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01

Private Villa in Alibaug

The house at dusk, seen across the lawn: low connected volumes with their windows lit warm against a violet sky, mature trees to either side.
Photography
Biju Gopal
Published
AD India, January 2026

A home organised as connected pavilions, where seasonal light and open thresholds shape every space.

This Alibaug home was conceived as a retreat from the pace of city life. The idea was to create a rustic contemporary home that felt deeply connected to its surroundings, one that sat gently within the landscape rather than apart from it.

Open pavilions, shaded verandahs and generous outdoor spaces blur the boundary between indoors and out, allowing natural light, fresh air and the changing seasons to become part of everyday living.

Designed as a place to gather, unwind and spend time together, the home embraces a slower rhythm of life, one where time stretches a little longer and the landscape is never far from view.

Chapter 01

Two trees, and a plan built around them

A banyan tree and a mango tree, more than a hundred years old each, fix the life outdoors. Beneath the banyan sits an eight-foot Buddha, and around it a deck on two levels carrying outdoor dining and layered seating. It is the part of the house the family uses most.

Rather than one enclosed mass, the house is organised as connected volumes. The living and dining pavilion stands apart, joined to the rest by a pool and an open courtyard, so light, air and reflection carry through the plan instead of stopping at a wall.

The deck seen from below the canopy, its branches spreading over the terrace seating.
A long outdoor table set beneath the spreading branches of the banyan, dense planting on every side.

Chapter 02

Letting the weather in

A large teak door opens into the living room, the heart of the house, where a skylight brings the sky down into the room. In summer it fills the space with direct gold; through the monsoon the rain is audible on the glass. The seasons become part of the interior rather than something held off at the threshold.

The material palette stays close to the ground: wood, stone, linen and cotton. A handwoven wool carpet in terracotta, beige and soft blue settles the living room, and a coffee table cut from a single log keeps its flaws in plain sight. A bench made from recycled plastic sits among them without apology.

The living room: linen seating around a solid timber table, a chandelier overhead, a textured stone wall to one side and full-height glazing onto the garden.
The rooftop pergola at dusk, its timber slats lit from beneath and seating arranged along its length.

Crowning this Alibaug home, a pergola extends the living space into the open air. Designed in warm wood tones, it is furnished for both morning and evening rituals.

“Here, I spend mornings sipping chai watching the sun rise, or evenings, watching the sky turn into a kaleidoscope of pink and gold, surrounded by the gentle, calming sounds of nature.”
Azmin Kaka

The Property

The property, read as a plan

Connected volumes rather than one enclosed mass. Move over the plan to read the property.

Ten places on the property, each numbered on the drawing. Choose one to read what it is and how the plan uses it.

Interpretive diagram. Relationships as published; distances and orientation are drawn, not surveyed.

A bedroom at sunrise, the low sun coming through sheer curtains drawn around a timber four-poster bed.
The living pavilion with its full-height glazing slid open onto the pool terrace, linen seating and a solid-log table inside, planting immediately beyond.
The pool at sunset, the sky above the garden turning orange and the house in silhouette along one side.
A long table laid for lunch beneath the banyan: patterned linen, bougainvillea in low vases, and the branches reaching over it.
The dining table set against a wall of rough-cut stone stacked by hand in ochre, grey and cream, with a crystal chandelier above.
The length of the pool running beside the house, the timber pergola on the roof above and lawn and planting on the far side.
The Buddha Deck after dark: a seated stone Buddha lit beneath the banyan, festoon lights strung through the canopy and low seating drawn up around a lantern.

The two anchors

Two trees older than the house decided where it could stand.

The banyan
Over a hundred years old. It shelters the Buddha Deck, and the family spends most of its time beneath it.

Almost no tree was cut to make room for the house.

The set

14 photographs · drag, or scroll sideways

  • A long outdoor table set beneath the spreading branches of the banyan, dense planting on every side.
  • A bedroom at sunrise, the low sun coming through sheer curtains drawn around a timber four-poster bed.
  • An opening in the house framed entirely by bougainvillea and creeper, looking through to seating and the garden beyond.
  • The Buddha Deck after dark: a seated stone Buddha lit beneath the banyan, festoon lights strung through the canopy and low seating drawn up around a lantern.
  • A timber four-poster bed draped in sheer white cotton, garden visible through the glazing beyond.
  • The house at dusk, seen across the lawn: low connected volumes with their windows lit warm against a violet sky, mature trees to either side.
  • The living and dining pavilion of the house in Alibaug: linen seating, a solid-log coffee table, a lotus painting on the far wall and a crystal chandelier overhead.
  • A corner of the living pavilion: a pale sectional sofa with block-printed cushions, a low table and flowering heliconia in a vase.
  • The living pavilion with its full-height glazing slid open onto the pool terrace, linen seating and a solid-log table inside, planting immediately beyond.
  • The rooftop pergola at dusk, its timber slats lit from beneath and seating arranged along its length.
  • The length of the pool running beside the house, the timber pergola on the roof above and lawn and planting on the far side.
  • A staircase with a slim steel balustrade rising against a plain wall, planting at its foot.
  • The dining table set against a wall of rough-cut stone stacked by hand in ochre, grey and cream, with a crystal chandelier above.
  • The deck seen from below the canopy, its branches spreading over the terrace seating.

Material Palette

What the house is made of

  • Close view of the warm timber slats forming the pergola roof.
    TimberSalvaged teak and solid wood
  • Close view of the rough-cut stone wall behind the dining table, in ochre, grey and cream.
    StoneRough-cut, stacked by hand
  • The live edge of the coffee table cut from a single log, above the patterned carpet.
    Solid LogOne log, its flaws kept
  • A woven throw and linen upholstery in soft neutral tones.
    LinenLinen and cotton throughout
  • The handwoven wool carpet in terracotta, beige and soft blue.
    WoolHandwoven, terracotta and blue
  • Dense green foliage from the planting around the house.
    PlantingNative to Alibaug, nothing cut

Materials

Timber
Salvaged teak, solid wood, single-log table
Stone
Textured stone to the dining wall
Textiles
Linen, cotton, jute, handwoven wool
Natural fibre
Rattan
Reclaimed
Recycled plastic bench
Landscape
Native Alibaug species throughout

What holds the house together is not a style but a set of habits it was built to accommodate: afternoon chai under the banyan, the dog on the lawn, late night movies, mornings on the pergola. The architecture gives each of them somewhere to happen.

The place

Building in Alibaug

What that coast asks of a house.

The method

How we work

Six steps, from the first conversation to the handover.

The studio

About Azmin

Who designed this, and why she went back to school to do it.

Next project

02Sea-facing home in Bandra