More or Less

AS SPACES SHRINK AND ECO-AWARENESS RISES, URBAN INDIANS ARE EMBRACING MINIMALIST DESIGN

- By SAYONI BHADURI

There is a hush settling over India's most stylish homes. A quiet luxury that shimmers across lime-plastered walls, the grain of teak, and the scent of raw wood and linen. It is not austerity masquerading as design; it is a distinctly Indian aesthetic awakening. Minimalism, long celebrated abroad, has arrived home—not imported from Scandinavia or Japan, but born of India's own sensibilities, where poetry is found in restraint and meaning in materials that have always been ours. Indian minimalism is its own originality. Minimalism is primarily seen as having less things and a space that is not as cluttered. It doesn't necessarily mean cutting back on colour or texture.

The concept isn't new to India-it's intrinsic. From monasteries in Ladakh to the earthy austerity of South Indian agraharams, our architectural vocabulary was shaped by climate, craft, and clarity. Today, that sensibility is being rediscovered, albeit with a global polish.