On 5th July, I had the opportunity to speak at a wonderful evening event at Ahmedabad, hosted by FOAID India and Design Perspectives India. The event brought together architects and industry leaders for a productive conference. One of the highlights of the evening was the opportunity to exchange thoughts with the immensely talented Vin Varavarn from Vin Varavarn Architects in Thailand.

During my talk, I shared the vision of Grounded Goa, our architectural firm that focuses on sustainable design. I explained our design process and gave the audience a look at some of our key projects, especially our Villas in Goa.

At Grounded, we combine rustic and contemporary styles to create buildings that reconnect people with nature and the simple joys of life. Our goal is to bring fresh air, natural light, and a sense of well-being into every home we design. Goa Villas by Grounded is a special part of our firm that builds unique and sustainable houses in Goa. We take care of everything from design to construction, ensuring that each house reflects our commitment to both beauty and sustainability.

Listening to other speakers and engaging with the amazing audience was truly enriching. A big thank you to Hiren Patel, Dipen Gada, and Grid Architects for attending the event, and a special thanks to Shraddha for the invitation. The evening was beautiful, and I walked away having learned so much.

On one of our Villas in Goa sites for Grounded Villas, we faced the need to cut down a few teak trees onsite. Instead of letting this valuable wood go to waste, we saw an opportunity and decided to reuse it creatively.

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Working with a local craftsman, Nereus Drego in Goa, we designed the teak into custom-made furniture pieces. The furniture pieces are a long country table for the eat-in kitchen for Toybox, along with two uniquely designed center tables.

These furniture pieces not only stand out for their beautiful design but also hold sentimental value. It's crafted from the very trees that once were a part of the site, creating a lasting connection. It's our little effort to savor the precious resources of the environment and the trees in Goa.

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Using natural materials in our interiors aligns with our philosophy of ecological design by blending indoor spaces with nature. One of the center tables is interactive and designed for a family that opens up into small storage for display. The long table in Toybox's kitchen serves as a focal point, as the double-height kitchen space is the heart of the house. Toybox is about to launch soon! Subscribe to our newsletter to learn more about Toybox and our sustainable design practices.

Our upcoming project, The Crescent House resides in the Nandi Hills of Bangalore. It has a small site with immediate neighbors and beautiful views in every direction. It was a design challenge to incorporate all the 180° pan views of Nandi Hills from the villa. We tackled this with an innovative experiment.

The four of us designers of Build Grounded split up on-site and individually came up with four design solutions. After brainstorming on-site for around an hour, we had a discussion. Considering different approaches, we came up with a strategy then and there. A way through it was the amalgamation of all four directions, which later on developed into the actual design of the house.

As the name suggests Crescent House, the main facade of the house is in a crescent shape. The facade has different openings showing different views in different sizes all across the stretch of the Nandi Hills. Soon to be complete Crescent House is under construction but you can still make out the facade taking shape enjoying the views all around.

Images sourced from Anupama Kundoo

Wall House in Auroville is an experimental house designed by sustainability champion Anupama Kundoo. The architecture employs a play in proportions to create comfortable yet dramatic spatial envelopes. The house is built entirely with locally sourced materials in new, innovative ways to create soothing, earthy spaces that respond to the warm, humid climate.

Wall House is predominantly constructed with the vernacular ‘Achukkal’ brick, once ubiquitous to the building landscape in Tamil Nadu. Known for their unique flat, thin profiles and their distinctive red colour, Achukkal bricks are typically made out of left-over silt that is collected from farmlands around. They are then shaped by hand and fired in clay ovens for strength and stability. The bricks are deemed to be extremely sustainable, given their long life, low cost of production, and the sparing amounts of energy use for manufacturing.

The earthy palette and warm finishes move beyond the brick walls and are found throughout the house. The august clay pot vault above the double-height living space and the innovative filler slab roof above the dining area are particularly worthy of mention.

Each facade of Wall House sports unique fenestrations that bring in fresh air and ample daylight. On one side, a series of louvered windows built out of local mango wood and completed with unpolished granite stone come into sight. On the other side, a series of pivoting ferrocement screens open the house to the verdant landscape around when open, and bring beautiful light and shadow patterns indoors when closed.

It is such a joy to see our project House with Three Pavilions find beautiful space in print and on the cover of Livingetc Magazine’s June 2022 issue. Aptly titled - ‘A Home with A Verandah’, the article draws attention to our countryside Goan house’s tangible connection to nature. It throws light on our tropical modern design approach and celebrates our efforts to create seamless indoor-outdoor spaces that allow our clients to take everyday life outdoors.

Read the published story here.

If you are considering buying a house in Goa, read our blogpost: What to Look For While Buying A House in Goa

To know more about our design process, take a look at: Designing A House in Goa

We love designs that at once marry form and function and do so with panache. As we design our houses in Goa, we are constantly on the lookout for products that elevate a spatial experience through colour, texture, and shape - all without compromising on functional capabilities. The Rio lamp by designer Harshita Jhamtani delivers all this and more.

