Almost five decades ago, a young couple—both architects by profession—from Mumbai’s Dadar built their dream weekend house in Kothrud, Pune. They visited it often—first as parents and later as a growing family—before eventually passing it on to their grandchildren. The home is imbued with the spirit of a past in which childhood dreams come true, a different era we wish to hold tightly in the delicate grip of time. This is precisely what principal architect Shrutika Raut of Shrutika Raut Design Studio sought to honour when she was invited to restore this 3,000-square-foot house in Pune—not by renovating it, but by preserving it.
“In a world that rushes to build things, some homes choose to stay,” Shrutika notes poignantly. It truly makes you stop and think. “This was the brief: rooted in simplicity and memory,” she says. “This was never about demolishing the bungalow and its 50-year-old bones, but about preserving it for posterity and reviving its structure with clean, minimal interventions.” She continues, “Just like many modernist homes of that era, which were function-focused, where every space was designed to fulfill its purpose—nothing more or less, neither showy nor excessively forced—here, too, the scale is simple, and so is the design. It takes you down memory lane to your grandmother's place.”
Shrutika’s inspiration is a love letter to an intergenerational family home that doesn’t need reinvention, but rather maintenance anchored in memories. She adds, “This home remembers the past but isn’t held by it. It doesn’t try to be timeless; it simply doesn’t forget. It evolves, like the people who live inside it. And somehow, it already feels like it’s always been yours.” This organic evolution of design coaxes something deeply emotional out of you.
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Building a residence this grounded and free of unnecessary complexities comes with its challenges, and what lies at the heart of this house is a great deal of restraint. From the outside, terracotta stuns visitors with its sun-washed, earthy coating. Unlike concrete, which can be intimidating, terracotta is inviting. “Terracotta red holds the structure together, not just in pigment, but in presence. It’s the colour of earth, of childhood walls, of slow sunsets behind a backyard tree.” It colours the house from the façade to the compound wall. The perforated brick railings play peek-a-boo, orchestrating a dance of light and shadow throughout the day.
The entrance opens into a living room with ample space for both formal and informal seating. The plan flows naturally toward the dining area, guest bedroom, and kitchen, with a direct connection to the backyard. A straight flight staircase leads to the first floor, where bedrooms overlook the terrace while a passageway connects further to the study. This arrangement was accomplished while retaining original elements. “The original terrazzo flooring is properly preserved—each chip is a memory embedded in stone. It is a defining element of design that evokes nostalgia. In contrast, sage green frames the windows and the doorways, a quiet nod to renewal, not reinvention. The white walls summon a quiet routine without demanding attention. Other pieces were also given a new treatment, such as the old louvred windows, railings, and grills. The mid-century modern furniture was restored and reupholstered. Additionally, some items were crafted using wood salvaged from their old home in Mumbai. Together, the layout and materials allow the house to remain both practical and passionately connected to its history,” she says.
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There’s an inherent beauty in homes that evolve naturally without any foundational changes; it carries a certain austerity. A few tweaks to the original structure make it look and feel more lived-in than before. It feels familiar to its new inhabitants while keeping the memories of its original owners intact. That is what this house in Pune—called Vasumati—embodies.
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