ARCHITECTURE AND NATURE MEET

11 hours ago

4 min read

Designed by Ramesh Lohar and Raghav Patel of R+R Architects, this 14,000 sq. ft. residence in Ahmedabad unites two once separate structures through courtyards, water and a warm, tactile material palette.

Photos by : Photographix India

In Ahmedabad, where architecture must answer to climate, context and the rhythms of family life, Eden Manor offers a considered take on the modern home. Commissioned for Dr Mayurbhai Desai, the residence began as two independent structures on a single plot. R+R Architects' brief, however, grew beyond landscaping alone. “The conversation with our clients organically snowballed into integrating two disparate residences into one, with an exacting timeline of nine months,” recalls principal architect Ramesh Lohar. “The brief we conceptualised was refreshing from the get-go, making it a challenge we were ready for.” What emerged is a home where nature is never an afterthought, but the organising idea behind every decision.

A MONOLITHIC SHELL, SOFTENED BY GREEN

From the street, Eden Manor reads as a single monolithic volume in slate grey, its solid walls interrupted by considered glazing that lends the facade a layered persona. Trailing creepers and sprouting greenery soften the geometry, giving the almost austere facade a sense of animated life. A mild gradient in the site's topography poetically frames these views as one approaches. A colonnaded promenade leads to the entrance, where a green-grey veneer door opens into a foyer awash in diffused daylight. “Landscape, our prime focus, became a strong element of expression,” says co-principal Raghav Patel. “Blurring the thresholds between the inside and outside, myriad forms of vegetation and water bodies stud the land parcel and soften the edges of the built form.”

THE LIVING HEART

The living area, enclosed in floor-to-ceiling glass on its northern and southern faces, is the beating heart of the home. A cascading green wall filters Gujarat's punishing summer light, while a cobalt sectional and mustard-yellow accents borrow their palette directly from sky and earth. The existing marble floors were restored rather than replaced, a deliberate decision to keep the new build tethered to what came before. Nearby, a De Castelli console in hand-oxidised brass and a Studio Smitamoksh wall installation of swirling fish carry the home's maritime undertone into its most public room, while a discreet pooja nook sits screened behind a porous brass partition, its chartreuse Pichwai-style backdrop painting the scene of an enchanted grove.

A GARDEN WITH A SECRET

Along the front verge, a colonnaded walkway does double duty, guiding movement while revealing a water court the architects call the Secret Garden — a space reserved, quite literally, for family alone. Plumeria, golden bamboo, palm and mango trees were retained and layered with new planting to blur the line between the two formerly separate homes, now stitched together by courtyards, water and pathway.

ROOMS FOR ENTERTAINING

Across the foyer, the drawing room takes a more restrained register, its grey micro-topped walls and white Statuario floors warmed by rust and greige Natuzzi Italia and Minotti furniture. The dining area, bordered by an ample verandah, indulges in umber browns around a Rimadesio table and B&B Italia chairs that seat eight; sliding glass doors let the space double in scale when hosting, spilling out toward a tropical-inspired verandah defined by sleek columns.

BEDROOMS WITH DISTINCT PERSONALITIES

Where the home's public rooms share a restrained, minimal language, the bedrooms are allowed individual character. The ground-floor room pairs green-grey veneer with warm-toned furniture and opens onto an outdoor shower screened by bamboo. Upstairs, one room settles into soft pastels, another leans into deep grey and blue, a third is finished in wood and brass, and a fourth commits fully to monochrome, its fluted ebony wall offset by a single note of lilac. “The commonality is the pared-down palette in each bedroom, headlined by a definitive colour that makes each space feel like a realm on its own,” says Lohar.

MADE FOR GATHERING

An entertainment lounge on the upper level trades restraint for personality: a beige sectional, a bold geometric rug and hand-painted Balinese furniture make it the home's most playful room, screened from view by a perforated brass partition that filters light without sacrificing privacy. Above, a terrace garden wrapped in dense foliage offers a quieter counterpoint — “a hub for conversations and downtime,” as Patel describes it, “with a unique vantage of the land... and the ever-morphing skies that turn cinematic at nightfall.”

Completed in October 2023, Eden Manor resolves its central tension with quiet confidence: two structures become one, solid architecture yields to water and greenery, and a disciplined material palette leaves just enough room for each bedroom to sing its own note. It is, in the words of its architects, a modern-day Eden — grounded, layered, and built to be lived in slowly.