavin Sundar and Preethi Baskaran of Chennai studio Two Straight Lines never had that problem, because to Kavin’s parents, Sundar and Raji, their son and daughter-in-law have always been creative first and grown-ups second. So when the couple proposed transforming the underused terrace of the family’s 40-year-old Chennai home into a light-filled extension fo...
Architectural Digest •

This Rajkot cafe is built around traditional courtyards and teracotta

The idea of stepping out rarely comes with the promise of slowing down—especially in bistros and brasseries, where even leisure tends to feel scheduled. You walk in, pick a table, scan the room like you’ve done this before, and instinctively edit yourself to match whatever version of you the space seems to prefer. But every so often, you stumble into a place that resolutely refuses the whole act. Exhibit A: Café Beats.A stacked terracotta matka partition marks the first pause inside Café Beats,...
Architectural Digest •

This jewellery store in Tamil Nadu's Pollachi feels more like an heirloom than a showroom

Architect Sowmya Kumar likes to see the glass half full. The trouble is, when it comes to her work, the founder of Coimbatore-based OWM Architecture can never quite resist filling it right to the brim. She slipped into this habit, almost irreverently, while designing Tvishi, a jewellery store in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, repeatedly revisiting a scheme her client had already enthusiastically green-lit and returning with iteration after iteration—each more dazzling than the last. "There came a point w...
Architectural Digest •

Inside a multi-pavilion Surat home inspired by a grandson’s memory

Distil Surat designer Rahul Dholakia's memories of his grandmother down to their essence, and one scene remains: a mud chullah crackling in the courtyard of their ancestral home, bajra na rotla rising over the flame, and a young boy sitting close enough to carry the smell of smoke with him for years to come. The house itself wasn't remarkable. The memories it contained were. Dholakia grew up in a sprawling Gujarati family that now numbers more than 70 members. Business eventually took him around...
Architectural Digest •

This house in Kerala’s Idukki hills practically disappears into the landscape

More often than not, before he begins designing spaces in real life, architect Prabhul Mathew of Kottayam-based Mindspark Architects likes to create them in his head. Sometimes, these structures are large. Other times, small. Some have gabled roofs. Some, flat ones. But almost all of them, in one way or another, begin on reassuringly flat terrain. For Mathew, however, architecture in real life rarely begins with a predetermined idea of form. Instead, the terrain, climate, vegetation, light, and wind gradually shape the building over time. “The site decides what it needs,” says the architect, who worked alongside team member Shahana Salahudeen.
Architectural Digest •

The Homeowners' Favorite Room in This Napa House Is Actually Outside

For designer Rachel Vineberg Jones and her husband, Eric Jones, their latest chapter was one they hadn’t seen coming. It began with a prolonged hospital stay for their newborn son and continued with the purchase of a 3,000-square-foot home in Napa. “I remember looking around and saying to Eric, ‘There's something about this place—I think it's going to become important to us,’” says the founder of San Francisco–based design studio Vine Projects. At the time, the property offered more promise than...
Architectural Digest India •

A 5,000-square-foot Kanpur farmhouse that channels the energy of a Greek island

There is, throughout the home, a distinct sense that nobody was terribly interested in behaving formally. Corridors widen unexpectedly into conversational pockets; sit-outs appear precisely where one might wish to abandon all productivity with a cup of tea; and nearly every room seems engineered to encourage the art of doing absolutely nothing for slightly longer than intended. “The architecture understands, perhaps wisely, that farmhouses are rarely used according to plan,” says Namrata Somani,...
Architectural Digest India •

This Indian designer turned homesickness into Portland’s warmest textile store

When the time finally came to move into a dedicated studio, Kalia knew she didn’t want a polished commercial showroom stripped of personality. After an uninspiring search through generic retail spaces, she instead bought a small house tucked into a quiet Portland street. “The moment I opened the front door, it just felt right,” she recalls. “I could instantly picture how every space would come together.” That warmth still defines the studio today. Original wood flooring was refinished rather tha...
Architectural Digest •

Built Around a Mango Tree, This Kerala Home Is a New Kind of Greenhouse

Architect Arjun Joshy, by his own admission, is a connoisseur of design and mangoes, in roughly equal measure. For this Kerala home in the Indian city of Thrissur, his first order of business was to save the mango tree at the center of the site.The homeowner, Sharan, is a software engineer who moved back to Kerala during the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift marked a quiet recalibration of pace and priorities. “My wife is a teacher, and we have two young boys. We are a family of six, living together...
Architectural Digest •

Inside a Bandra apartment designed for someone yet to arrive

An interior remodel, as any sage designer will tell you, can go one of two ways—“off-script or very off-script,” laughs interior designer Tejal Mathur, founder and principal of her eponymous Mumbai studio. Her latest project, a 2,000-square-foot apartment in Bandra, belongs firmly to the latter category. “After the first cut of the plan, the owners came back to us with a little surprise,” she continues. “They needed a full-fledged nursery…because, well, she was pregnant.” For Mathur and her team—designers Meha Jadeja, Gayatri Shinde, and Rizzanne Idnani—it meant going back to the drawing board. This time, with a crib in mind.
Architectural Digest •

In this multigenerational Mumbai home, everyday life finds its curve

Interior designer Dhvani Shah trusts her sixth sense—but over the years, she’s developed a seventh to ensure she always backs the sixth. “They called it the ‘sandwich strategy’,” laughs Shah, recalling her latest clients—a family of five, comprising a husband and wife, their five-year-old son, and the husband’s parents, who entrusted her with transforming their bare-shell, builder-grade apartment into a warm, multigenerational oasis.“Material selection was always a highlight because of Dhvani’s...
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