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

Utsav House by Studio Mumbai is a sanctuary of serenity. This elemental yet contemporary house in Alibag by architect Bijoy Jain sensitively makes room for intimate interactions with the surrounding greenery as it effortlessly bridges the indoor with the outdoor. The picturesque scenes and the connections to the tropical context resonate deeply with our values, the natural roots we turn to while designing and building houses in Goa. Built with locally available material and around numerous indigenous trees, Utsav House achieves poetic spaces that have a rustic simplicity without compromising on any of our modern creature comforts. Throughout, the focus is on intentional building and living, through architecture that takes cues respectfully from the terrain and landscapes around.

Images courtesy Archdaily and The New York Times Style Magazine

Visit our previous blogpost on Utsav House here.

Learn more about Bijoy Jain’s Kapadia House, that is now a popular AirBnB here.

The Pavilion at Nivim Goa

We designed a pavilion at Nivim Goa. It is an expanded pool and garden pavilion wrapped in wood screen and glass doors. It is nestled among existing mature trees and floats over the pool deck in the front elevation. We love this special addition to Nivim.

Interestingly, we recently came across a house in Chile with a pavilion set among the breathtaking landscape of Andean mountains. The pavilion has a wrap around patio with a pool. There are many parallels in design concept and look and feel of this pavilion with ours at Nivim. We thought it will be fun to share the project here. See the photos below. All photos and content courtesy : Archdaily

.

House on the road to Farellones, Courtsey Archdaily

Existing Trees at Nivim in Goa with tamarind tree in the entrance courtyard

In our last post for Nivim, we celebrated the 13 existing trees on our site that have been careful integrated into the design for the house. We thought that it would be a good idea to do a follow up post on the idea of building around existing trees. Following is a very simple video on why we need trees, common sense really but it is still hard to come by in the prevalent construction practices.

Continuing with the idea of 'building with trees', we have picked three projects from around the world that were interesting, thought provoking and included trees as key design elements for the building.

1. House Among Trees, Argentina. (Courtsey:Archdaily)

2. Tepoztlan Lounge, Mexico (Courtsey : Archdaily)

3. Franz House, Argentina (Courtsey: Archdaily)

Here is a great episode of the UK show “Grand Designs’ tracking the story of building a sustainable home in Cumbria. In this case the home is built underground to keep it insulated and the result is that the house functions all year round without the need for any mechanical heating or cooling. Which is pretty amazing considering the extreme weather in that region.

Even though the house from the video and Nivim are very different, there were still many similarities…We have ourselves tried some new elements, materials and construction techniques in the house. Builders in India are so used to doing construction the same way they did in 1970s that anything new freaks them out. But really we are building in 2010 people, so please, we can do better than a generic concrete structure with piddly-little windows, a sloping RCC roof made to look like a wood and tile roof and luxury being defined as the use of Italian marble….

Not to mention of course the similarities in material delivery issues, fussing over waterproofing and of course construction delays and some more delays.. In the video, at one point they show that after 12 weeks, the house has its first floor concrete done…. Wassatttt…. Let me see now, where were we at week 12…not really out of the ground I think ;)

I love the sun pipes and the wind turbine in the project. I wonder what it would take to get a permit for something like that in Goa ??

As they say ‘building green is the new black’. But that is not the right reason for anyone to go the green way, the right reason is because one must respect nature and the land where one is building. In Goa, we are building green in the hope to preserve the state’s blissful green environs and biodiversity for our future generations to enjoy.

I recently stumbled upon this gorgeous rural retreat in Sikkim and thought I should share. The retreat is spread over 4000 sq.m. of land area and utilizes traditional building techniques while following a very modern design aesthetic. I really enjoyed these. Designed by Mancini Enterprises, photos courtesy

Contemporist.com

This house is called “

House in Iporanga

” located at Iporanga, Brazil just outside of Sao Paolo. This beauty is designed by Studio 

Arther Casas

 as the architect's own residence.

We love love love this house. Once again the openness of the living room is something that resonates closely with our design concept for Nivim. The double height adds to that openness along with openable front and back glass walls that connect with the tropical forest surrounding the house. the architect envisioned this house to be a place to recharge his energies and be close to forest.

In the exteriors, the simple clean lines along with the use of wood and glass presents a building that embodies the tropical contemporary building style.

