Architecture & Interior Tours

A 100-year-old outhouse in Goa is reborn as a rustic bar

As Santimano tells it, her first site visit with clients Kartik Vasudeva and Agrini Satyarthi presented a bit of a predicament. Because it held two structures—an outhouse on the lower level and a firewood storage room above—blending the two with not just each other, but also with the large tree-laden courtyard out front, was something of a conundrum. Not that Santimano minded. She saw it as an opportunity to reimagine the three, although she admits it took her a while to figure out just how. She

Sunlit Sanctuary: A Ranch-style Home in Santa Barbara by Corinne Mathern.

Corinne Mathern remembers feeling a psychic gravitational pull the first time she visited the Los Olivos, California property that would become her next canvas. “When I drove the hour up to the valley to visit the place and meet the clients, it was a breath of fresh air,” says the Santa Barbara-based interior designer, whose admission, evidently, doesn’t only allude to the abundant countryside oxygen.

The home, a 1980s ranch-style estate with a rambling ranch-style layout, was nestled deep insi

This California Kitchen Is Like a Quaint Postcard From Italy

Though the whole home was in need of some TLC, it was clear that the kitchen needed it the most. The layout was cramped and closed it off from the living and dining areas. “We didn’t have the space or setting to host people here,” Ashley shares. The solution was clear—the walls had to go. And so they did, thanks to architect Steve Souder and interior designer Leah Vitrano, who stepped in to help the couple overhaul the space. “I remember one evening, while sitting in our previous kitchen, Steve

This Alibag holiday home is a Wunderkammer of eclectic objects

Trust Farah Ahmed Mathias and Dhaval Shellugar to pull a rabbit out of the hat when attempting something new. Or multiple at once, if their latest masterstroke, a 21,000-square-foot Alibag holiday home, is anything to go by. Unencumbered by a specific style or aesthetic, it isn’t, as Mathias puts it, “confined by a concept.” And, as one quick sweep of the casa proves, it isn’t bedevilled by it either. When it came to designing the larger-than-life estate for a joint family of restaurateurs, Mathias and Shellugar, the co-founders and principals of Bengaluru-based multidisciplinary collective FADD Studio, were mindful of optimising the striving envelope, executed by Vandana and Ranjit Sinh of Mumbai-based Ranjit Sinh Associates, both by scale and signature. They resorted to using a layered approach, mining objects from across the length and breadth of the country, and some from far beyond. So much so, that the pair agrees that the resultant aesthetic lexicon “needs to be experienced to be felt,” and, in what some may dismiss as hyperbole, but the pair clarifies is patently not, that “the volume needs to be heard, the air tasted, the colours touched, and the space seen, for it all to make sense.”

[Print] Mumbai: Three of a Kind

Few interior designers can walk into a home and arrive at a vision by the time they walk out. But then again, few interior designers are Iram Sultan. The NCR-based design doyen demonstrated a particular kind of sorcery for a project in the capital a few years ago, when she was commissioned by a multigenerational family — comprising two sets of brothers, their respective wives and children, and their parents — to redesign their two-storey, 21,000 sq ft bungalow. “When I met them, I came to a firm conclusion. These were all fascinating individuals with distinct identities, but they were bound together like yarn,” recalls the principal and founder of her eponymous Gurugram-headquartered interior design studio. It was a discovery that led her to an instinctual point of departure, reflecting an aesthetic lexicon that has, in recent years, been galvanised by a magpie-like second sight for spotting the beauty in things long before others. Evidently, this home was no exception.

[Print] Mumbai: World of Pos-sea-bilities

There are few places in Mumbai that look quintessentially un-Mumbai, and AVN Interiors’s latest work of art, a seafront Juhu apartment, is one of them. “I remember stepping inside for the first time and just standing there, taking in the view. Gone was the hustle and bustle of the city. Instead, all I could see was the sea rolling into the horizon. And I thought, how can we even match that picture postcard view?” says Aditi Vora Nair, founder and principal of the Mumbai-based interior design studio.

[Print] Outfitted to the Nines: Abraham & Thakore's New Noida Store

There’s something about legacy design label Abraham & Thakore’s newly renovated Noida office that feels like it could have been conceived in the same breath, and by the same sleight of hand, as one of its collections. It shares with them the same non-conforming bent, the same relaxed spirit, and a local sensitivity that balances, even belies, a global sensibility. So much so, that it might seem that the designers behind the space are no different from the designers behind the apparel. But as David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore, co-founders of the eponymous label, point out, that is all subterfuge.

