AMAYA HIMACHAL PRADESH

This new retreat near Chandigarh is architect Bijoy Jain's love letter to the hills. 

- Diya Kohli

We arrive at Amaya amid the gathering dark and the place is a vast shadowy undulation of hill and vale. The twinkling W lights guiding the walkway barely intrude on the night sky with myriad constellations and Mars and Venus in proud attendance.

Located 55km from Chandigarh in Himachal Pradesh. Amaya lies on a bend off the highway to Shimla, right next to the tiny village of Darwa. Long abandoned to the wild, these undulating pine-encrusted terraces in the Sub Himalayan range, became the natural blueprint for the design and the ethos of this retreat. "Imagine when we are long dead and looking down at what we have built from above. These copper roofs will acquire the patina of age and look just like the land around it and it will all be green. This whimsical observation by architect Bijoy Jain (and recounted by founder Deepak Gupta) is part of the dreamlike thinking that infuses much of Amaya's design. Nature is allowed to take over and wildflowers peek out of the paved stone pathways.