Set in India's revered Sahyadri mountains of Igatpuri, Maharashtra region, fringed by dense forest and overlooking the serene Mukane Dam, Villa Prakriti offers more than conventional architecture. It is a quaint biophilic country house that seems to breathe with the rhythm of nature. Designed by unTAG and completed in 2024, this extraordinary home takes its rightful name from the Sanskrit word ‘Prakriti,’ meaning ‘Mother Nature’—and lives up to this reverent title in its every considered detail.
Villa Prakriti offers more than an architectural spectacle. It is an audacious manifesto for the future of human habitation, as the world increasingly gets dominated by concrete jungles and artificial environments. It dissolves the boundaries between the inside and the outside, creating a seamless link between human needs and ecological awareness when it comes to contemporary living. This dwelling shows that people need not pick between modern comfort and natural connection, but rather combine them.
The Seed of Villa Prakriti’s Natural Integration
The villa’s first seed of thought sprouted under an existing lone mango tree, which formed the instinctual nucleus—the axis mundi. This beginning speaks to the central principle underlying Villa Prakriti's conception: instead of imposing an artificial structure upon the landscape, the architects chose to let nature guide their design process. The mango tree, standing sentinel, became the spiritual and physical center around which the entire home was built.
This forested haven seeks to more than mimic nature; to live in its likeness—to be adaptive, procreative, and rooted—a distinction that remains crucial to understanding what makes Villa Prakriti exceptional. The design team pursued a deeper integration that allows the building to function as nature does—organically, responsively, and symbiotically with its environment—rather than superficially copying natural forms or patterns.
The approach to topography exemplifies this philosophy perfectly. Instead of flattening the ground into terraces, the house treads gently along it—a minimal cut-fill philosophy respecting the natural gradient. This decision transforms navigation through the home into what the architects describe as ‘an act of choreography, negotiating levels and unravelling spaces.’ Essentially, each step through Villa Prakriti mirrors the experience of walking through a natural forest where there are many surprises awaiting to unfold.
Sensory Immersion Through Biophilic Design
Villa Prakriti engages all the senses. It creates what can only be described as a total biophilic experience. One can practically feel the breath of the forest within and around the home through its different biophilic gestures, be it visual, olfactory, or auditory. This approach ensures that inhabitants do not just observe nature from within the confines of their homes, but are also active, immersed participants in the natural ecosystem around them.
The visual connection to nature is perhaps the most immediately apparent biophilic element. Large openings and strategically placed windows frame views of the surrounding forest and distant mountains, creating panoramic views that change with the seasons, weather, and time of day. These visual connections reduce stress and enhance mental well-being while maintaining the psychological benefits that humans derive from regular contact with natural environments.
The biophilic experience offers more. The home's design allows for the natural sounds of the forest—bird calls, rustling leaves, and flowing water—to penetrate the living spaces, creating an acoustic environment that promotes relaxation and mindfulness. Similarly, the strategic positioning of openings ensures that natural fragrances from flowering plants and the earthy scents of the forest soil waft through the home, engaging the olfactory senses even better than artificial air fresheners.
Material Authenticity and Earthy Aesthetics
Symbolic of an earthy creature born from the Sahyadris' fertile soil, the home’s terracotta shades give birth to various green offspring. This captures the essence of Villa Prakriti's material palette, which draws directly from the earth itself. The choice of materials shows a rich understanding of biophilic principles, acknowledging that humans have an innate affinity for nature, natural textures, colors, and materials.
The designers deliberately decided to extensively use local brick to instill warmth and tactility, which has many purposes. From a sustainability perspective, it reduces the carbon footprint associated with transportation while supporting local economies. From a biophilic standpoint, these materials carry the essence of the local landscape, creating an authentic connection between the built environment and its natural context.
The terracotta hues that dominate the exterior create a seamless visual transition between the built structure and the earth upon which it sits. These warm, earthy tones complement the greens of the surrounding vegetation while emphasizing the rich, iron-rich soils characteristic of the Western Ghats region; thus, the building appears to have grown from the landscape rather than being erected there.
Climate-Responsive Design for Natural Comfort
The villa’s biophilic design also incorporates functional elements that work in harmony with natural systems. Habitable spaces are cross-ventilated, ensuring year-round thermal comfort, while the clay tile roofs ensure the natural escape of hot air. This natural climate control approach shows how biophilic principles can create comfortable living environments without excessive reliance on mechanical systems.
Its cross-ventilation strategy takes advantage of the natural wind patterns in the Sahyadri mountains, creating cooling breezes that flow through the home, providing a passive cooling system that not only reduces energy consumption but also provides the psychological benefits associated with natural air movement—a gentle sensation of breezes that connect occupants to the atmospheric conditions outside.
The clay tile roofing system is also part of the climate-responsive design. Clay tiles have been used in the region for centuries, proving their effectiveness in the local climate. They provide excellent thermal mass, absorbing heat during the day and releasing it slowly at night, which helps to moderate interior temperatures. The natural escape route for hot air ensures that heat does not accumulate in the upper levels of the home, maintaining comfort without air conditioning.
Integration of Green Living Systems
Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of Villa Prakriti's biophilic design is its integration of living plant systems throughout the architecture. The home features planting designed to reflect a deep reverence for nature, with vegetation being an integral part of the architectural composition and not just part of the decoration.
The vegetation has numerous purposes within the biophilic framework. They help to purify the air naturally, regulate humidity levels, and provide the psychological benefits associated with daily interaction with plants. The presence of growing, changing vegetation ensures that the home remains dynamic and alive, changing with the seasons and years, unlike when static materials are used.
The integration of planting also helps to diminish the boundaries between interior and exterior spaces, creating seamless transitions that reinforce the connection to the natural environment. Gardens, courtyards, and planted terraces form outdoor spaces that extend the main living space while maintaining direct contact with the earth and sky.
For its design, the villa’s spatial configuration splits into two wings around the mango tree—one public, and one private, plugged through the mango court. The home is accessed through a meandering entrance stair, orchestrating a measured rise through a tropical green thicket. The stairs land on a brick-floored entrance canopy, greeted by the mango tree, dappled by filtered light through a bamboo pergola. This is envisaged as a transient threshold connecting front and rear landscapes.
The opening to the south is protected by a 10-deep verandah, ending as a trapezoidal pool framing the Sahyadris. Its defining element is the organic planter-bed, which forms into a built-in seat, with an elliptical skylight above. A sculptural indoor spiral stair, born through another thicket of greens, leads one to the upper bedroom. The other three bedrooms constituting the private wing are bestridden at three levels, negotiated by outdoor stairs, still interspersed with greens.
A Model for Sustainable Living
Villa Prakriti presents a model for how humans can live in greater harmony with the natural world, with its biophilic design elements offering an approach that recognizes the mutual benefits of sustainable human-nature relationships. The home's effectiveness in actualizing these principles lies in its environmental performance, just as much as its ability to enhance human well-being through deliberate design.
This villa creates an environment that supports both physical and psychological health. And blending into its natural surroundings, it substantiates the idea that biophilic designs create spaces that are innovative and timeless, luxurious and sustainable, and modern and rooted in nature.
Photography by Pranit Bora (pranitborastudio).
