Mumbai is where spatial planning stops being a philosophy and becomes arithmetic. A tower flat in Worli or Bandra has a fixed core and a floor area too expensive to waste; an Art Deco flat near Marine Drive has high ceilings, original details and often a heritage grade to respect. Clients who search for haveli-style interiors here want the warmth of a Jaipur house — lime, carved stone, brass, block print — without surrendering an inch of storage.
The studio is in Jaipur, a two-hour direct flight away, and that is where your flat is designed, its craft commissioned and its fittings bought. The building work is done by a Mumbai contractor and trades put together for the project, and our site lead flies in whenever the work reaches a stage that fixes its quality. We take projects in Mumbai; so far, everything we have built is in Jaipur and Udaipur.
Our built work shows how we treat the surfaces that matter most in a compact home: the ceiling, the wall you face on arrival, and the piece made to measure for an awkward corner.
Most Mumbai flats sit in co-operative housing societies, and under the model bye-laws they follow, no member may make additions or alterations without the managing committee’s written permission. Committees decide at their own meetings, so the application goes in with drawings in the first weeks of design, not the week before work starts. Many societies add conditions of their own: fixed working hours, no work on Sundays and public holidays, a refundable deposit, and rules on lift use and debris.
The municipal line is clear. The BMC treats plastering, painting, changing floor tiles and replacing plumbing or electrical fittings in an approved building as tenantable repairs that need no permission. Changing the structure’s dimensions or removing a structural member or load-bearing wall does need it. In graded heritage buildings, the Heritage Conservation Committee’s clearance can be needed even for repairs.
South Mumbai adds a layer. The Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018, and the Art Deco apartment blocks of Marine Drive sit within its protected precincts. Under the city’s heritage grading, the lower the grade, the more internal change is allowed, so we check a building’s grade before we draw a line.
The monsoon arrives around 10 June and withdraws in the third week of September. July alone brings over 900 mm at Santacruz, and evening humidity sits above 80 per cent through July and August. Plaster, screeds and waterproofing cure badly in that air, so wet trades are planned to finish before June.
Timber needs the most care. Wood takes on moisture from the air and swells, so joinery made in Jaipur’s dry climate will move once it reaches Mumbai. We specify well-seasoned solid timber, leave room for movement in every shutter and panel, and let pieces settle on site before they are fixed. Cane behaves well here; many engineered boards do not.
Salt air is the other constant. Much of the city lies within a few kilometres of the sea, where stainless steel should be at least grade 316; lesser grades stain and pit. Ironmongery and light fittings are specified in solid brass or marine-grade stainless, not thin plated finishes.
Haveli craft suits Mumbai when it works as hard as the joinery. A carved jaali can divide a living room from a study and still borrow light from the window. Hand-painted cabinetry makes a wall of storage the most beautiful thing in the room. Lime plaster on one wall, block print on the upholstery and a small thikri panel where a lamp can catch it give a flat its warmth without taking floor area.
In an Art Deco flat we work the other way round. The building’s own geometry, and its original floors and ironwork where they survive, lead; the craft is chosen to sit beside them — brass that follows the period’s lines, lime finishes in place of plastic paint, furniture made to the room’s proportions rather than a showroom’s.
Who leads design and who runs execution at the studio is explained on the about page. In Mumbai the sequence is built around two calendars, the society’s and the rain’s:
Once the layout is fixed, and well before work is due to start. Under the model bye-laws, the managing committee’s written permission is needed for any addition or alteration, and committees take decisions at their periodic meetings. Expect to submit drawings and a scope of work; many societies also take a refundable deposit, limit working hours and control lift use. If the structure changes, BMC permission is needed as well.
Yes, if the craft is part of the storage and the light rather than added on top: a jaali partition that borrows daylight, a wall of hand-painted cabinetry, a thikri panel above a console, lime plaster on the first wall you see. What a small flat cannot carry is a haveli’s quantity of objects. A compact room needs a restrained palette to feel calm.
It depends on the building’s heritage grade, so that is the first thing we check. Grade III buildings generally allow internal changes; alterations in Grade II buildings need the Heritage Conservation Committee’s approval; Grade I permits almost nothing inside beyond strengthening. In every case we design to keep what makes the flat valuable — its proportions, floors and period detail.
Avoid the wet trades during it. Plastering, screeds and waterproofing need the dry months, and timber arriving in July humidity needs time to settle before fixing. Monsoon weeks are well spent on the society approval and on the part of the job that happens in Jaipur — joinery, jaali, painted panels — so installation can begin as the rain withdraws in late September.
A Mumbai contractor we select and brief for your flat, working to our drawings. Our site lead flies in for each stage that fixes the quality of the flat, and the contractor sends progress to the studio between visits. We say this plainly because we do not keep a standing crew in Mumbai; the team is assembled for each project.