Tara House

A four-bedroom weekend residence for a Mumbai family who wanted somewhere unhurried — a house that would feel cooler, slower and quieter than the city they were leaving behind.

The site sloped gently west toward a stand of mature tamarind. Rather than level it, we set the house across two shallow plinths, letting the ground continue through the plan. The living volume sits on the lower plinth and opens fully to a shaded court; the bedrooms step up behind it, half a level removed from the noise of arrival.

Everything is oriented around the court. It moderates the coastal heat, carries the monsoon and gives every principal room a second, softer source of light. The house is deliberately thin — no room is more than one room deep — so that cross-ventilation, not machinery, does most of the work.

Material choice was settled early and then held. Hand-applied lime plaster throughout, Burma teak recovered from a demolished warehouse in Bhiwandi, Kota stone underfoot, and unlacquered brass that has already begun to darken. Nothing here is sealed against time.