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Vaishnavi Nayel Talawadekar is an internationally published architecture, design and art journalist.

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Vaishnavi works out of a sunny studio called Mangomonk where she writes for publications big and small.

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Latest Articles

The Wall Street Journal •

The Secret Ingredient to Their $200,000 Kitchen? A Massive Marble Island

When a California couple, both around age 50 and the founders of a creative marketing agency, purchased their 3,500-square-foot Spanish-style home in Los Feliz, Calif., in 2021, for $3.147 million, they were unfazed by its cramped 1920s kitchen, with its low ceilings and lack of circulation. They figured they could tackle the renovation once they moved in and enlisted designer Merissa Haas of Los Angeles–based studio M. Haas to lead the way.
The Local Project •

Pittella Celebrates 50 Years

For more than five decades, Pittella has quietly shaped Australia’s architectural landscape through the language of Italian craftsmanship. Known for its meticulously crafted architectural doorware – designed and manufactured in Italy – the family-owned studio has become synonymous with detail, material integrity and subtle luxury. As it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, the architectural doorware brand continues its legacy of innovation and design excellence while exploring new directions in bathroom fittings.
The Local Project •

SABI Launches its Béton Collection - The Local Project

As pets become more intrinsic to the rhythms of our lives, the gap between our thoughtfully designed spaces and the objects our pets use each day feels increasingly disparate. SABI emerged from this cultural moment, with a recognition that the products our pets live with deserve the same level of consideration we grant to the rest of our homes. In place of accessories, the brand imagines something more deliberate: objects conceived as part of the interior landscape, shaped with the same sensibility and intention we bring to furniture. This became the foundation for what SABI calls pet furniture – sculptural, tactile forms designed to belong, not simply exist, within a room.
Design Anthology •

[Print] Top of the World: Inside Amaya

A decade from now, Amaya—a resort situated in a 25-acre private forest in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh—will likely be imperceptible from the sky, courtesy of its patinated copper roofing that will camouflage against the treetops. Centuries from now, if left unused, the resort may well disappear into the earth. The self-sustaining property, designed by Indian architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai and Voon Wong of London-based Viewport Studio as an unobtrusive outgrowth of the surrounding pine forest, is a habitat of villas, farmlands, walking paths, and water-harvesting systems, spread across acres of pristine, reforested terraces.
The Local Project •

Mondrian Gold Coast by Fraser & Partners, Studio Carter and Alexander &CO

Beachside locales are often characterised by a free-spirited charm and laid-back energy, but Mondrian Gold Coast, Australia’s first luxury lifestyle property by Mondrian Hotels, elegantly breaks the mould with its elevated coastal flair. Situated at Burleigh Heads, Queensland, a seaside suburb known for its sparkling sand and surf, the 24-storey hotel comprises studios, suites, private beach and sky houses, a bio-wellness spa and event spaces, and two podium restaurants. The architecture and construction were respectively helmed by Melbourne-based Fraser & Partners and Brisbane-based The Barrett Group, while the interior design was divided between Sydney-based Alexander &CO. and Studio Carter, a California-headquartered practice previously enlisted to design Mondrian Singapore Duxton.
The Local Project •

120 Collins Street by Hassell

Some things get better with age—though, as Ingrid Bakker, Principal and Co-Leader of the Commercial and Workplace sector at Hassell, will attest, they sometimes need a little help along the way. Such was the case with 120 Collins Street, a landmark skyscraper on Melbourne’s Collins Street, originally completed by Hassell in association with architect Daryl Jackson in 1991, whose ground floor and entrance had gradually lost their lustre. To restore the 35-year-old spaces to their former glory, Hassell returned to lead the transformation, drawing on their deep connection to the building’s heritage to create a revitalised, future-facing experience that honours the original while meeting contemporary expectations.
The Local Project •

Michael Kirby Building by Hassell

A few years ago, Macquarie University’s Wallumattagal Campus, situated on Dharug Country in Sydney, Australia, looked a little different. Where now stands Michael Kirby Building was a tired circa-1985 structure that masqueraded as the administration centre. When Hassell ultimately took up the gauntlet of reimagining the space into a modern learning destination, the intent was never to undo the past, but to honour it in making room for the future. Inaugurated in March 2024, Michael Kirby Building—christened after the former Justice of the High Court of Australia and the university’s first Emeritus Chancellor—is an object lesson in adaptive reuse. The 8,500-square-metre upcycled building emerges from the shadows of its predecessor, serving as a modern home for Macquarie University Law School and the University’s Department of Philosophy. In remaining committed to its lifelong pursuit of educational excellence, the institution has also positioned the building as a support facility for the larger campus.
Architectural Digest •

