NAME TO KNOW - Golda Periera

With much of her work rooted in restoration and adaptive reuse, architect Golda Pereira rediscovers the joy and glory of Goa's heritage structures

- VAISHNAVI NAYEL TALAWADEKAR

As a child growing up in Goa, Golda Pereira would summer at her dad's ancestral home on the island of Divar, along with all her cousins. "We'd spend our days playing in the village, fishing, and walking through the dusty summer fields. At night, we'd sit together on a long dining table for dinner, and then convene in the balcao to exchange stories," she remembers. But the highlight of those annual vacations was a makeshift hut, or homti, that the cousins would build in the backyard, along with some help from their uncles. "Every year, we'd build it at the start of summer, and take it down before the monsoons arrived," she recalls, adding that as the years progressed, the homtis became more complex, and the cousins would try to outdo themselves every summer.