Two centenarian anchors define life outdoors. A banyan tree, over a hundred years old, shelters what the family calls the Buddha Deck, while a mango tree stands proudly over the front lawn. Inside, this Alibag home is organised as a series of connected volumes rather than a single enclosed mass. The outdoor deck forms a gentle threshold between interior and garden. Overlooking the pool, it becomes a favoured gathering space as evening sets in, the air scented with jasmine. The living and dining pavilion sits as a distinct unit, linked to the rest of the house by a pool and open courtyard, allowing light, air, and reflection to move freely through the plan. The idea, inspired directly by Alibag’s raw coastline and natural beauty, was to bring the outdoors indoors through material, texture, and spatial flow rather than overt gesture.
Original text by Nadezna Siganporia, edited for context.
A Traditional Courtyard Home In Hampi
Krishna Tangirala
Shama Pawar’s first trip to Hampi was a gift from her father. What the painter didn’t know then was that she had walked into a dreamland that would, eventually, not let her walk away. Four years later, in 1995, Pawar and her artist husband Adam Shapiro moved permanently into the fortified village of Anegundi to build their home in Hampi. Pawar’s home and workspace too are deeply anchored to this ethos of community. In the tradition of village dwellings in southern India, her four bedroom house has a central courtyard that’s open to the sky. Surrounded by lemon orchards, the house is a testament to the practice and impact of craft traditions as well as nature’s abundance, which sustains the output.
Krishna Tangirala
Krishna Tangirala
Pawar’s abiding love for trees is almost a tangible substance in her living space. Mats loaded with harvests of sesame, gongura flowers, and vaijanti seeds are laid out to dry in the sun. Brass vessels and glass bottles filled with lush leaves, reeds, stalks of wild berries, grass, bougainvillea twigs, and fragrant flowers adorn various corners. Outside, tall trees of sandalwood, bakul, frangipani and bauhinia susurrate with many others, drawing a steady traffic of bees, butterflies and birds all day. Far removed from the urbane under standing of development, Anegundi is a village that has survived and thrived on the tenets of sustainability. For Pawar, Anegundi is also the most precious gift she has ever received in her life from the person she loved the most—her father. It’s not surprising then that it’s a gift that keeps on giving.
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