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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

Architectural Digest •

Inside a Bengaluru home that bridges the gap between both ends of the country

What do you get when a boy from Delhi and a girl from Andhra Pradesh buy a house together? “Total chaos,” grins Chandana Vakulabharanam, the girl in question—evidently not without reason. When the strategy consultant and her Delhi-born husband, entrepreneur Lalith Gudipati, bought A Bengaluru home not too long ago, they knew in their bones that they'd made the right choice.“The way the sunlight streamed in made the entire place feel vibrant and full of energy, and we instantly knew it was meant...
Livingetc •

[Print] Kolkata: Out of this World

The thing about interior design, for better or worse, is that it rarely treads the middle ground – clients either love it or loathe it. When interior designer Ajay Arya, founder and principal of Kolkata-based A Square Designs, was tasked with transforming a 7,000 sq ft bare-shell duplex on the city’s coveted Loudon Street for Rashmi and Vishal Saraogi, a couple in their forties, he had little inkling of just how swiftly the verdict – or verdicts – would swing in his favour. “Their daughter developed a keen interest in interior design,” says the aesthete – so keen, in fact, that she chose it as her field of study, even going on to intern with Ajay’s firm.
Architectural Digest •

This Bengaluru apartment is a grandmother's gracious gift to a newlywed couple

First homes are always special, but even more so when they come as a wedding gift from your grandmother. “We’d always dreamed of creating a nest of our own, and this home made that possible,” says UI/UX designer Gayathri Nair, speaking of the gift from her grandmother-in-law. Perched on the 14th floor and surrounded by lush greenery, this Bengaluru apartment offered a serene, secluded escape—but as Nair explains, it still needed a touch of personality to truly feel like home.
Architectural Digest •

For its owners, this bougainvillea-draped Bengaluru villa is a long-held dream come true

For most, destiny is written in the stars, but in Mitali Sodhi and Vishwastam Shukla’s case, it bloomed in the bougainvillea. “We knew right away,” says Sodhi of their east Bengaluru villa—situated inside a 15-year-old enclave—whose bougainvillea-draped garden, serendipitously, was a manifestation many years in the making. “I had dreamed about a garden like this for years,” she continues. “So it was almost as if the garden had been waiting for me all along.” For the couple, the decision began and ended there: this was their home—the one where bougainvillea had spilled out of their dreams and taken root in reality.
Architectural Digest •

This holiday home in Kochi is a sunlit ode to Kerala's vernacular

The thing about worshipping the sun, if you're not careful, is that it might reciprocate a tad too emphatically—so emphatically, in fact, that architect Reshma Geordy of Thiruvananthapuram-based The Design Verses, a sun worshipper herself, found herself in something of a predicament not too terribly long ago. “It was a tricky thing,” says Geordy, whose thing in question was creating a tropical sunhouse of sorts, in a land as hot as Kochi. “The question was—how do we create a sun-drenched home without the heat that comes with it?” adds the architect, whose client, Basil Thomas—a Kerala-born, Canada-based engineer who had admittedly resigned himself to a life of icy chill halfway across the world—envisaged a holiday home in Kochi with warm and sunny spaces.
The Local Project •

Void House by Light and Air

A typical New York City brownstone is characterised by its iconic stoop, narrow facade and warm-hued sandstone exterior, often punctuated by tall windows and classic 19th-century details. Many also feature a narrow period staircase perpendicular to the length of the building – a feature that New York City–based studio Light and Air considered more limiting than liberating, restricting how the space could be used. In designing Void House, a 300-square-metre brownstone in Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill neighbourhood, the practice rotated the rowhouse staircase ninety degrees, transforming it from a mere functional thoroughfare into the home’s pièce de résistance.
Architectural Digest India •

These Ahmedabad-based architects built a house with “the most beautiful entrance foyer”

Any interior designer will tell you that creating a home that reflects its owners is easy—until the couple disagrees on the sofa. Only, in architect Smeet Kaswala and interior designer Avishi Jariwala’s case, there was no couple, nor any owner. “Not that it makes things any easier,” muses Jariwala, who runs Ahmedabad-based Studio Espaazo with Kaswala. If anything, their ask was even more daunting: to create a model flat for a builder which could serve anyone, a universal archetype without leaning too far into one person’s taste or another’s lifestyle—an apartment that felt aspirational, but never alienating.
Architectural Digest •

Eggs, mushrooms, and flowers in a fantastical shoot by Porus & Prayag, for Nama Home

Photographer Porus Vimadalal enjoys his eggs with a side of furniture for Nama Home. “And my mushrooms too,” quips the Mumbai-based creative director, who used the said protein sources to nourish his latest project with his husband, Prayag Menon: a still life campaign for the metal furniture brand Nama Home. “I was immediately drawn to their design philosophy,” continues Vimadalal, noted for being the imaginative force behind some of India’s most successful photography campaigns, including sever...
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 •

The Designers Behind This Former Georgia O’Keeffe Hangout Only Added Details That Felt Original

All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.As the AD PRO Directory designers quickly realized, the real challenge was exercising tactful restraint. “We’re usually brought in to add architectural details that make a house feel special. This time, the house was the special part. It was more about holding back so the architecture could shine,” notes...
The Local Project •

In focus: Halliday + Baillie - The Local Project

Architectural hardware often goes unnoticed – concealed as hinges behind doors, channels under drawers and brackets beneath stairs. Since its inception in 1995, New Zealand company Halliday + Baillie has sought to rewrite this narrative, elevating joinery staples with superior design, materials and finishes.
For more than 30 years, Halliday + Baillie has supplied clients with quality hardware for both commercial and residential spaces. “We’re an architectural fittings company, predominantly door...
Wallpaper* •

