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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 Bandra apartment designed for someone yet to arrive

An interior remodel, as any sage designer will tell you, can go one of two ways—“off-script or very off-script,” laughs interior designer Tejal Mathur, founder and principal of her eponymous Mumbai studio. Her latest project, a 2,000-square-foot apartment in Bandra, belongs firmly to the latter category. “After the first cut of the plan, the owners came back to us with a little surprise,” she continues. “They needed a full-fledged nursery…because, well, she was pregnant.” For Mathur and her team—designers Meha Jadeja, Gayatri Shinde, and Rizzanne Idnani—it meant going back to the drawing board. This time, with a crib in mind.
Architectural Digest •

In this multigenerational Mumbai home, everyday life finds its curve

Interior designer Dhvani Shah trusts her sixth sense—but over the years, she’s developed a seventh to ensure she always backs the sixth. “They called it the ‘sandwich strategy’,” laughs Shah, recalling her latest clients—a family of five, comprising a husband and wife, their five-year-old son, and the husband’s parents, who entrusted her with transforming their bare-shell, builder-grade apartment into a warm, multigenerational oasis.“Material selection was always a highlight because of Dhvani’s...
Livingetc •

[Print] Chennai: Quietly Does It

bove the dining table in
a Poes Garden, Chennai
home, floats a sculptural
light that looks like it’s
drifted in from a fairy tale.
Part chimney, part cloud
– entirely unfazed by the attention. Getting
it up there, though, required every bit of it.
As Amrita Thomas of Chennai-based Alara
Studio puts it, the piece by Arjun Rathi
arrived in bits, like an oversized jigsaw,
and had to be assembled on site with a fair
amount of coaxing – and, one imagines, a
few deep breaths. “When it finally came
together, there was a collective sigh of relief
– and the distinct sense that the room had
been waiting for it all along,” she says of the
installation.
The Local Project •

Maharam Showroom by Neil Logan

Historic buildings often carry a past that is as significant, if not more so, than their present. Maharam’s new Manhattan outpost at 257 Park Avenue South in Gramercy Park is a compelling example. The multi-brand showroom is a contemporary reimagining of the historic space by local architect Neil Logan, who is celebrated for his ability to revitalise buildings while preserving their defining character. True to Maharam’s signature approach, the aesthetic is immediately apparent: a soaring gallery offers a vantage point over a large library of textiles and leather, while warm, earthy display units in Douglas fir and marine plywood counterbalance the materials’ softness. One wall is transfor...
Architectural Digest •

This 4,500-square-foot Chennai penthouse reads like a riverfront reverie

The dining area is where the home allows itself a small flourish. The vaulted ceiling arches overhead, turning what could have been just another table-and-chairs situation into something with a bit more presence. The bedrooms, on the other hand, dial things down. The master suite is spacious but refreshingly uninterested in showing off. It’s layered with soft materials, muted tones, and the kind of light that makes you linger a little longer. The vaulted ceiling makes a reappearance here too, be...
The Local Project •

William White Emporium by Will Cooper

Long before the William White Emporium took physical form, it lived in Will Cooper’s imagination. Located at 325 Canal Street, the emporium is a wonderland of experiences offering a glimpse into Cooper’s childhood and, evidently, adult dreams. From garments and vintage curiosities to decadent espresso and freshly baked croissants, every corner brims with the brand’s whimsical spirit, where the unexpected feels effortlessly at home. Designed in a relaxed industrial-modern style, the space resembles a serene gallery: clean and white with shiplap walls and sleek metal racks displaying selections that rotate weekly to make room for new collaborators, objects and ideas.
The Local Project •

The Unearthed Collection by Caesarstone

There’s a certain romance to materials that feel discovered rather than designed, and The Unearthed Collection by Caesarstone leans into exactly that mood. It’s a range that steps away from overt polish and, instead, embraces something more grounded – surfaces that carry warmth, texture and a quiet sense of history. The palette moves through earthy tones and softened neutrals, offering a kind of understated richness that feels right at home in contemporary Australian interiors.
Architectural Digest •