[Print] Himalayan Hospitality: Inside the Khyber Himalayan Resort & Spa

Situated at an altitude of 8,825 feet, in the heart of the Himalayan Pir Panjal Range, Khyber Himalayan Resort & Spa in Gulmarg is India's first and only luxury ski resort. The 7-acre property, set in a pristine pine valley, was jointly designed by architects Anil Sharma and Anil Badan, the respective founders of New Delhi-based practices A Sharma Associates and Studio B Architects. Sharma helmed the architecture, while Badan was responsible for the interior design.

Empty Nest Dream: An Apartment in Kirribilli by Amandine Simonetti Architecture and Interiors and Tsai Design.

Anyone who has mastered the art of empty nesting will tell you that there’s nothing empty about it. Take a vacation tomorrow? Done. Take a stand against cooking? Of course. Or, in the case of one Sydney-based couple, move back into the Kirribilli home they bought as newlyweds—check. The home in question, an apartment purchased decades prior, ticked many boxes in this season of life: it was a short walk from the city via the Harbour Bridge, and with no backyard, it was a low-maintenance dream—or

Inside a 1950s Bel Air Home With Canyon, Pool, and Ocean Views

Moser used the floor plan as his point of departure, redrawing the interior in a bid to maximize each space. “The home isn’t massive, so we really had to think about how the client would live in the home—where he would eat or entertain, or how he would engage with the outdoors,” says the designer, who preceded through a process of trial and error, alongside builder Peter McCoy and construction facilitator Victor Kaufman, to arrive at the final layout.

Because the owner isn’t the sort to enterta

This traditional homestay in Himachal Pradesh was redesigned with discarded material

If you’ve ever roamed any Himalayan hinterland, or stopped by to admire a homestay in Himachal Pradesh, you've likely at some point encountered a Kath-Kuni structure; although whether you registered it as such is altogether a different matter. Made of alternating layers of wood and stone, and cemented together sans mortar, the indigenous construction technique is writ large across homes and temples dotting the high ground, as much in the Himachal village of Jari as any of its sleepy neighbouring

This Bengaluru villa is an ode to the sea, sky and stars

Whoever said that the most exciting attractions are between opposites that never meet—the whoever being Andy Warhol—clearly hadn't met Asmita Sinha and Ganesh Pitchiah. “It's a boon and a bane,” says Sinha, an ex-investment banker who found her opposite in Pitchiah, a financial product manager, a few years ago, and married him at the height of COVID. “At our house, decisions are debates. We're usually seeing eye to eye one minute and standing hand to throat the next,” jokes the designer, one hal

This newlywed couple's Lahore home is a symphony of cool tones and cooler details

If a mother knows best, a mother-in-law knows ‘best-er’. At least in matters regarding her daughter-in-law, or more specifically, welcoming her their Lahore home. For the matriarch of the Zulfiqar family, her son’s imminent wedding prompted a bevy of seminal overhauls, chief among them the renovation of one wing of the family’s newly constructed Lahore home, to serve as a newlywed nest for the young couple. The first step, of course, was finding a designer—or two—to take up the design reins. Ent

This Minnesota home tips its hat to its owners’ colourful past in India

Enlightened are those who can blind-touch a material and immediately know its worth. “It's a serious talent,” deadpans interior designer Heather Peterson, founder and principal of her namesake Minnesota-based interior design studio, whose last clients, a couple in their forties, were, shall we say, particularly enlightened. “The husband was the ‘Princess and the Pea’ kind who could feel if something was badly made,” she continues. “He was also very drawn to soft materials, so part of our process

This 1960s Atlanta Kitchen Keeps the Sunshine Close

There are two kinds of people in the world—those that love a turnkey home, and those that don’t. Ryan Abrams is a faithful member of the latter club. So much so that when he was hunting for a home in east Atlanta a few years ago, his main condition was finding one that was completely untouched. “I saw a lot of renovations that felt like easy flips, with poor paint and tile choices, and unfortunate layouts. When I saw this house, I immediately saw possibilities. It was nice to be able to make it

Lighter than Light: A Country Villa by Grain Designoffice.

