A single-storey villa at night, its timber doors open onto a lamp-lit living room beside the pool

Interior architecture · Mumbai, Alibaug & Goa

Residences and retreats, composed in light.

Private homes, boutique hospitality and bespoke furniture, designed and built by one studio, from the first sketch to the last lamp.

Begin a project View the work

14years in practice
120+residences
18hotels & restaurants

Portrait of Meher Solenne Rao, founder and principal architect

The studio

A house should feel inevitable, as if it was always meant to be there.

Meher Solenne Rao founded the studio in 2012 after a decade in London. Today we are eleven architects and designers and a site team of six, working from Lower Parel with satellite studios in Alibaug and Assagao. Every commission is led by a partner from the first site visit to the day we hand you the keys.

“A room is only finished when it works at seven in the morning and at seven at night.”

Meher Solenne RaoFounder & principal architect · B.Arch (CEPT), M.Arch (AA London)

What we do

Five disciplines, one hand.

A two-storey modern residence lit from within at dusk

IArchitecturalNew-build villas and second homes, planned around the plot, the sun and the view.Enquire

A living room with a bottle-green wall, leather sofa and green velvet ottoman

IIResidentialApartments and family homes, designed room by room, joinery to cushions.Enquire

A lounge with a backlit fluted timber wall and a long banquette

IIICommercialOffices, showrooms and members’ lounges that carry the warmth of a home.Enquire

An open timber-roofed hotel lobby with lanterns, rattan chairs and patterned tiles

IVHospitalityBoutique hotels, restaurants and bars, from concept to FF&E and opening night.Enquire

A fluted brass table lamp on a deep teal velvet banquette

VBespoke furniturePieces drawn for the room and made in our Mumbai workshop, in brass, timber and velvet.Enquire

A boutique hotel courtyard at blue hour, with lanterns along the arcade and a still pool — “The best rooms are the ones you remember after dark.”Casa Assagao, Goa · the courtyard at blue hour

Selected work

Recent projects

Private residences and small hospitality projects, each designed from a sun study of the actual site.

A glazed living pavilion lit at dusk beside a plunge pool — **Alibaug Coastal Villa**New build & interiors · 640 m² · 2025

Double-height living room with tall windows over the city at dusk — **Worli Penthouse**Full interior · 310 m² · 2025

View through tall timber doors into a lamp-lit drawing room — **Bandra Bungalow**Restoration · 480 m² · 2024

A dining room with a turned timber lamp beside steel-framed windows onto a garden — **Casa Assagao, Goa**Boutique hotel · 14 keys · 2024

A bottle-green velvet banquette beneath a gilt-framed mirror — **Juhu Residence**Renovation · 260 m² · 2023

Walkthroughs

Step inside, room by room.

Three finished projects, photographed in the order you would walk through them, from the front door to the last room.

Primary bath in black marble and fluted walnut

Alibaug · 5 rooms

The Coastal Villa

Penthouse bedroom with a silver-leaf headboard wall

Worli · 4 rooms

The Penthouse

A low-lit private dining room with dark timber walls

Goa · 5 spaces

Casa Assagao

Our method · the sun study

See a room at every hour before it’s built.

This is the living pavilion from our Alibaug villa. Move the sun to see where morning and evening light fall, then try different finishes on the floor, wall, island and column.

17:30

2,700 K · alt 23°

Detail · window dressing

Soft light, by design.

A sheer of washed linen turns hard afternoon sun into an even glow without closing the room off. Draw it across the window and watch how much light reaches the floor.

Fabric: Washed linen voile, 110 gsm
Made to measure: Ripple-fold heading, 3–4 weeks

Detail · the material library

Hold it up to the light.

Texture only shows when light skims across a surface. Move the lamp over four of our samples and watch the trowel marks, the grain, the weave and the pores stand up.

Lime plasterHand-trowelled, two coats

Oiled walnutRift-sawn veneer, hard-wax oil

Washed linenUpholstery weight, 340 gsm

Saddle leatherVegetable-tanned, full grain

Move the lamp across the samplesTap or slide along the samples

How we work

From first visit to handover in four stages.

You’ll know the scope, fee and timeline of each stage before it starts, and you can stop after any of them.

I
Consultation
A site visit, your brief and budget, and a first sun reading of the plot or apartment.
Week 1
II
Concept & sun study
Layouts, a material palette and the light study you saw above, presented in the studio.
Weeks 2–5
III
Detailing & procurement
Construction drawings, joinery, lighting plans and every item specified and ordered.
Weeks 6–12
IV
Site & handover
Our site team builds it, styles it and walks you through a finished, snag-free home.
Months 4–9