Architect Apoorva Shroff knows who should be the main character in your home

For city-wear homeowners looking to create the perfect holiday home amidst nature, Shroff has an important tip. “My biggest piece of advice is to respect nature. Don’t go against it. Study the context of the space you are building in,” she states. “If it’s a mountain, don’t excavate it more than required. Terrace it gently. Work with the slopes the site has given you. You can go to the top of a mountain and flatten it out and build a big, fat house there but when you’re working with nature, you will understand how it protects you back and supports the way you feel in your house.” Passionately, Shroff posits how uprooting trees may loosen the soil upon which your home is built, leading the ground to collapse. On the contrary, if your house is placed around trees, you have a better grasp of maintenance and drainage issues.

Practicality, she concedes, is what most people fail to consider while building their dream home. “You’re so engulfed in luxury and the wants on your wish list that you forget you need to think about the smaller things,” she notes. “Like segregating your public, private and service spaces, planning for ventilation, planning for overhangs if your second home is in a hill station. You need to think from a practical perspective before you think about the frills and aesthetics.” Shroff encourages seeking inspiration in travels: think the vibrant colours of Guanajuato’s hillside homes, courtyards present in Roman homes or the jharokhas in Mughal architecture. “Everything that you’re looking for is on some level emulating what you’ve already seen. Be it a mosaic, a pool, the way someone uses bricks, their grills, patterns, arches. A walk through a lane away from home may be all the inspiration you need.”