We have some much-awaited news!

Grounded will soon be launching 2 new luxury villas for sale in North Goa. Set within beautiful Aldona, the house is surrounded by peaceful green vistas and the rustic charm of the Goan countryside. With expansive living spaces, intimate pockets that look out to the pool, and nearly 3500 sqft of open space, the house seeks to offer seamless indoor-outdoor living. Like all our other residential projects, the villas will be sustainable, architecturally relevant, and closely connected to nature.

To know more about the villas,

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.

Now that you've got this house in Goa, imagine all the things you can do with it to make it your sanctuary. The most wonderful thing about having a house in Goa is being able to enjoy the natural immersion and the seasonal indulgence that comes with it. To us, design is a direct way to enhance comfort, improve quality of living, and create richness in experience within every space.

Design can be simple but generous and luxurious when the right materials and strategies are used. Here are 5 effective ways to create rustic spaces that are designed for barefoot and earthy luxury.

01 Create spacious bathrooms finished with rustic materials that feel great against bare feet.

Find bathrooms designed as sanctuary spaces here.

02 Use a colour palette of subtle shades & tones in neutral monochromatic colours.

Read more about building a neutral palette here.

03 Take advantage of the unique colours, patterns and textures of natural materials.

Learn about using and maintaining wood, lime, and IPS here.

04 Design landscape to mimic a wild landscape as opposed to manicured landscape.

Learn more about natural landscaping and local species here.

05 Practice a bit of wabi sabi where you appreciate and live with site's imperfections and the aging of materials.

Read our blogpost on living with nature.

We have recently started work on a small house for a lovely young family in Talpona village in Goa. The focus will be on indoor-outdoor living and creating opportunities to connect with nature. The project site is contoured and verdant, with lush trees meeting the eye every side we turn. Our vision for the project is to bring land and life together, through timeless contemporary-vernacular architecture. As we explore the relationships between space and site, we ask ourselves repeatedly,

What are the views that we can frame? How can we create open, continuous and connected spaces? How much light and breeze comes through? How can we create pockets around different natural clusters? How will each space change with time to allow for multiple experiences?

My interest lies primarily in doing what I do, with care. As an architect, the way you imagine opening a door, developing a chair, designing the texture of a wall or a floor, is very important. It’s about quality, about the consideration you apply to the making of something. And it’s about being attentive to the environment, the materials, and the inhabitants. It has to be inclusive.
Bijoy Jain

Images of Kapadia House sourced from Airbnb and Pinterest.

As one steps into Bijoy Jain’s Kapadia House in Alibaug, one is instantly witness to poetry through space. Centred around a rustic courtyard grove, the expansive indoor-outdoor spaces of the bungalow flow generously from one to another. The house intimately explores a connection with its trees creating experiences from bark to foliage, as different levels offer varied degrees of interaction with the verdure. With that comes a serendipitous romance with light and shadow, as rays filter through the canopy to make beautiful shifting patterns throughout the day. The house makes liberal use of natural material ranging from rough cut stone to wood, which effortlessly blend into the surrounding landscape while also creating a rustic complement to the otherwise white palette. The careful interplay between texture, form, proportion and light instantly elevate the design from functional to sculptural.

Kapadia House is listed on Airbnb, and is a must visit for any design lover.

Unlike the other colonial powers in India, the Portuguese managed to leave a much more visible mark on the residential architecture of the area they ruled. The British and the French left their mark on the architecture of huge buildings such as assemblies and railway stations which have since become landmarks of the period.

The Portuguese in Goa built residential houses reflecting a style which is hardly found elsewhere on the Indian subcontinent. These magnificent palatial houses inspired by European architectural style are still found in Goa today, although they are confined to the rural areas such as Chandrapura, Chandor and Loutolim. These mansions were built in an era when the Portuguese had handsome profits from their trading colonies in Africa and South America.

This blogpost looks at some of the old heritage houses of South Goa which were inspired by European architectural styles and stand tall even today.

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Braganza House

The Braganza House is 350 years old and occupies one entire side of the village square in Chandor. This elaborate mansion is spread over 10,000 sqm and is divided into two wings that are occupied by the Braganza family. The palatial house has a stunning ballroom, massive Belgian crystal chandeliers, exquisite antiques collected over centuries and the oldest private library in Goa with over 5000 books.