This quaint garden café in Bengaluru is housed in a 1980s Art Deco bungalow

Arched openings introduce a softness that offsets the otherwise straightforward layout, giving the rooms a slightly old-world lilt. “There was never a moment where we said, ‘let’s make this look a certain way,’” Shetty reflects. “It was more about allowing the materials to settle into themselves—and letting the space feel like it had aged into its current state.” Hovering above it all is a canopy of rain trees, easily the café’s most compelling feature. Their shifting shadows move across tables...
Architectural Digest India •

This lush, forest-like bungalow in Thrissur, Kerala grows around a mango tree

Ensuring the tree’s roots and branches remained undisturbed was no small feat, but the result feels almost inevitable: the staircase coils around the tree, resolving movement while doubling as a focal point—an architectural gesture that is both theatrical and deeply rooted in the life of the house.For Sharan, a software engineer, the move back to Kerala during the COVID-19 pandemic marked a quiet recalibration of pace and priorities. “My wife is a teacher, and we have two young boys. We are a fa...
Architectural Digest •

This climate-responsive home in Hyderabad is designed to make A/C redundant

Architecture, as any architect will tell you, is in a constant state of reinvention. It tends to move forward—rarely backwards, and almost never in both directions at once. Hyderabad-based architects Vamshidhar Reddy and Mounica Reddy of Iki Builds, however, have never quite subscribed to that way of thinking. Their latest project sits right on that edge: a home in Hyderabad that looks like it belongs to the future, yet is rooted in the wisdom of the past.Built entirely by hand, the spaceship-li...
Domino •

This Circa-1883 Home Had Many Former Lives Before It Became the Coolest House on the Block

Chartres 1883, in Bywater, New Orleans, didn’t start out as a home—it started out as everything else. A hay and feed store. A grocery. A café. A soft drink shop. So when a fifth-generation local millworker and his wife spotted the property in 2022, they didn’t see a fixer-upper—they saw a charming piece of history begging for a second act. The couple fell hard—so much so that they bought the building without plans of ever living in it themselves.


Turns out, luck was on their side. The structu...
Architectural Digest •

Inside a 1,100-square-foot Mumbai apartment that runs on two time zones

They say opposites attract, but interior designers Disha Vakharia and Pria Kanakia of Mumbai-based Bear Spaces know firsthand that sometimes, so can distance. When it came to designing their latest labour of love, a 1,100-square-foot Mumbai apartment, they discovered their clients, Pradeep and Jyoti Shah, a savvy couple in their sixties, couldn’t be more different. One was cheerfully diurnal, the other unapologetically nocturnal, turning the brief into a deft exercise in negotiating two entirely...
Wallpaper* •

In Gujarat, two sapodilla trees shape an entire house

Architects Sönke Hoof and Khushnu Panthaki Hoof have an uncanny gift for noticing the almost invisible – that fleeting detail, or lack thereof, that others might overlook. Yet on a summer’s day not so many years ago, as they left the golden clamour of Ahmedabad, in the Indian state of Gujarat, for the languid green of its hinterland, they arrived at a site that appeared to offer almost nothing at all.Like many such plots on the city’s outskirts – some 30 to 40 minutes away, beyond the tightening...
The Local Project •

Brackenbury & Austin by Studio Shand

Shand committed himself to preserving the past, restoring original brick and timber wherever possible and crafting meticulous elements matching the building’s heritage where he could not. His rule for anything new was simple: it had to feel as though it had always belonged. The old guided the new, with colours, tones and textures – an earthy pastiche of red, yellow and brown – chosen to mirror history. Concrete grounds the lower level, while cork softens the mezzanine with its gentle grain and a...
The Local Project •

Blum’s Expanded REVEGO Range

Designed for the fluidity of contemporary interiors, REVEGO has long enabled entire zones to appear when needed and disappear just as swiftly behind clean, architectural fronts. Now, the system becomes even more capable: it can accommodate front heights from 1,130 millimetres to an impressive 2,980 millimetres, opening up fresh possibilities across projects of every scale.
These expanded height capabilities mean that REVEGO now supports an even broader spectrum of interior applications, while st...
The Local Project •

