This Goa holiday villa redesigned by Studio Momo is at one with the coastal landscape

Moments before the jungle dissolves into the ocean in east Goa, is a home that crowns the cliffside. With the tide on one side and tropical undergrowth on the other, it serves as an interlude between the earth and the deep, tipping its hat to the sunshine and the shoreline in equal measure. Of course, its light and breezy air hasn’t always been so.

When Meetu Akali, founder and principal architect of Goa-based Studio Momo, first took up its (re)design reins, the charm of the 4,000-square-foot property — designed by veteran architect Dean D’Cruz in 2006 — had long faded. And its Bengaluru-based owners, who had purchased it as a holiday villa many years prior, couldn’t quite fathom its future.

“The homeowners wanted to use the villa as a holiday home to escape their busy city lives. By the time they approached me, they had considered purchasing one of the many available luxury homes in Goa, but realised that not many were able to match the breathtaking sea view they already had,” says Meetu. The obvious solution, then, was to bring the existing villa back to life, while keeping one foot firmly in the original architectural blueprint. 

In the hands of Dean, the villa had been conceived in a contemporary Goan style in exposed laterite stone. “The fact that it was built across multiple levels on a cliff was extremely special. Laterite helps the building breathe and creates a brilliant textured canvas for the walls. We retained the texture of the exposed laterite wherever possible and painted directly over it to achieve a country-style charm,” says Meetu, who also committed to preserving stone treatments in other ways. “Dean had specified locally available stone for the walls, arched lintels and niches, using a hand-rendered technique uncommon in today’s times. We decided to restore these treatments,” she adds.

Divided between two floors, the villa comprises a living room, a dining room, a kitchen and four bedrooms. And while the renovation mirrors the original home in room count, it doesn’t do so in layout. For good reason. As people who enjoy sharing quiet, intimate moments with family, the homeowners needed plenty of convivial spaces for gathering. What resulted was a smorgasbord of cosy realms. The kitchen lost a wall to gain a half-indoor, half-outdoor breakfast counter. The floating deck was outfitted with a dining area and built-in barbecue. And the rooms lining it were updated with sofas that would afford a front-row seat to the ocean.

Most evenings, when the sun filters through the curtains and the breeze lingers longer than expected, it’s unclear where, or whether, the shoreline ends and the built form begins. “I wanted to tread lightly and retain the charm of the original design as much as possible,” shares Meetu. And so, in a bid to keep the sea front and centre, she introduced interventions that would give it pride of place: a cantilevered wooden deck was added to project an indoor-outdoor sanctuary, while glass sliding doors frame equal vistas of the woodland and the waves. Likewise, the living and dining areas, originally on two separate floors, were consolidated, to create a feeling of continuity. 

Despite these overhauls, Meetu worked to honour the home’s original hallmarks. “The villa had a sloping roof with skylights for natural light to filter through and for hot air to escape. It was a very interesting detail introduced by Dean, pointed at maintaining the interior microclimate,” she explains of retaining this feature.

Perhaps it’s the calm air, or the way the colours, materials and textures freewheel like kites from room to room. Whatever it is, there’s no denying that the villa feels comfortably local. The original red laterite walls, refreshed in pristine coats of white, serve as an imperfect counterpoint to the gleaming terrazzo floor. Almost everything is sourced from within the state: the ceramic plate mural in the living room—designed by Meetu in collaboration with dear friend and ceramics maestro Thomas Louis of Banana Pottery, Goa—is a classic case in point. Imprinted with leaves from native Goan trees, its colours hold a mirror to the sea, sand and red earth of the sunshine state. Likewise, the bedrooms hark to the seaside, their statement cerulean-patterned flooring echoing the abiding blueness of the waves. 

Antique curiosities, sourced during Meetu’s travels, peep out from here and there, some presenting in more curious avatars than others. In the foyer, a centuries-old wooden food storage unit with inlay mirror work, originally from Gujarat, masquerades as an entrance console, while on the deck, a traditional wheat grinder from Rajasthan channels a coffee table. Equally, in the living room and primary bedroom, old mirrors and wooden pounders are reimagined as large-scale candles. Meetu’s upcycling efforts were not limited to objets d’art alone: the blanched doors and windows, fashioned from reclaimed Burma teak wood, each whisper of a past life.

For Meetu, the project isn’t just a project. It’s an ode to the Goan soil, sea and sun, “I remember one evening, when we were just completing the house and doing the final deep-cleaning and set up, I slipped away to the deck to say a little prayer of gratitude. When I opened my eyes, I realised I was surrounded by my entire team: assistants, contractors, technicians, deep cleaners, gardeners. They were all sipping their chai and watching the sun disappear. Together. In silence. It was humbling and uplifting to know that one project could mean so much to so many!” 

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