The interiors are kept minimal to keep the focus on the powerful space and the forest outside. Just looking at the pictures makes me feel calmer, I am sure being in the space would so much more serene and enlightening... Enjoy more lovely photos below and keep in mind that we are striving to achieve a similar impact with the living room space at Nivim ! (Photos of our space coming soon)

Rustic stone combined with minimal staircase at V4 House, Brazil

I am consistently amazed and inspired by the contemporary residential architecture emerging from Brazil. For the longest time the rage was contemporary homes in Bali and the new Asian Tropical architecture … and now, more and more I am finding that homes in Brazil (also a tropical country with similar weather patterns as Goa; and as a side note, both former Portuguese colonies), is offering some stunning examples of contemporary architecture that are inspiring while we build Nivim.

The following are pictures of the V4 House in San Paulo, Brazil published in

Archdaily on August 13, 2012. 

The most interesting aspect of this house is the living room, where doors on both sides of the living room completely retract to allow for the integration of the front garden, living room and back patio… wassaa…sounds familiar… yep, this has been the concept for our living room space too with two long walls fitted with sliding doors that open up to make the living room one space with the front and back courtyards. You can re-visit it on our previous blog post, '

Dreaming up a life lived outdoors

'.

We love the clean lines, the natural flow of space, minimal furniture and integration with rustic materials. Enjoy the images of the spectacular living space at V4 House below, all courtesy Archdaily.

Then there is this bathroom at the V4 house (below), truly inspiring... I am happy to say that we have 4 such bathrooms at Nivim. Each bathroom designed with its own courtyard and seamless connection to the outdoors.

I am not the type to be much into celebrity homes... but this one caught my eye primarily because its theme is so similar to our own at NIVIM Goa. The house is designed to connect the indoors with the outdoors and provide a peaceful space to escape, inspire and celebrate with family and friends.

Courtney Cox's home was the cover feature in Elle Decor, US Edition, July/ August 2011. All photo are courtesy of Elle Decor Online. See link.

The house is located in Malibu. One of the architects for the house says that 'Malibu is all about being outdoors'. Exactly the same in Goa...

The article talks about how the house looks out over the deck and pool and beyond. The architects designed the spaces with a sense of openness with glass walls that flood the rooms with light. The glass doors, once opened, makes one feel like they are completely outside. 

The result is a space that is chic and unquestionably luxurious, yet earthy, cozy and unpretentious... Its interiors were kept neutral and bare that keeps the focus on the outdoors. 

Sounds familiar doesn't it !! Read about our efforts to design NIVIM to seamlessly connect the indoors with outdoors. See link. 

It is not a surprise that the concepts in the house above and our efforts are so similar. In my mind, there is a distinct vocabulary for building in the country. It stems from the underlying reason for people to choose to live in the country, clearly to 'reconnect with nature'. And with that concept in mind, the architecture has to be as much about the outdoors as indoor, if not more. We are loving our journey to give NIVIM its special character built around its site and surroundings. The house as a result is shaping up to be quite fabulous and heart warming. I promise updated pictures soon.

Living area adjacent to the kitchen

Sit-out with large glass walls

Master bedroom that becomes a part of its deck and views beyond

Outdoor bar and galley kitchen

Earthy bathrooms

The entrance alcove dictates the the earthy and natural style of the house

The pool and deck looking over to the sea

Outdoor dining

Undeniably the most precious space in the house, a pavilion set into the scenery with seating around a fireplace. As per the article, Courtney Cox has her coffee here everyday...I can see why !

To make up for my silence on the blog for the past few weeks and it being Valentine's day and all, I offer you all some exciting pictures from the site that is now in it's finishing stage.

The pictures show the house with some woodwork already up and more on the way. It also shows the pool ready for tiling, deck ready for decking and gardens ready for planting ! Hope you ENJOY them as much as I did !!

The following pictures show the sequence of spacial experiences in the living room:

Living room exterior with the front courtyard with existing trees and most of our amazing team (In front, Contractor Binod Arya and Site Supervisor Manoj Shetgaonkar)

The interior of the living room from the back wall, showing the staircase frame, play of light through the louvered opening, front courtyard with existing trees, the pool, deck and gardens, and the hills beyond.

Part of the front elevation

Partial view of the house with the pool and gardens in the foreground. All the area on the right in the picture will be a planted lawn with a row of trees along the boundary wall.

Detail of the living room with the louvers, exposed basalt wall, monumental room height and the tall existing trees.