The Rio shines in different natural stone finishes ranging from White Travertine, Bheslana stone, Green Forest Marble, and Sandstone, among others. In each case, the designer says, “All the lamps are carved out of a single block and have a fluting detail complimenting the properties of each stone.” The diverse options available ensure that there’s a Rio that works for every design style and every kind of space.

Furthermore, the Rio is built to last. In interpreting sustainability, Harshita Jhamtani qualifies, “As a studio, we believe that the most sustainable practice for a designer to adapt, is to create products that their patrons can buy once and cherish for a longtime. We bring this very dream to life by creating long-lasting unique pieces that shall take a small step towards accelerating the low carbon economy.”

Images courtesy Harshita Jhamtani designs

The Rio lamp is minimal, yet artful and robust with its material sensibilities. It is a beautiful way of bringing the elements of the outdoors, indoors. It is timeless in its rustic simplicity.

Now that you've got this house in Goa, imagine all the things you can do with it to make it your sanctuary. The most wonderful thing about having a house in Goa is being able to enjoy the natural immersion and the seasonal indulgence that comes with it. To us, design is a direct way to enhance comfort, improve quality of living, and create richness in experience within every space.

Design can be simple but generous and luxurious when the right materials and strategies are used. Here are 5 effective ways to create rustic spaces that are designed for barefoot and earthy luxury.

01 Create spacious bathrooms finished with rustic materials that feel great against bare feet.

Find bathrooms designed as sanctuary spaces here.

02 Use a colour palette of subtle shades & tones in neutral monochromatic colours.

Read more about building a neutral palette here.

03 Take advantage of the unique colours, patterns and textures of natural materials.

Learn about using and maintaining wood, lime, and IPS here.

04 Design landscape to mimic a wild landscape as opposed to manicured landscape.

Learn more about natural landscaping and local species here.

05 Practice a bit of wabi sabi where you appreciate and live with site's imperfections and the aging of materials.

Read our blogpost on living with nature.

We love creating spaces with an intention to reconnect with nature - spaces that allow ample daylight and maximise natural ventilation, that seamlessly transition from indoor to outdoor and facilitate outdoor living. All of these aspirations can be easily realised using 5 key strategies to connect the inside with the outside.

01. Build around site's existing features, elevations, topography and consider restoring habitats.

Try to retain the site in its natural state as much as possible by limiting building footprint and preserving the existing ecological patterns. Before building, take time to observe natural patterns such as sun and shade, rain and drain, dry and lush areas, etc.

Visit the link to learn more about taking a site positive approach.

02. Design for extensive verandahs and incorporate verandahs as transition spaces to take everyday activities outdoors

Design indoor spaces that are flanked by generous outdoor spaces in the form of verandahs and courtyards. You can read our blogpost about the benefits of incorporating verandahs here.

03. Create large openings that seamlessly connect the indoors with the outdoors

Introduce large openings in between these indoor and outdoor spaces which can be opened up to connect the two spaces to allow them to function as one space.

04. Frame views

The openings should be designed to frame views and focus on key natural elements on the site, such as an existing tree, water feature, rocky outcrop, and/ or the views offered by the site.

Find out more about framing views here.

05 Continue the same material from indoor to outdoor and play with finish and texture to create variance

We like to use the same material in the indoor and outdoor space, once again connecting them visually and making them appear as one continuous space. The finish can be slightly altered from space to space ranging from mirror polished to rough cut as seen in the photograph below.

Find our answers to frequently asked questions about using natural stone here.

We have recently started work on a small house for a lovely young family in Talpona village in Goa. The focus will be on indoor-outdoor living and creating opportunities to connect with nature. The project site is contoured and verdant, with lush trees meeting the eye every side we turn. Our vision for the project is to bring land and life together, through timeless contemporary-vernacular architecture. As we explore the relationships between space and site, we ask ourselves repeatedly,

What are the views that we can frame? How can we create open, continuous and connected spaces? How much light and breeze comes through? How can we create pockets around different natural clusters? How will each space change with time to allow for multiple experiences?

Celebrating Navovado, our design-build vacation house in the Goan countryside through a gallery of photographs of the courtyard house. Earlier this year, Navovado won the prestigious Platinum Certification from the Indian Green Building Council. Navovado harvests all of its roof rainwater and recharges the water well on site. The use of low-flow water fixtures further improves water efficiency. Focus on use of insulation on the roof, double-glazed glass, low­energy use appliances, LED lighting and 100% hot water from Solar power makes this home extremely energy efficient. The structure is constructed using locally manufactured materials and materials with a high recycled content such as Laterite stone, Matti wood, Fly-ash brick and Slag cement. The garden is planted using native local species to reduce water use for ir­rigation. Finally, large openings allow for maximum daylighting and cross-ventilation, reducing the energy use for lighting and cooling.

The heart of the home lies in the large central courtyard that is an extension of the kitchen, living and dining space. The courtyard houses the swimming pool and provides a green private space to be enjoyed by all the residents of the house. The courtyard morphs in its use depending on the time of day and occasion. The guest bedrooms on the ground floor are designed as pavilions on either side of the courtyard, while the first-floor bedrooms have a large terrace overlooking the courtyard that connects the two levels.

Find Navovado featured in detail on our Instagram page here.

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