WADA KANHERI

Mumbai

Location : Baramati, Maharashtra

Size        : 3000 sq M

Year        : 2014 – 2017

A residential project, on a 11 - acre estate that is home to a healthy stable full of over a dozen pure-bred Marwari Horses, a herd of Gir Cows, Pedigreed Dogs, 200 Mango Trees, a 6-acre Vineyard of Chenin Grapes, innumerable Fruit Trees, a dozen passionately maintained Vintage Cars, Motor Cycles, Tractors, All-Terrain Vehicles, and a big hearted family of four that celebrates traditions and the older, slower way of gracious living, while having their feet firmly entrenched in the technological benefits of the 21st Century, and the Future.

A simple two-level courtyard house emerged as the primary typology, adhering to the climatic and social context. After a joint recee in Jodhpur the house slowly took the form of a crafts revival project. A team of stone craftsmen that restore and maintain the Mehrangarh Fort were invited to camp at site in Baramati, and work unencumbered, with their native Balsamand Sandstone.

The result is an exquisite rendition of a traditional Wada-Haveli, infused with Myths of Nava-Naags, Shers & Mors, but that works with the rhythm of Walkie Talkies and Wifi. Where one can sit in solitude in conversation with the winds & stars, as also rapidly get together an entire joint family of 85 for an evening Durbar, to the Lilts of Bhimsen Joshi, rounds of Mutton Vade, while exchanging notes on the increased yield of tomatoes from the latest soil-less, water-conserving Dutch Greenhouses.

The house celebrates India in the manner that Jadav Jewellery, and Paithani Sarees do — as a celebration of its craftsmen and their art, of festival & traditions, of the way the Shehnai sounds against the worked-on Sandstone, and how the mogra smells across a Jharokha.

It is home that pays tribute to the Past, celebrates the Present, and exalts in the Future.