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Architectural Digest •

This Mumbai apartment feels like a cottage straight out of a still life painting

The thing about designing a Mumbai apartment is that they all tend to blur together—matchbox layouts, builder-grade flooring, and endless sprawls of concrete stretching in every direction. Interior designer Shraddha Shah, however, has never seen it that way. Arguably, the closest she ever came to designing two in the same breath was when she landed projects, several months apart, in the same building—allowing her to shuttle between site meetings in a record three minutes flat. “False,” chuckles the founder and principal of Mumbai-based Olive Roof, dismissing the notion of sameness. “If anything, it took us longer to nail the layout of the second one. The initial plan from the builder was 100% impractical, and I had to sketch and re-sketch to get the zoning right.” But iteration after iteration wasn’t in vain—because as she tells it, the result, fortuitously, was a blueprint stripped of clutter and brimming with soul.
Architectural Digest •

AD Small Spaces: This Bengaluru apartment is a soulful escape where the light never leaves

Interior designer Shweta Arya Malaviya speaks to the sun—sometimes at sunrise, sometimes at dusk. But never does a day pass when she doesn’t at all. As she explains, there’s something special about pausing to take in its light—and listen as it speaks back in gilded corners, coffee table reflections, and luminous layouts. “It’s my most trusted collaborator,” she muses. If her last project, a 950-square-foot apartment in Bengaluru’s Whitefield, is anything to go by, you know she isn’t wrong. “It’s...
Architectural Digest •

This luminous apartment in Pune is a wabi-sabi wonderland

In embracing wabi-sabi for this apartment in Pune, Rohra didn’t overlook other considerations, not least the importance of making the home comfortable for all five family members—the couple themselves, Avinash’s mother, and their two daughters. “The main challenge was designing a comfortable space for a child with special needs—eliminating sharp edges, fragile elements, and harsh surfaces, including fabrics, while ensuring all safety measures were met,” she avers, noting that the goal was to kee...
Architectural Digest •

Tarun Tahiliani gives this Hyderabad house an India Modern makeover

A Tarun Tahiliani creation lingers in memory long after a garment has been worn or a space has been lived in. Perhaps that’s why, when it came time to renovate their 20-year-old home in Hyderabad’s plush Jubilee Hills, chartered accountant Potukuchi Murali Mohana Rao and his wife, real estate entrepreneur Potukuchi Naganandini, felt an undeniable pull towards the renowned designer once again. After all, Tahiliani’s magic touch isn’t limited to fashion; it parlays fortuitously enough, into interi...
Architectural Digest •

This wada-style bungalow in Maharashtra’s Amravati blends heritage with modern charm

Keeping with tradition is often the default in matters of faith and family, but not exactly convenient—or necessary—when attempting to trail-blaze a career in alternative home design. Architects Chetan Lahoti and Anand Deshmukh of Pune-based Mind Manifestation Design don’t consider themselves traditional—which makes it all the more intriguing that their latest project, a Wada-style bungalow in Maharashtra for a family of six, has one foot firmly planted in the past. "To be fair, the other one’s...
Architectural Digest •

Ritika Arya Jain's boutique in Chennai is a reflection of her cherished memories

Ritika Arya Jain has always been a free spirit, but when her fashion atelier, Renasci Fashion House—founded in 2009 as a women’s label specialising in innovative draping and distinctive patterns—took on a life of its own, she found herself adrift. “It has always been my creative haven,” says the Chennai-based textile artist, “but over time, growth brought its own set of challenges—a need for space, clarity, and a distinct identity in an ever-evolving fashion landscape. Each day I walked into the...
The Local Project •

Malvern Residence III by Studio Tate and Lovell Burton

Inspired by the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which embraces beauty in imperfection, Malvern Residence III rises from the landscape much like the time-honoured trees surrounding it.
Jointly designed by Studio Tate and Lovell Burton, this luminous dwelling in the Melbourne neighbourhood of Malvern is seamlessly integrated with its verdant surroundings. Designed for a young family returning to Melbourne after living in Perth, Malvern Residence III is a rare blend of playful forms and luxurious...
Architectural Digest •

