“Mumbai’s Assemblage of Hanging Garden Homes”

Swapnalok at Nepean Sea Road in Mumbai, one of our most notable residential projects, continues to celebrate nature in the midst of a bustling city. Completed in 1978, the 5-storey, terraced building houses fifteen 278-sq.m apartments stacked horizontally –– the roof of the apartment on the lower floor acting as a garden for the upper one. A marked departure from the vertical stacking prototype common in contemporary metropolises, this approach means that each apartment has access to an additional outdoor space of 232 sq.m, framing scenic views of the sea.

Spaces within homes weave through rooms, and in one way or another open up onto a terrace. Balcony to balcony, or terrace to terrace, spaces are filtered with light and are moulded to serve the different functional requirements in a house. Our design was a response to the contoured site and worked within the constraints of affordability –– the built form was constructed along the slope of the site, minimizing the need for cut-and-fill and integrating the structure within the natural environment.