Amaya
Fifty five kilometres from Chandigarh, you turn on to a quiet country road set back from the rushed highway and roll down your windows to hear only bird song and the rustling of trees. You step out onto a pristine hillside cloaked in wild grass and pine trees with spectacular views of the Himalayas in the distance. This is the setting of Amaya, a luxury mountain resort made of individual villas inspired by traditional village homes in India.
Photography by Guo Jie Khoo
We were approached by a client some time ago to design bespoke furniture and curate design pieces for the villas that were master planned and designed by Studio Mumbai.
Fast forward a few years, and we were invited to design the architecture and interiors of the second phase of Amaya, consisting of 15 additional villas.
Our Phase 2 villas were positioned to minimise earth works to the existing farm terraces and to maximise privacy and views. The materials echoed those used in the first phase, namely, traditional lime render for walls, slate for roofing and local marble to clad window shutters. Our intention is for the villas to blend into the landscape and to look as though they have always been there.
The interiors are simple and distilled, having a simple set of bespoke and bought furnishings that possess a lightness of touch without sacrificing comfort. As Amaya was conceived as a sanctuary from the excesses of modern life, our villas had to adopt the same back-to-basics approach.
A neutral set of colours was used to complement the interior with a set of bespoke furniture from beds to sideboards, all made locally complementing a more recent catalogue of international brands.