Inside a Photographer’s Soulful California Beach House

At heart, Daisy Johnson will always be a New Yorker. But being born and raised in the city, while creatively invigorating, also meant she was forced to live life in the fast lane. “New York City is such a vibrant—at times chaotic—place to live, but as I got older, I found myself craving a life that felt more connected to nature,” says the Malibu-based photographer, whose days are now often spent shooting in remote landscapes. But it wasn’t until her family started moving west that she felt inspi...
Architectural Digest •

Tour a Family’s Traditional-Meets-Modern Massachusetts Home

Vijay and Lauren Manthripragada believe in silver linings, for there is, they insist, no better explanation for how their home in Concord, Massachusetts, came to be. “We fell in love with a house in the area but failed to snatch it up,” says Lauren, a retired commercial architect turned stay-at-home mom. “That’s when we reached out to the builder to create one specifically for us.” It would work out better anyway, they reasoned: They could tailor-make the home to their needs, and still rest assu...
Architectural Digest •

This triplex villa in Hyderabad was designed with a unique brief: “No mosquitoes, no dust!”

It isn’t often that a client brief is dictated by an aversion to insects—least of all for an architect accustomed to creating picture-perfect spaces for perfectly poised people. But for Sai Shruthi Rao, this bugbear of a brief became the catalyst for a design that was as seamless as it was sealed off. “No mosquitoes. No dust. No maintenance. That was the brief,” quips the co-founder and principal of Hyderabad-based Studio Sacred Geometry about her latest canvas—an old 4,500-square-foot triplex v...
Architectural Digest India •

AD Small Spaces: This Netflix executive's Mumbai home is an exercise in optical illusions

Humans are creatures of habit, but they’re also creatures of change—especially if that change involves moving into a larger home, preferably one with plenty of breeze and light. Karishma Panvelkar-Saraf, a creative executive at Netflix India, and her chartered accountant husband, Siddharth Saraf—who runs a financial consultancy by day and a soft beverage company by night—are creatures of both habit and change. When they moved from a tiny one-bedroom flat to their current two-bedroom abode, they...
Architectural Digest •

This Bengaluru home is a magnificent Mexican daydream

Between interior designer Sunayana Rao and her latest clients, finance professional Pranay Desai and entrepreneur Aditi Ravi, deciding who’s the crazier one is no easy task. On one side, there’s Desai and Ravi, who stumbled upon Rao on Instagram, called her on a whim, and hired her three days later with the same conviction one might have when buying a bar of soap. On the other, there’s Rao, who meticulously added a bar-themed wallpaper to the mood board, stared at it for five minutes, muttered “...
Architectural Digest •

Inside a History-Filled Dallas Home With a Vibrant Reboot

Garza was captivated by its rich history. Once spanning several acres, the property originally included a greenhouse and a horse stable—its only remnant now a hitching post by the back door. There was even another house behind the main one, built in the 1930s. History seemed to be tucked into every corner. “We were told that the grandmother arrived in Dallas with 11 dollars and Stanley Marcus’s phone number, befriended the Marcus family, and became a Neiman Marcus showroom girl. And that his gra...
Architectural Digest •

This 18,000-square-foot mansion in Hyderabad is a masterpiece of exquisite craftsmanship

Nothing about Bengaluru-based interior designer Vinita Chaitanya is ordinary. Every room she touches becomes a canvas, every design choice a statement. To meet her is to step into a world where maximalism reigns and beauty—whether beheld through her eye or yours—is always dialled up to the highest setting. Hyderabad-based real estate developer Rohit Reddy knew these things about Chaitanya when he called her one morning a few years ago. “He had definitely heard stories,” laughs the interior desig...
Architectural Digest •

This 18,000-square-foot mansion in Hyderabad is a masterpiece of exquisite craftsmanship

Nothing about Bengaluru-based interior designer Vinita Chaitanya is ordinary. Every room she touches becomes a canvas, every design choice a statement. To meet her is to step into a world where maximalism reigns and beauty—whether beheld through her eye or yours—is always dialled up to the highest setting. Hyderabad-based real estate developer Rohit Reddy knew these things about Chaitanya when he called her one morning a few years ago. “He had definitely heard stories,” laughs the interior desig...
Architectural Digest •