In Focus: RJ Living

The Sunlit Forms collection by RJ Living speaks to easy coastal style, where sanctuary, relaxation and comfort are key. There’s something about the calm rhythm of the sea that – if not in presence, then certainly in spirit – has a way of grounding us. RJ Living’s latest collection, Sunlit Forms, channels exactly this feeling: an easy, unhurried coastal energy distilled into furniture and forms that evoke stillness, sanctuary and comfort. It’s a range shaped by quiet details, relaxed silhouettes and materials meant to be lived with, inviting moments of pause in the spaces we inhabit every day.
The Local Project •

Narasiri Victoire Krungthep Kreetha by Sansiri

The Modern French Renaissance aesthetic draws inspiration from the Palace of Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV, with buildings featuring high arches, proportioned facades and meticulous detailing. It is the only development within the Krungthep Kreetha Community to feature French-influenced architecture, and this design intention is evident from the street-front, where a formidable 140-metre-wide main gate opens to the baroque grandeur of the Apollo Fountain, with its majestic sculpted ho...
Livingetc •

[Print] Hyderabad: Paper to Pillars

As a young architecture student at New York’s Pratt Institute, Nilasha could scarcely have imagined that she would one day be building houses twice—first out of paper, then in brick and stone. That unlikely reality came true in 2024, when her Hyderabad-based practice, Studio Nilasha, took on a project in the city that demanded a more traditional design language than the studio was used to. Struggling at first to judge the scale and proportions of mouldings and ornamental details, the team resorted to full-scale paper mock-ups. Before long, walls were taped over with balustrades, window grilles and even stained-glass stand-ins, until, as Nilasha jokes, “we accidentally built the entire house in stationery before building it for real.”
The Wall Street Journal •

Tired of Pollen, They Turned Their Porch Into a $250,000 Game-Day Lounge

For most homeowners, it takes years of living in a house—even one they’ve designed themselves—to uncover its quieter drawbacks. That was the case when Bron and Molly Heussenstamm built a $2.2 million custom home on a Memphis, Tenn., family compound.

Molly, 44, is a film and television producer whose credits include “Sicario,” while Bron, 46, is CEO of the sports-media distribution company Bleav; the family also has a home in Los Angeles. Three years after building their Memphis house, they admitted they were losing their battle against pollen, which unfailingly settled into the screened-in porch. In the South in the springtime, “your cars and outdoor furniture can be covered in bright yellow,” says Molly, 44. It was hard to keep the pollen out of the porch, and even harder to keep people in.
The Local Project •

Virgin Active Bondi Westfield by Quattro Architecture with Cosentino

At Westfield Bondi Junction, Virgin Active has unveiled its first global social wellness club – a departure from the traditional gym model and a decisive step towards community-led wellbeing. Designed by Sydney-headquartered Quattro Architecture in collaboration with surfaces company Cosentino, Virgin Active Bondi reimagines the fitness environment as a luxury social destination grounded in ritual, recovery and connection. Material innovation underpins this shift. Central to the project is Dekton, an ultra-compact surface developed by Cosentino through a proprietary process that mirrors the natural metamorphic transformation of stone. The result is a dense, low-porosity surface resistant to heat, moisture and abrasion – attributes particularly suited to wet, high-traffic wellness settings. Carbon neutral and sustainably produced as part of Cosentino’s broader environmental commitments, Dekton enables durability and responsible specification to sit alongside aesthetic refinement.
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 in the chic enclave of Burleigh Heads, the 24-storey hotel comprises studios, suites, private beach houses, a sky house, a bio-wellness spa, event spaces and two podium restaurants. The architecture was helmed by Melbourne-based Fraser & Partners, while the interior design was divided between Studio Carter – a California practice that previously worked on the Mondrian Singapore Duxton – and Sydney’s Alexander &CO. The Barrett Group was entrusted with the fit-out and construction of the two restaurants.
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AD Visits

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