An open-plan Goan home and studio set on a hillside

Love at First Site

Both are alumni of the National Institute of Design (NID) who left big-city careers over a decade ago in search of a slower life in Goa. They initially rented a 100-year-old house in the village of Moira, a charmingly imperfect home that taught them to embrace informality and fluid living. By 2014 they stumbled on this hillside plot in Olaulim, dotted with mature trees and bordered by quiet backwaters and knew it was the spot to build their own home. “It was unlike anything we had seen elsewhere with its view and its location in a quiet corner of the village… the slope, the trees, everything felt brilliant at first sight,” says Anindya. “We knew then. This is it. This is the one.”

Roots Before Roofs

In designing the new house, they treated the panoramic vista of the Mandovi river’s backwaters as “the dessert, not the main course,” says Garima. Having lived for a decade in the old Goan house, the couple had learned to tune their lives to the rhythm of the local climate and landscape. With monsoon rains pounding for nearly four months a year and fierce sun in the dry season, the new house had to go beyond just looking at the view; it needed to offer shelter, ventilation and a seamless indoor-outdoor connection year-round.

Designing for Goa’s climate was equally deliberate. The house is oriented to catch prevailing breezes and shield against the harshest sun. Most windows are kept small and placed to facilitate cross-ventilation without inviting in too much heat. Since the Roys made the bold choice to forgo air-conditioning entirely, the building relies on its thick laterite stone walls, high ventilated ceilings and the cooling effect of the surrounding trees and water bodies to stay comfortable. Over the last year or so, the couple has also added bamboo chicks on windows to filter glare and lightened the roof to reflect heat. 

When the Living’s Easy  

The heart of the home is the open kitchen with an oversized dining table, which flows into a free-form living space. “We don’t have a couch in the house and we don’t have expensive rugs,” says Garima. Instead of conventional sofas and armchairs, the Roys prefer an ever-changing assortment of easy chairs, floor cushions and diwans that can be moved around. Flexibility is built into the layout and furniture in the rest of the house too. Other than a few wardrobes, there are virtually no built-in fixtures. This was a conscious choice to allow rooms to change function as needed.

The laid-back feel is very much by design. “I think that we are slightly informal people,” says Garima. The decor reflects a creative couple at home: custom-made lights and furniture prototypes from their studio find places alongside well-worn books, potted plants and art collected over the years. In the living room, which sits directly above the couple’s bedroom, there is currently a simple cloth screen for privacy and dividing the spaces; Garima plans to replace it with one she will paint herself, filling its panels with motifs from all three of their childhoods.

The couple’s parents have playfully chided them about the lack of a sofa set or a “proper” drawing room, but Garima and Anindya can’t imagine having one. As one friend exclaimed after house-sitting for them, “It’s very you.” That simple statement is perhaps the highest compliment—the house is an authentic reflection of their personalities.

A Portfolio You can Walk Through

Designing and building Olaulim House has been more than just a personal project for Garima and Anindya Roy; it has been a transformative journey in their professional lives as well. “Having gone through the whole design exercise, building it, living in this house—and also garnering some appreciation from everyone who’s visited—we felt a degree of reassurance that we could take on more architectural projects together,” says Anindya. “What it has done for our profession is set a canvas that shows what we value in design, what we hold important in our way of living,” he continues. Instead of having to spell out their design philosophy in words or portfolios, they can simply point to their home.