Palacio do Deao

Palacio do Deao, a 213 years old mansion, was built by a Portuguese noble man, who was the Dean of the Church, and founder of Quepem town. The house faces the Church he built and is on the banks of the wildly beautiful Kushavati River. Here’s a video about the lovely house.

Figueirido House

The magnificent Figueirido House in Loutolim took shape as early as 1590, at a time when the Taj Mahal was yet to be conceived. The Figueiredo family had a prominent presence in Goa as lawyers, diplomats and ambassadors. Today, the family has converted part of this palatial home into a historic museum with yet another section opened out as a breathtaking heritage homestay for visitors. Take a virtual tour through this palatial estate here.

Casa Araujo Alvares

This 250-year-old mansion belongs to the Alvares family and forms part of the Ancestral Goa tourist complex, set up to recreate Goan village life under Portuguese rule. The house has a spacious courtyard, a quaint chapel at its centre, old European furniture like most of its contemporaries and eclectic seashell windows that bring the beach inside.

To know more about the hidden gems of South Goa, read The Charms of South Goa - Part I

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Bathroom at Nivim. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

Bathrooms are such a neglected subject in the design-build process. To view this space as a sanctuary, a place to retreat to after the chaos of the workday has passed, that has been the inspiration behind designing the bathrooms in all our projects. The above image is a bathroom from Nivim with sunlight pouring in.

A powder room in Navovado. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

A guest bathroom in Nivim. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

The master bathroom in Navovado. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

The master bathroom in Nivim. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

Read On

If you follow our work, then you know that we are somewhat 'experts' in designing houses in Goa. We constantly highlight the key design elements appropriate for houses in Goa and the Goa lifestyle, such as preserving and celebrating the site's natural features, preserving the existing trees on the site, designing indoor-outdoor spaces with large verandahs, and spaces with ample daylight and cross-ventilation, while following sustainable practices to reduce the building's ecological footprint.

Another key element to consider while buying a property in Goa is 'maintenance'. This is not a topic that is often discussed but must be seriously considered while buying a new home. If the house in Goa is used as a second or vacation home, then one may not live in a it all year round and when you visit, you want to enjoy the beauty and luxury of the house and not be inundated by a plethora of maintenance issues. These concerns take center stage in Goa, specially due to the relatively heavy monsoon period in Goa which can lead to several problems of water seepage, mold and dampness.

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Here are the main points to consider while buying a house in Goa:

Balance your desire for design goodness with maintenance requirements

BUGS:

1. Be cognizant that you will be co-living with bugs and reptiles, and sometimes monkey and bats. Insist on mosquito net screens for doors and windows. These are vital to 'resort-living' and are sadly often omitted. The mosquito nets allow the home owners to keep doors and windows open without the concern for bugs, mosquitoes and other undesired creatures from entering the house. The homeowner can in-turn enjoy the sunsets, evening breeze and an indoor-outdoor lifestyle without a compromise.

2. Avoid decorative ponds. In my experience, the decorative ponds become habitats for reptiles and can become a maintenance headache.

DAMPNESS:

3. Get closets that can breath. This is critical due to the high humidity during the monsoon period in Goa. If you plan to leave you things back in the house (as you should), then it is important to have closets that can breath. This can be achieved by using breathable materials within the closet doors, in the form of lovely cane weaving, wood louvers, canvas and even cotton curtains.

4. It is important to air-out your house in Goa. While you as a homeowner are away, it is important that the house staff or friends periodically open up the doors and windows and air the house. This is critical to avoid mold from growing in hidden corners in the house.

SECURITY:

5. Check the quality of glass used in a home. Toughened glass is the most commonly used glass for security purposes. Higher grades of security glass are also available and can be installed at a premium.

6. New technology allows for video surveillance. There is also an availability of motion sensors and special alarms that go off in case of vandalism. Panic buttons can also be introduced in each room if desired.

7. Finally, the best security is offered by watch dogs and guardsmen who can keep an eye on the property and raise an alarm when security is breached.

Read On

Welcome ! This is the view from the main entrance door towards the pool and deck at Nivim

Ever wondered why the house is called 'Nivim' ?

'Nivim' is the name of the land the house is built on. We found it on the historic land records for the house and it only made sense for us to continue to use it as our commitment to the history and legacy of the land and our love for the inherent beauty of Goa !