Villa Uma by Case Design is an understated family home in lush Alibag

Tucked in off the gravel road leading to the village of Satirje, the main house of Villa Uma is a scattered collection of simple forms, each carefully placed. This holiday home for a family has been oriented in response to picturesque views of an introverted garden as well as the distant hills of Kankeshwar in Maharashtra. Spread across a single-acre plot, the house and the facilities provided around it sit neatly around the stunning family pool, a gleaming centrepiece finished in black and white granite.

Villa Uma, named after the matriarch of the clients’ family, was conceived by Samuel Barclay and his team at Case Design in Mumbai. With projects in India, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Case Design is an architecture and design practice committed to exploring the design process through acts of making. In an exclusive interview with STIR, when asked about the brief provided for the project, the team responded, “Mansi and Akshat Poddar are siblings based in Mumbai who provided us with a refreshingly simple project brief. Their vision was clear from the outset: they sought to create a tranquil retreat from the bustling city life of Mumbai for themselves and their family. They wanted a modern Indian vacation home with a generous swimming pool where the natural world could seamlessly weave its way into the fabric of the house.”

True to the requirement, the main complex of the residential architecture is situated amidst a grove of existing mango trees. Constructed from a combination of locally sourced materials, the primitive concrete frame was erected using left-in-place shuttering formed by the interlock of brick and black basalt. The rough-hewn texture of the exterior protects the smooth mottled walls of the softly pigmented interiors as lightweight steel supports the thin corrugated sloping roofs. “The various buildings spread around the site to make up the home are made from locally sourced brick and black basalt and draw inspiration from the vernacular architecture of the region in proportion and form. The simple system of construction reduces the amount of waste and material transport and also ensures that the villa fits in and enhances the beauty of the new and existing landscape,” says the team enthusiastically about the home’s monotone textured exteriors that belies the vibrance of its interiors.

Inside, the walls are all pigmented, mostly in hues of red except for the powder room, which is doused in an exciting emerald green. Each room offers unique perspectives into the surrounding landscape, framed artfully by wooden doors and windows. The organic, earthy feel of the wall tones is a welcome contrast to the largely geometric proportions of smaller design elements such as windows and furniture elements.

With the shell kept minimal, the careful insertions of designer pieces and lighting allow the craftsmanship and design details of the home to shine.

A quick meander to the outside takes one to the swimming pool design, a linear entity clad in black and white granite from Karnataka, leading to an intimate pavilion to the east and two guest houses to the north. Simple stone paving is carefully arranged from the broken basalt waste generated in the construction of the house, a commendable sustainable effort. Connecting each of the structures, these paths seamlessly knit the detached buildings to the pool, garden, and larger landscape of Alibag.

Although the project was begun during the difficult COVID-19 season, the team was able to pull through. They describe the challenges they faced this way: “After a single site visit days just before the quarantine in Mumbai, our team began the design phase while working remotely from various locations. Fluctuating material and labour costs created by the pandemic required creative solutions and project scheduling adjustments. It was our first time working with Elysium Abodes (the primary contractor) which provided both new opportunities for collaboration and adjustments in established working practices for our studio.”

Villa Uma is a study in understated elegance, a symphony of material, colour and texture. With the landscape around it set to reflect controlled chaos, the built environment of the villa architecture allows one to be oneself, without pretence, in the lap of nature.