PORBANDAR

WRAPPED IN HAND-HEWN LIMESTONE BRICKS, EVOLVED AND EXPANDED OVER DECADES, AND FINALLY GIVEN POETIC SHAPE BY CHANN A DASWATTE, JAY MEHTA'S FAMILY SOME HOME IN PORBANDAR, GUJARAT, HOUSES OF HIS MOST ECLECTIC ART COLLECTION.

- DEEPTHI SASIDHARAN

Close to the city of Porbandar, Gujarat, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, and in proximity to the ancient green hills of Barda lie the limestone mines of Ranavav.

Art collector and entrepreneur Jay Mehta's grandfather established cement factories here in 1956 and the family home, Hill Bungalow, stands on the highest point of an undulating landscape. When the house needed expansion, Mehta turned to eminent architect Channa Daswatte to redesign his home.

Mehta has a deep interest in design, architecture, and a passion for art. Daswatte is an architect but also an intrepid cultural diplomat with projects that span across India, the Middle East, and Africa. Former collaborators in several other international projects, the two share a common shared sensibility of restraint, beauty, and utility.

"This has always been a house in evolution.

In the early '80s when I came to work and stay at Saurashtra Cement, it was a house with essentially two bedrooms. It expanded variously over the next decade and evolved with more rooms, but I was unhappy with it till I invited Channa to look at it. What you see today is the house that he designed," says Mehta.

Daswatte reminisces, "When I first came to Porbandar and saw the stacked bricks of limestone that constitute the local architecture, that image stayed in my mind.