A blissful retreat

These holiday homes in Lonavala offer city dwellers a scenic retreat from the chaos of the urban jungle.

- Dushyant Shekhawat

This 3,500 sqft villa in Lonavala serves as the sample residence for a community of villas located on a scenic two-and-a-half acre plot. Seema Puri of Seema Puri & Zarir Mullan Architects & Interior Designers took the task of designing the villas, making sure that the holiday home aesthetic was preserved as well as creating a sample villa that would entice buyers.

“We wanted to follow a contemporary style, and break away from the typical Spanish bungalows you see in hill stations. Apart from the contemporary aesthetic, the villas also had to be easy to maintain, keeping in mind their function as a second home. The whole point of the exercise was to keep it as natural as possible and as appealing to as many people as possible,” Puri said.

The villas are arranged in a ring around green landscaped grounds, and sit side-by-side in combined units of two. “The plan at the site was quite tight and small, so we wanted to be able to maximise every square inch. We realised we had to keep the footprint of the structures small, so as to have access to more open space. In pursuit of this, we combined the units into two villas, side-by-side,” said Puri.