Reviving a North Goa home

Studio Tilt meets a publisher couple to weave tropical ease and daylight with nature

16 Oct 2025

Some homes feel designed. While some feel written — like a long-harboured vision gently taking shape at last. While their city lives are dedicated to tome-like manuscripts and chock-full calendars, Hemali Sodhi (Founder, A Suitable Agency) and Ananth Padmanabhan’s (Chief Executive Officer, HarperCollins Publishers India) 1,500 sq ft Goan retreat breathes quietude and birdsong. Natasha Kumar and Abhijit Sawant, Principal Architects at Studio Tilt, design this chapter, with the dwelling set in Siolim’s alleys.

“This is a tropical refuge for two people who saw their lives playing out surrounded by what they love most: books, animals and nature. The house sits on an 8,000 sq ft plot and shares its compound with the Welfare for Animals In Goa. The home’s inhabitants far surpass Ananth and Hemali in attendance, with rescued dogs, cats, ducks, and exotic birds visiting often,” says Natasha.

"The home’s inhabitants far surpass Ananth and Hemali in attendance, with rescued dogs, cats, ducks, and exotic birds visiting often”

- Natasha, Studio Tilt

GROUND ZERO

Abhijit illustrates how the studio laid the groundwork, “This project is part restoration and part extension. It was once a single-bedroom unit housing a makeshift living area with glass partitions. We reconfigured the layout to create a two-bedroom residence with integrated living, dining, and kitchen spaces.” Natasha adds, “While redefining connections within was of utmost importance, we ensured that the home’s relationship with the outdoors was preserved — we added to the existing landscape, introduced grass mounds, and a lily pond that strengthened its sanctuary-like persona. The pace of life, proximity to nature, and the joy they felt here were the real luxuries to the homeowners.”

An open-plan layout allows light to take centre stage within the home’s core. Newly installed teak rafters guide the eye towards the soaring internal volumes; Photography by Manthan Yadav

Customised coffee tables sit are accompanied by a brass accent table from Jaypore; Photography by Manthan Yadav

A VERDANT WELCOME

A pergola laced with bougainvillaea vines frames the residence — its fuchsia blooms the only stroke of colour amidst the greens. The raised plinth lends the home an illusion of being adrift, held gently between the sky and land. Against the verdure of frangipani, jasmine, palm, and mango trees, the built form feels monastic: its shiplap-style walls crowned by Mangalore tiles rendered in a light grey hue. “Our selection of raw finishes was intentional,” Abhijit states, “to accept the imperfections as a choice and not a compromise.”

In the dining area, the locally crafted wooden dining table pairs fittingly with the bamboo and metal chairs by Living Shapes. Glass and metal lights by Whispering Homes levitate over the nook; Photography by Manthan Yadav

A HOME WITH MANY PURPOSES

Standing at the threshold, the eye is drawn through the home’s core and beyond to the rear verandah, revealing the porous quality of the open floor plan as daylight streams through the windows and skylights. In the living room, the couple’s sea of spines plays muse. It seemed only right, the Architects express, “This is possibly only one-tenth of their book collection. To celebrate their love for reading, we lined the space’s edges with teak shelves, their finish the same honeyed hue of the new wood rafters that replaced the timeworn ones.”

The furniture choices lean toward pieces with minimal silhouettes, keeping views unobstructed. The day beds are reminiscent of plush diwans, creating an inviting anchor point within. “The living room is our favourite spot. We have a clear view of the front garden and the rear verandah. Here, there’s ample light and space to create comfortable reading nooks,” Ananth adds.

The greenery dotting the site feels animated after Goan showers. The residence emerges as a white-hued beacon from within the verdant envelope; Photography by Manthan Yadav

Hosting outdoor furniture by Devoko, the front verandah is where the couple greets their friends from the animal shelter. The terrazzo wall lights are creations from Spellbound by KayJay; Photography by Manthan Yadav

HEARTH AND HEART

The dining area’s bamboo and metal chairs, paired with the petite wooden table, are designed to be carried outdoors on a whim for an alfresco meal. Awash in eastern light, the kitchen is infused with Goan charm. The trick? “To only introduce what’s necessary, keeping it true to character,” Natasha notes. Grey micro-concrete, a suave band of subway tiles, and warm laminates script a visual which seemingly emerges from the uninterrupted floors.

The guest bathroom is a grey cocoon, its glass-lined roof framing the sun, rain, and foliage. Celebrating raw textures, the basin and counter are made in concrete in situ; Photography by Manthan Yadav

The raised plinth gives the home a sense of levitation, gently suspending it between the expansive skies and lush greenery; Photography by Manthan Yadav

A TROPICAL CALLING

Perched along the residence’s front, the master bedroom savours a view of the garden and verandah that welcome a steady retinue of neighbours from the animal shelter. “From the entire brood of dogs coming over for a snack, to the ducks visiting the lawn after the rains, each visit entails a story,” reminisces Hemali.

Natural light, cementitious floors, and nature-inspired motifs conspire to ease one into an unhurried state of mind; Susegad, as the locals call it. The bedroom’s backdrop comprises a forest-scape wallpaper with a four-posted bed commanding the room’s heart. For their boarding visitors, hours drift gently within the guest bedroom’s walls, a luminous space defined by accents of distressed wood and a shell tempered in white.

This abode is less about creating an escape but more about announcing a tender arrival — a new chapter written each time the couple cracks open a window, retrieves a book from the shelves, and invites nature in like an old friend.