A Modern Villa With A Touch Of Whimsy

LAB founder Shonan Purie Trehan’s 8,000 sq ft weekend getaway in the lush Sahyadris is a modern villa with a touch of whimsy

- Shonan Purie Trehan

A meandering stone ramp leads through a shaded growth of hydrangeas to the two storeyed, four bedroom villa of ‘The Little Much Farm’. Framed by natural slate walls and dramatic steel roof overhangs, the entrance to this holiday home creates a notion of shelter in an extreme landscape. Just beyond, though, this sense of compression immediately releases to an open deck, which overlooks the lake and lush hillscape.

Thought of as a Matryoshka of nesting spaces and potential happenings, the spaces are layered, connected and scalar, with elements of whimsy. The form of the house is inspired by our first visit to the land. Strong winds of the ghats had blown the tall dry grass of the hill in distinct but varied directions that cued a purpose; of view, of breeze, of shelter…