SEAS THE DAY

With stucco walls, vibrant sea-inspired floors and an air that whispers to the breeze, this Goa holiday villa, redesigned by Studio Momo, is one with the coastal landscape

- VAISHNAVI NAYEL TALAWADEKAR

Moments before the jungle dissolves into the ocean in east Goa, is a home that crowns the cliffside. With the tide on one side and tropical undergrowth on the other, it serves as an interlude between the earth and the deep, tipping its hat to the sunshine and the shoreline in equal measure. Of course, its light and breezy air hasn’t always been so. When Meetu Akali, founder and principal architect of Goa-based Studio Momo, first took up its (re)design reins, the charm of the 4,000-square-foot property — designed by veteran architect Dean D’Cruz in 2006 — had long faded. And its Bengaluru-based owners, who had purchased it as a holiday villa many years prior, couldn’t quite fathom its future.

“The homeowners wanted to use the villa as a holiday home to escape their busy city lives. By the time they approached me, they had considered purchasing one of the many available luxury homes in Goa, but realised that not many were able to match the breathtaking sea view they already had,” says Meetu. The obvious solution, then, was to bring the existing villa back to life, while keeping one foot firmly in the original architectural blueprint.