This home in Bengaluru has a soul straight from Chikamagalur

All that effort wasn’t without reason—nor without a clear vision. From the outset, homeowners Rakhee and Ravindra Mysore knew not only how they wanted the house to look, but how they wanted it to feel: warm, grounded, and evocative of the landscape that shaped them. As a fifth-generation coffee planter who had spent as much time away from the Ghats as amidst them, Ravindra hoped for a home that could hold both worlds with grace. “They imagined something beautiful, but still deeply connected to n...
The Local Project •

[Print] Greg & Lesa Faulkner at Home

A few times a year, Greg and Lesa Faulkner leave their residence in San Francisco and disappear into the wilds of Martis Valley—a forested Californian vale on the outskirts of Truckee, near Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in the U.S. Their retreats are far from casual escapes; they’re purposeful returns. Years ago, the couple—Greg, co-founder and principal of the California-based Faulkner Architects, and Lesa, who helms the firm’s interior design—acquired a 2.5-acre parcel in this rugged highland, with a promise to honour the land in their effort to make it home. Set at 2,100 metres above sea level and cloaked in towering Jeffrey and Ponderosa pines, tangled manzanita, and the crisp perfume of wild sage, the site asked not just for attention, but reverence.
The Local Project •

Garden House by Openspace Architecture

Garden House may be physically situated on the sylvan shores of Saanich Inlet, just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island, but the waterfront residence exists metaphysically somewhere between the West Coast of America and the refined minimalism of Japan.
Conceived and constructed over a period of seven years, Garden House is as much a part of the landscape as the forest that surrounds it. The property comprises three buildings – a single-storey main house of 929 square metres, a guesthouse and a...
Architectural Digest •

This home in Kerala’s Kolanchery is a tranquil landing pad for its Kuwait-based owners

For the longest time, Kuwait-based Twiggy and Deepa Abraham’s trips home to Kolanchery, Kerala, a small town just 20 kilometres east of Kochi, meant being hosted by a revolving door of cheerful relatives. But somewhere along the way—2024, to be precise—they found themselves longing for a different kind of door: one that opened and shut on their terms, one they could truly call their own. “We’d been living abroad for a while and had always dreamed of having a holiday home in India that felt like...
The Local Project •

Greg and Lesa Faulkner At Home

A few times a year, Greg and Lesa Faulkner leave their residence in San Francisco and disappear into the wilds of Martis Valley, a forested Californian vale on the outskirts of Truckee, near Lake Tahoe, the United States’ largest alpine lake. Their retreats are far from casual escapes; they’re purposeful returns. Years ago, the couple – Greg, the founder and principal of California-based Faulkner Architects, and Lesa, who oversees interior design at the firm – acquired a 10,000-squaremetre parcel in the highland, with a promise to honour the land in their effort to make it home. Set at 2,100 metres above sea level and cloaked in towering Jeffrey and Ponderosa pines, tangled manzanita and the crisp perfume of wild sage, the site doesn’t just invite attention but reverence.
Vogue India •

Inside songstress Rhea Raj's Los Angeles studio

Much like its owner, the floor lamp in Rhea Raj’s studio has many moods. On days when she feels exuberant, it glows green; when she’s calm, it softens to yellow. But more often than not, it burns in fiery pinks and purples—“because it’s the energy I need when composing something sensual or feminine,” says the singer-songwriter, who was born in Connecticut to Indian parents. That same kaleidoscopic spirit coloured her debut at Lollapalooza Chicago in August this year, where she surprised fans with a performance of her song ‘Haute Couture’ alongside Aliyah’s Interlude, wearing a bejewelled butterfly-shaped corset and a molten ellipsis bindi that caught the spotlight with every move.
The Local Project •

Sliding Door Hardware by Halliday + Baillie - The Local Project

Halliday + Baillie’s sliding door hardware is crafted for projects where every element must align at the highest level. Whether in a minimalist apartment or heritage transformation, the hardware seamlessly integrates into a range of design contexts without compromising performance. A prime example is the HB690 privacy set, chosen for the restoration of the iconic Raffles Hotel in Singapore – proof that when it comes to combining design integrity with mechanical precision, few can rival Halliday...
Architectural Digest •

In Bengaluru, Hundredhands transformed a 150-year-old school into a cultural centre

Buildings that have reverberated with the voices of multiple generations carry a quiet magic—a magic that lingers long after those voices have faded. Architect Bijoy Ramachandran, of multidisciplinary design practice Hundredhands, knows this to be true, as he also knows that it can take time to uncover this magic. “We had to look deep,” he says of Sabha, the studio’s maiden conservation and adaptive reuse project. The initiative was helmed by civic evangelist and former honorary director of the Bangalore International Centre, V Ravichandar. “He and his wife, Hema, had started a family trust, and were interested in restoring a colonial-era school in Bengaluru’s Cantonment [area] and reimagining it as a hub for artistic expression,” explains Ramachandran, who worked closely with cultural strategist Raghu Tenkayala. “He [Tenkayala] played an instrumental role in bringing together the RBANM’s Educational Charities—to which the school once belonged—and Ravi’s [Ravichandar’s] family trust.”
Architectural Digest •