10 landscape architects to know: the ultimate directory

This year, a deep dive into landscape architecture brings a refreshing shift to the long-standing Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory, an annual listing of promising practices across the globe. For 2025, as celebrated in the October print issue of Wallpaper*, our survey of exciting studios goes outside, as we sample the inspiring international talent that is transforming the environment around us, shaping everything but the buildings.While the Architects’ Directory traditionally focuses on resident...
The Local Project •

Measured’s Furniture Inspires a Well-Lived Life - The Local Project

A life well lived – this is the aspiration of Measured, an Australian furniture company known for its thoughtfully crafted, enduring design.
Founded by designers Ceci Thompson and Aydin Keyvanloo, Melbourne-based studio Measured reimagines the idea of intentional living with pieces where well-balanced elemental forms and a considered design approach lend a sense of harmony to their surroundings. Whether on a patio, in an office or a hospitality setting, Measured’s furniture strives to contribute...
Elle Decor •

[Print] Anchored by Air: Goa Bungalow by We Design Studio

Two years ago, architects Saahil Parikh and Nupur Shah set foot on a plot of land in the Goan village of Agarvado — and were instantly captivated. “The land was completely untouched,” recalls Saahil. But it was equally wild. “Our first site visit took place during the monsoon, and the terrain was remarkably marshy. I remember struggling to walk across it. By the time we were done, our feet and shoes were caked in thick mud right up to our ankles. Cleaning up took some effort,” adds the co-founder of the Mumbai-based We Design Studio, who went on to clear not just his footwear, but, in time, the spectacular surrounding quagmire as well. Tucked away on a storybook estate spanning ten acres, the site lay cradled between the Chapora River and an expanse of mangroves, its surface dotted with three man-made salt pans. Completing the setting with a villa just as idyllic, then, was a challenge that called for sensitivity over spectacle.
Architectural Digest •

This Coonoor bungalow, aged 80 years, is a colonial revival in the Nilgiris

Maintaining a historic home, like this Coonoor bungalow, is a privilege few receive, but reviving one from the ashes of its past is a privilege even fewer desire. Ajith and Shashi Jhabakh, however, were undeterred. When the Coimbatore-based couple approached architect Sowmya Kumar of OWM Architecture, they weren’t seeking an easy restoration—they wanted to breathe new life into a house that had weathered time, loss, and neglect.Built in the 1940s during the British Raj and passed down through ge...
Architectural Digest •

[Print] Porus Vimadalal & Prayag Menon's Labour of Love for Nama Home

Photographer Porus Vimadalal
enjoys his eggs with a side of
furniture. “And my mushrooms
too,” quips the Mumbai-based
creative director, who used the said protein
sources to nourish his latest project with his
husband, Prayag Menon: a still life campaign for the metal furniture brand Nama
Home. “I was immediately drawn to their
design philosophy,” continues Vimadalal,
noted for being the imaginative force
behind some of India’s most successful
photography campaigns, including several
projects for Gucci and Apple.
Wallpaper* •

Immersing herself in nature taught this landscape architect ‘more than any lecture ever could’

Indian landscape architect Varna Shashidhar, founder and principal of Bengaluru studio VSLA, didn’t always know that her heart – and hands – belonged outdoors. But by the time she earned her master’s in landscape architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 2006, she was sure of one thing: a desk job in an air-conditioned office just wasn’t on the cards. ‘Harvard introduced me to fantastic friends and mentors, and led me to the best scientists, ecologists and designers at the cutting...
Architectural Digest •

A California Home Rediscovers its French Contemporary Roots With Cloudlike Details

There was something special about the home’s French Contemporary bones—but there was also something missing. “While Gina and Dan loved the French influences, they really wanted us to emphasize the contemporary aspect—to truly bring the home into the present,” says Sulaiman, who set about creating a warm and inviting oasis—somewhere the family could huddle, kick off their boots, and disappear for a while. And then, just as easily, reemerge and entertain when the mood struck. She didn’t design the...
Vogue India •

Sudha Murty: “I don’t go to restaurants. Why drive, park and waste time in traffic when you can eat at home?”

There’s no pomp when Sudha Murty enters the room. In fact, no one really notices. The videographers are busy priming their cameras, her staff is whirring around the sidelines and I am admiring a painting depicting the Mahabharata—made by a Kolkata-based collective of the Bengal School, she tells me later. “Which magazine?” she asks, smiling, as I hurriedly turn, take notice and mutter an answer. “Ah yes, please sit.” So I do. In videos and pictures, Murty seems larger somehow, a powerhouse of a...
Architectural Digest •

This 3,500-square-foot coastal villa in Chennai channels Mediterranean magic

The thing that people often forget about architects is their ability to roll with the punches—to expand a room by a few square metres, move a window an inch or two to the left, flip the living room to frame a better view. Or, as in the case of Raghuveer Ramesh and Sharanya Srinivasan, the duo behind Chennai-based Studio Context, do all that—and then decide to promptly not. “We kept doubling every room with each design round. At one point, Sharanya insisted that she’d have to start cutting down t...
The Local Project •

Larkspur by BOSS Architecture

Larkspur, a midcentury-inspired dwelling designed by Denver-based BOSS Architecture, harmonises with the surrounding 1960s residences yet conceals a secret imperceptible from the street: a storybook backyard that turns with the seasons.
For the architects, the ambition to create a garden that matched or even surpassed the home itself inspired the idea of an L-shaped plan that would shelter the backyard from two perpendicular street frontages. While one wing was designed to accommodate a garage,...
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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