“In five years, you probably won’t be able to see this holiday home!” declares architect Kavan Shah, as we stand outside a cookie-cut-out builder house in a row of culs-de-sac within the village of Dhamani, an hour-and-a-half’s drive from Karjat, Maharashtra. Surrounded by an army of greenery, the holiday home isn’t the first thing one spots here unlike the rest of the sunny lemon structures down the lane. “We wanted the entire house to dissolve into nature, which is what one hopes to achieve from a getaway out of the city,” says Shah, walking into the entrance hidden behind a thick barricade of foliage, adding, “So, we surrounded it with an army of plants, which will eventually take over like a wild jungle.”

A skylight, punctured through the home’s central point in the roof, creates an atrium across its two floors, flooding every space with sunlight and “forming a courtyard, of sorts, which is quintessential to every Indian home,” explains Shah.

Kuber Shah

Kuber Shah

Like many designers, Shah was discovered by the homeowners when he designed their friend’s home in 2015, two years into his own practice. While they wanted to bring in the same themes of exposed cement and raw detailing in their own apartment in Mumbai, their space didn’t allow for it. Buying this house almost a decade later brought up the idea once again. “The builder wanted the exterior façade to stay as is, not allowing any changes. Initially, I was sceptical, and only signed on for ten site visits to advise on the home’s décor and styling. The place was also quite far, with no network, and a real schlep to get to!”

A live-edge teak dining table surrounded by wishbone chairs sits next to the floor-to-ceiling glass doors that form a wall on the side of the home facing the lush outdoors behind the house. The table’s proximity to nature allows the family to feel like their dining al fresco with the doors open or closed depending on the season.

Kuber Shah

Melting Into Nature

“When you think of a holiday home in the rural Indian countryside, you’d probably imagine a cosy cottage with a thatched roof, earthy tones and rustic wooden furniture. While the architecture here didn’t display any of that, we decided to keep the place neutral to not take away from the gorgeous rugged landscape it looks out to,” he shares, pointing to the ruddy hill from the living room, which comes alive with seven waterfalls gushing down its slope through the monsoon. Today, most of the floor-to-ceiling doors and windows (which make for walls on two of the four sides of the home) frame this view and its verdant landscape.