From erstwhile school to a haven for artistic endeavours, a 150-year-old Bengaluru landmark gets a second life

Buildings that have reverberated with the voices of multiple generations carry a quiet magic—a magic that lingers long after those voices have faded. Architect Bijoy Ramachandran of the multidisciplinary design practice Hundredhands knows this to be true, as he also knows that sometimes, that magic can take time to uncover. “We had to look deep,” he says of Sabha, the studio’s maiden conservation and adaptive reuse project. The initiative was helmed by civic evangelist and former honorary director of the Bangalore International Centre, V. Ravichandar, with whom Ramachandran had previously collaborated. “He and his wife, Hema, had started a family trust and were interested in restoring a Colonial-era school in Bengaluru’s Cantonment and reimagining it as a hub for artistic expression,” explains Ramachandran, who worked closely with cultural strategist Raghu Tenkayala on the project. “He played an instrumental role in bringing together the RBANM Educational Charities, to which the school once belonged, and Ravi’s family trust.”
Livingetc •

[Print] Jaipur: Memories in Mallorca

On a trip to Mallorca many moons ago, entrepreneur Puneet Sanghi stumbled upon a charming hotel. One half was a heritage fort, the other a contemporary addition – a postcard from the past, perfectly stamped into the present. “That really sparked the concept,” says Puneet of his family home in Jaipur, which he shares with his brother, Ambrish, their respective wives, Shweta and Devyani, and their children. As fourth-generation automobile entrepreneurs, the brothers’ careers had taken them across the world, shaping not only their outlook but, over the years, their home as well.
Livingetc •

[Print] Trichy: Dream Come True

Most nights, architect Gayatri Gunjal drifts into a recurring dream, floating high amidst the clouds. In that quiet, suspended world, the edges of reality blur: city streets shrink below her, buildings dissolve into mist, and all that remains is light, air and an unshakable sense of freedom. It is a space where ideas take shape before they exist on paper, where structures breathe and move, and where the founder and principal of Chennai-based Yellowsub Studio feels both weightless and grounded, as if the sky itself is guiding her hand.
A few years ago, that dream edged its way into Serora, a private residence in Trichy that Gayatri unwittingly conjured from her imagination and brought to life, softening gravity with double-height volumes, creating airy voids that spill sunlight through every level, and translucent screens that filter the sun like drifting clouds. As she puts it, the project was “me getting outside my own head.” Fortuitously, the owners’ vision was scarcely different from her own: they sought a home that felt expansive yet intimate, light yet grounded, a space that enlivened her dreams—and more importantly their own.
Architectural Digest •

In This Bay Area Midcentury Home, a Wall-to-Wall Headboard Connects Two Queen Beds

Once the walls were swapped for windows, arranging the furniture became a challenge. “We spent ages fine-tuning the furniture plan,” says Cheung, who experimented with multiple layouts and lighting schemes in collaboration with Tucci Lighting. The team finally landed on a sculptural curved sofa paired with flexible seating that can easily pivot—perfect for taking in the garden one moment and the TV the next. “The layout moves with the seasons,” she adds. “In December, for example, the furniture...
Architectural Digest •

Open Shelving Divides This Interior Stylist’s Brooklyn Apartment Into Subtle Zones—and Shows Off Her Travels

If there’s one thing Brittany Albert believes to be true, it’s the quiet power of manifestation. After all, there’s nothing else that could explain how her Brooklyn apartment—the parlor floor of a brownstone—came to be, and how the stars aligned, if only momentarily, when the previous tenants moved out. “We were renting an apartment a few floors above in the same building, and had seen this unit with its outdoor space and beautiful bay windows. When it became available, we jumped at the chance,”...
Architectural Digest •

This Halloween, 8 interior designers share their scariest interior design fails

For most interior designers, Halloween doesn’t roll around once a year—it’s an ongoing state of being. Ghosts and ghouls have nothing on vanishing contractors, interior design fails, fabric mishaps, or the occasional client meltdown. Miscommunications form the cobwebs, budget revisions deliver the jump scares, and the real haunted houses are the ones they’re scrambling to finish. Between paint colours that shift overnight and deliveries that never arrive, the design world is rife with horror. Ei...
The Local Project •

