Print Exclusive: Creatures of comfort

Architect and EDIDA winner Puran Kumar’s home blends his own modernist sensibility with a deep fondness for the natural world

14 Nov 2025

Avantika Shankar

Architect Puran Kumar’s Mumbai home is fitted with all the aspirational luxuries of modern living, but nothing lights his face up as much as the bat that lives in the tree outside his bedroom window. The EDIDA winner is clearly very fond of the Prabhakar Kolte artwork that he’s placed at the entrance, and also appears graciously pleased with the way an assortment of Italian branded furniture, sourced at the behest of his team at Studio PKA, has come together in the living room. It is obvious he’s put a lot of thought into his design for his bespoke bar unit, which is a beer barrel, and when he puts on an audiovisual installation by Sameer Kulavoor, it is evident that familiarity has not dulled his admiration for the work. And yet, when he catches a glimpse of the bat perched outside his bedroom window, he can’t help but take a moment to quietly enjoy it. “This house is a window to nature,” he tells me. “Everybody vies for our attention: there are silverbills and parakeets, kingfishers, cuckoos, sparrows, squirrels on the trees. In a city like Mumbai, it is something to be relished.” To that effect, the design of the apartment, with its clean concrete-finish walls, undulating terrazzo floors and swathes of rich teakwood, is a ritual of that relishment. 9PM — the name is a play on the address, and also an allusion to the family’s penchant for hosting — has been home to the Kumars for many years, and recently expanded to include the neighbouring unit as well. The added space allowed for an easier, more open plan; one in which, no matter your vantage point, you are always looking out onto something green. First, there’s the combined living and dining, the heart of the home, that overlooks the green canopies of Worli’s bylanes and the Arabian Sea beyond. “This view is going to go,” he shrugs, “A new construction is coming up there, but we are enjoying this even for a year or so, so we can’t complain.”

“Everybody vies for our attention: there are silverbills and parakeets, kingfishers, cuckoos, sparrows, squirrels on the trees. In a city like Mumbai, it is something to be relished”

Puran Kumar

Both the armchairs, in plush yellow, and the dining chairs in a delectable woven leather, allow for a clean 360 swivel, allowing you to admire the view, chat with another, or meditate on the knots of the exposed brick accent wall as you wish. “There are many lounging experiences,” Puran points out, indicating the moulded marble top on the barrel of the bar unit, perfectly poised at elbow height and specifically designed for leaning. it is unusual for a home to accommodate this sort of “standing comfort” as Puran calls it, but as someone who’s played host to many parties and late-night hangs (and has a cork collection on proud display to prove it) Puran has made provisions for every way he knows the space will be used. What was once the main bedroom became the family’s den, complete with a television screen that recedes into a custom-designed dumb valet in distressed wood. The attached balcony, which had previously been enclosed to accommodate more space, was opened out again so the family could make the most of their sea-facing perch on Worli Hill. “This becomes a sort of adda in the mornings,” shares the architect, “A ritual that’s important for us is to sit together for ten-fifteen minutes in the morning, with our chai or our green tea, and take in the view.” The bedrooms themselves are elegantly simple, spare on embellishment but rich in material texture. The eye cruises over the grains of teakwood and the crusts of concrete, with attention being commanded only by the occasional artwork or decor piece. Maybe there’s an artwork here or an industrial light fixture there, that may command your attention for a while, but for the most part, 9PM, true to its name, is a place that invites you to unwind, no matter the time of day. “On the face of it there’s nothing to this house,” smiles Puran at the end of the tour. “It doesn’t try to inspire a feeling of awe, it is not trying to impress you. it is like my linen shirt. It was designed for comfort.”

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