Osman Abdul Razak's 900-square-foot boutique in Chennai is an elegant slice of Milan

On Chennai’s bustling Khader Nawaz Khan Road, nestled between glittering storefronts and chic restaurants, stands a boutique that feels willfully at odds with its flashy neighbors. “It’s like someone plucked it straight from Milan,” quips Faisal Manzur, founder and principal of his eponymous Chennai-based design studio—the someone being none other than himself. But anyone familiar with Manzur’s flair knows that’s not quite true. After all, if there’s one thing this swashbuckling architect excels...
Architectural Digest •

This architect's Ahmedabad studio is an oasis of light

To work or not to work (in the office)—that is the question.Workplaces the world over suffer from a common conundrum: nobody wants to be in them. People may come and go, but no one really wants to stay. “At least not inside,” says Malay Doshi, founder and principal architect of the Ahmedabad-based Studio Saransh, who ensured that the interior of his office equaled—or even surpassed—the outdoors. “The idea was to integrate nature,” says Doshi, who pulled the surroundings into the very skin of the...
Architectural Digest •

This 10,000-square-foot holiday home in Karnataka's Malpe stands sentinel between sea and river

Anyone who knows architect Thomas Parambil can be forgiven for thinking he is a fitness fiend. “It’s true,” nods the founder and principal of Bengaluru-based Thomas Parambil Architects, whose gym membership, by his own admission, is motivated more by a proclivity for keeping company than keeping fit. Take his latest project, a home in Karnataka’s Malpe. “I wouldn’t have landed it if I hadn’t been on the elliptical that morning,” he grins, speaking of the morning he met his client Lavina Oberoi, an entrepreneur whose sporadic gymnastic pursuits were not too dissimilar to his own. “We got chatting and she started telling me about her beautiful property in the Karnataka hinterland, one on which she wanted to build her dream holiday home.” But the conversation never concluded. That is, until three years later when Oberoi dialled Parambil and finished what she had to say.
Architectural Digest •

This Tamil director’s home in Chennai is bold, brooding and brutalist

Hearing the name Design DNA might make you think the architects behind it are hardwired for design—but few would expect that their specialty is the unapologetically eccentric kind. “Guilty!” chuckles architect Karthik Arcot when asked about the accuracy of said description. It’s an unsurprising confession, given the studio’s latest project on Chennai’s East Coast Road—or more specifically, the short flight of stairs leading up to it—which Arcot took on with in-house architects Thejaswini Pandura...
Architectural Digest India •

A 70-year-old family home inspires the layout of the owners' new bungalow in Kerala

Most new homeowners are accustomed to compliments—the kind that gush over their impeccable design choices, chic décor, and a kitchen so picture-perfect it’s practically a shrine to Pinterest. Designer Jishnu Vijay, however, experienced a different kind of flattery. “Someone mistook it for a movie theatre,” he guffaws when asked what kind. To be fair, the home, situated on green farmland with towering trees and open skies, wasn’t like anything nearby—or anything remotely within driving distance....
Architectural Digest •

Inside a Colorado Log Cabin With a Rock-and-Roll Soul

Anyone who knows her will confirm that interior designer Blair Moore is as dauntless in life as she is in her career—going so far as to stop by a bar, without fail, each morning before work. “But not the kind of bar you’re thinking of,” jokes the founder and principal of Rhode Island– and New York City–based AD PRO Directory firm Moore House Design, who frequented an oxygen bar one too many times while working on a vacation cabin in Mountain Village, a holiday habitat near the town of Telluride,...
The Local Project •

A Terrace Charm by Studio Gemma

Interior designer Gemma Gillett of Studio Gemma is well-versed in the nuances of British architecture, having lived and worked in London for several years. “The client is originally from the United Kingdom but had previously lived in Bondi and yearned to be back on the city fringe. Paddington ticked all the boxes – a city location with a village community feel – and so did this home. It’s close enough to walk to the pub and just steps away from her morning coffee run,” says Gillett, citing the terrace home’s European-inspired architecture as a key motivation behind the purchase. She and her client quickly established a kinship over a shared love of traditional joinery, colours and textiles.
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