Pointe Living by Luigi Rosselli Architects and Atelier Alwill

If there’s one thing Luigi Rosselli Architects and Atelier Alwill can do – and do well – it’s to create 10 homes where there once stood only one. Pointe Living, a nine-storey apartment development in Sydney’s bustling Edgecliff neighbourhood, is a testament to this ambition, transforming a modest footprint into a cohesive ensemble of contemporary residences without sacrificing light, space or a sense of community.
The stack of 10 standalone residences – articulated to suit its narrow site – repr...
Architectural Digest •

A designer transformed this 60-year-old office into a serene Chennai home

Interior designer Sunita Yogesh has had so many brushes with fate that she is convinced she was a cat in a past life—“or still is,” quips the interior designer and founder of her namesake Chennai-based studio. No stranger to close calls, she faced her fair share of frightful moments on her latest project, an office converted into a home.At one point, the 1960s roof unexpectedly collapsed over the dining area before work had even begun, and later, removing the false ceiling revealed a sloped, rat...
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In Print

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Architectural Digest •

Inside a coastal Karnataka bungalow inspired by childhood memory

As sometimes happens when inspiration strikes, Salian found himself guided by flashes of memory, or as he puts it, “a faint, sensorial fragment from childhood. I remember stepping into a Mangalore tile factory, now long vanished, and being enveloped by its vastness. A double-height roof stretched overhead, its terracotta tiles resting on an exposed lattice of wooden trusses. The air was thick with the scent of sun-baked clay and ash. Light filtered in from high openings, casting long shadows acr...
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Diipa Büller-Khosla's canal house in Amsterdam is a postcard from 1614

Even from 6,000 kilometres away, Diipa Büller-Khosla’s energy is palpable through the screen. It’s morning where she is, and she and her husband and business partner, Dutch former diplomat, Oleg Büller-Khosla (the couple legally adopted each other's last names when they married in 2018) are perched in the kitchen of their Amsterdam home, in the company of their pet pooches, Kubii and Bimbo.

By their own admission, it’s a scene that just a few years ago, was a figment of their imagination. “We'd
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Ishaan Khatter’s Mumbai apartment is a sunset sanctuary

When he isn't busy filming or promoting or air-dashing off to exotic locales, Ishaan Khatter likes to appreciate the little things in life. “On Sunday mornings, when time permits, I slip off for a bike ride. In the evenings, I like to watch the sunset with some music and coffee,” says the actor, who was last seen in supernatural comedy Phone Bhoot, alongside Katrina Kaif and Siddhant Chaturvedi. So when he moved in a three-bedroom apartment along the Bandra sea face, naturally, his first priorit
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Actor Aahana Kumra’s Mumbai apartment is a pretty-in-pink princess pad

In a building full of identical brown doors, Aahana Kumra's entrance is the only non-brown curiosity. "I absolutely love pink. It's my all-time favourite colour—that's why it's right at the front," she laughs, holding open the candyfloss-coloured opuscule as she ushers me inside. For Kumra, the home is a manifestation twenty years in the making, and one that nods equally to her Lucknowi roots and her life in Mumbai. "There are whiffs of Kashmir, London and Delhi too. It's a collection of all my
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Actor Aparshakti Khurana’s Mumbai home displays drama in the details

Even before they had finalised their house, or decided who would design it, actor Aparshakti Khurana and his wife, events entrepreneur Aakriti Ahuja, had a chandelier picked out and stowed away in storage. "I had spotted it some years ago in Delhi and just knew I had to buy it," laughs Aakriti, and Aparshakti chimes in, "We had no idea what our future house would look like. Nothing was set in stone, except this big, blue bhaisahab." The bhaisahab in question now occupies a corner of their living
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Singer Armaan Malik’s Mumbai home is halfway between London and Los Angeles

At 10 AM on a Sunday, the last thing you'd expect is for Armaan Malik to be crisping the edges of a frittata. And yet, that's exactly the sight that greets me as I step into his kitchen, a California-cool bolthole with a London-esque edge. "I love making breakfast and treating myself to a good spread," he says, drizzling butter on bruschettas. Dressed in a casual button-up and chinos, he looks like a laid-back version of his on-screen alter ego, who, as fans of The Voice (on which Armaan appears
Architectural Digest •

AD Visits: Actors Aditya Seal and Anushka Ranjan’s newlywed nest is a storybook come to life

At the door of actors (and newlyweds) Aditya Seal and Anushka Ranjan Seal's new Mumbai duplex, the nameplate is conspicuous by its absence. What is not is the cheery (LED) baby seal that takes its place, animating the wall and nodding to its namesake owners. “It's fun to watch people guess," says Anushka. "Those who get it, get it. And it makes for a great conversation-starter." But the unlikely sea creature isn’t the only thing setting the entryway apart—because if the peach-toned front door (a