SIBLING REVELRIES

Vishakha Dholakia who co-partners S.Alt Studio with Muninder Cowdhry designs a sprawling home for her sister that frames the seas and skies in a high rise apartment in Mumbai

- SHRITI DAS

Here’s the thing about siblings, they could be best friends or arch rivals, but there’s nothing that a pair of resolute siblings cannot accomplish, all with a story to tell. Three decades ago, Vishakha Dholakia’s elder sister, who was studying medicine at the time, remarked that her younger sibling should study architecture. Because, “She looked the part!” Cut to present day, the prophecy stands true as Vishakha walks us through her sister’s expansive home in Mumbai, the third that she has designed for ‘Diddee’, as she fondly calls her. “For me, this house was my own baby, it was like designing my own house,” she declares. Vishakha helms the boutique architecture and design firm S.Alt Studio with partner Muninder Chowdhry. Both were also the face and brains behind popular series Small Budget Big Makeover. But unlike a typical project, this one had no brief! “That’s a part of the reason why the home has turned out the way it has. Our design direction was user-based. We knew their lifestyle and schedule and had to work around the same,” says Vishakha. The 5,880 sq ft space as it stands today is an amalgamation of two standalone apartments that combines the best of disparate worlds.