If there’s one thing that defines—and unites—spaces by Grain Designoffice, it’s an enduring sense of weightlessness. Walls the colour of sunlight. Furniture in amorphous shapes. Rooms that flow into each other like slow, meandering rivers. No different is the Belgian design studio’s latest project, a country villa in Antwerp, which goes check, check, check on all the aforementioned criteria.

A couple of years ago, however, this description wouldn’t have been quite so accurate. “The interior was

This 100-Year-Old Brooklyn Town House Gets a Luminous New Kitchen

While other parts of the home were in great shape, the kitchen was a disaster. Situated inside a dingy shed-like addition between the living room and backyard, it was the exact opposite of what the couple had in mind. But, adding access to more sunlight would mean losing walls. So to help them build something better, the couple reached out to architect Alexandra Burr of AlexAllen Studio, whom they’d met through a mutual friend.

The end results is a light box—330 square feet of kitchen and dinin

Inside a Whimsically Renovated English Apartment That’s Probably Not Haunted

Interior designer Sophie van Winden lives alone in her apartment in Margate, England, but she might not be the only soul that inhabits the place. “This area has many mediaeval crypts. The plumbers had to spend a fair bit of time under the floorboards sorting out all the pipes. One day they found a Victorian children’s pram, all rusted and bent. They were terrified!” she shares, insisting that despite the discovery, she is fairly (but not completely) certain that the home isn’t haunted.

Not that

Inside a Hyderabad home with traditional art and nostalgic heirlooms

As architects Nikhil Dev & Kaushik Abhinav recall, there was no brief to begin with, for this Hyderabad home. “It was pretty open-ended,” recalls Dev, one half of Hyderabad-based architecture studio Dev & Kaushik Architects, about the firm’s latest project, an India Modern duplex in the City of Pearls. The carte blanche was rooted in good reason. After all, the clients, a couple with two grown daughters, didn't really know what they wanted their home to look like, but they did know what they wan

The “Stars Aligned” in This Family’s Dream LA Canyon Retreat

For furniture designer Reza Feiz and his wife, television producer Sheila Griffiths, moving to a bigger house had been in the cards for over a decade: “As the kids grew, their friends grew, their collection of instruments grew, we realized we needed a place where we could spread out a bit,” says Feiz, the founder of Phase Design, a Los Angeles–based studio that specializes in artisan-crafted furniture and objects. Mind you, the couple wasn’t keen on shifting just anywhere. They specifically had

Le Marais: A Luminous Apartment in Paris by Studio Haddou-DuFourcq.

‘Le marais’, in French, literally translates to ‘swamp’, but there’s nothing remotely swamp-like about Le Marais, an apartment in Paris recently redesigned by Studio Haddou-DuFourcq. Mind you, the same can’t be said about its state a few years ago. “Everything was dark,” recalls Kim Haddou, one half of the Paris-based interior design practice. “It looked like a dilapidated dollhouse.”

There was one small pink room, one small green room, one small brown room, and a small blue kitchen. Nothing, i

Let There Be Light: Domingo in Barcelona by Aramé Studio.

In the Catelonian capital of Barcelona, sunshine follows you everywhere. Indoors and outdoors. Through summer and winter. From daybreak to dusk. Sometimes, even beyond. But as architects Andrea Arriola Fiol and Adrián Mellado Muñoz of Aramé Studio can confirm, that’s not always the case.

Their latest project, a residence in Barcelona’s Eixample district, used to be in the unlikely list of exceptions. “Gloomy, that’s what it was,” says Andrea of the property, which was as starved of light as of

The White Cashew: A Rooftop Restaurant in Hyderabad by NaaV Studio.

In the leafy neighbourhood of Sainikpuri, in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, is a restaurant that stays true to its name. Shaped like an inverted cashew and steeped in soft, buttery hues, The White Cashew looks no different than it sounds. Inevitable, really, when the inspiration, as Varsha Reddy, one half of Hyderabad-based architecture firm NaaV Studio, puts it, was “slightly nuts.” Her admission isn’t without reason. The 418-square-metre rooftop joint, which specialises in fusion India

This Swedish Island Cottage Grows Out of the Woodland

This is a Stockholm story about the island of Torö, to be precise, although it begins on the mainland where one family—a couple and their kids, aged five and one, and one partner’s mother—is based. Tired of the city and desperate for a mid-pandemic respite, they set their sights on creating a year-round vacation home someplace slower, but in a sustainable, ecological, and cost-effective way. They found their answer in a 1970s two-bedroom cottage situated at the highest point in Torö, an isle on
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