Some homes are designed to accommodate everyday life, while others are created to nurture relationships, preserve memories and celebrate togetherness. ANTRIYA, a thoughtfully conceived weekend retreat in the tranquil village of Muchintal on the southern outskirts of Hyderabad, is one such home. Designed by Ar. Srikanth Reddy and Ar. Neelesh Kumar, Principal Designers, 23 Degrees Design Shift, the residence transcends the idea of a conventional holiday home, offering three generations of a joint family a place to reconnect with one another and with nature.
The journey began in 2021, when brothers Sachin Agarwal and Nitin Agarwal envisioned creating a family retreat away from the bustle of city life. Instead of allowing the design process to begin with plans and spatial layouts, the architects chose to start with conversations. Every member of the family was encouraged to contribute to a written brief that went beyond functional requirements to include cherished memories, personal aspirations and shared experiences. These narratives became the foundation of a home that is as much an emotional sanctuary as it is an architectural response to its site.
Those conversations revealed a family rooted in togetherness. The retired parents continue to mentor their sons in both family life and the businesses they manage—from steel to jewellery—while the younger generation stands on the threshold of adulthood, eager to explore the world. The home, therefore, needed to become more than a weekend getaway; it had to evolve into an emotional landscape where memories could be revisited and new traditions could unfold.
Situated on a narrow five-acre site, the property is accessed from its eastern edge, while the house occupies the western portion where the terrain offered relatively clear ground free of sheet rock and large boulders. A mature peepal tree (Ficus religiosa), preserved near the arrival court, establishes an immediate sense of place and anchors the architecture within the landscape.
“Rather than imposing itself upon the land, the approach unfolds gradually. A curvilinear driveway negotiates existing boulders and exposed rock formations, creating a journey rather than a simple arrival. Low vision-blocking walls deliberately conceal the house, heightening anticipation until visitors finally reach the drop-off beneath the peepal tree,” explains Ar. Srikanth Reddy.
Further adding his insights, Ar. Neelesh Kumar says, “The landscape itself becomes an extension of family memory. A grape garden recalls childhood weekends the brothers spent harvesting fruit with their grandparents. Sports nets and an ATV mud track cater to the younger generation, while a semiopen outdoor kitchen accommodates large family celebrations. Existing boulders are transformed into a dramatic rock garden accented with desert palms and bougainvillea—a subtle reminder of the family’s Mediterranean travels. Carefully distributed guest parking and discreetly positioned staff quarters ensure the retreat remains both functional and private.”
At the heart of this home lies an architectural language of remarkable restraint. The house is organised through three linear stone walls that establish movement, privacy and intimacy without overwhelming the landscape.
The first stone wall begins at the arrival court, guiding visitors along a floating pathway towards the semi-open verandah while simultaneously screening the swimming pool. Privacy for the pool emerged as one of the family’s key requirements, allowing every generation to enjoy the space comfortably. Although visually protected, the pool remains immersed in nature through strategically positioned landscape pockets and an open-to-sky roof that invites changing light and weather into the experience.
A floating pathway, elevated four feet above the ground, leads into the residence where the second stone wall divides the social spaces— including the living room, dining area, verandahs and kitchen—from the private bedroom wing. Throughout the home, generous 15-foothigh volumes are moderated by an intermediate slab positioned at 10 feet, creating interiors that feel simultaneously expansive and intimate.
Climate responsiveness is seamlessly woven into the architecture. Deep cantilevered overhangs ranging between eight and ten feet wrap the house, dividing the façade into nine-foot-high glazing below and a two-foot-six-inch clerestory above. These overhangs shade the glazing throughout the day, significantly reducing heat gain while preserving uninterrupted views of the surrounding landscape. Through the clerestory windows, lush greenery growing above the roofline filters natural light into every room, adding depth and drama to the interiors.
Perhaps the home’s most distinctive gesture is its floating plinth. Elevated above a continuous water body populated with aquatic plants and fish, the residence appears to hover gently above the landscape. Beyond its visual lightness, the water serves a practical function by discouraging snakes and other crawling creatures commonly encountered in natural settings. Together with the cantilevered intermediate slab and expansive roof overhangs, the floating plinth softens the perceived scale of the architecture, making the large home feel welcoming and comfortably human.
The architecture also dissolves along both its east-west and north-south axes, creating uninterrupted visual connections that allow the house to breathe. These invisible axes culminate in landscaped nodes featuring graceful weeping willow trees surrounded by stone-paved seating areas, encouraging quiet moments of pause and reflection.
Landscape plays an equally important role in shaping the home’s environmental performance. Dense tree plantations begin approximately 40 feet away from the house, leaving broad lawns around the structure that facilitate natural airflow from every direction while minimising ambient heat gain. Unlike hardscape, the lawns remain cool throughout the day and provide generous space for the family’s frequent social gatherings.
Closer to the building, curated shrubs frame the surrounding water body, reinforcing the illusion that the house floats above the landscape. Coconut trees soften the architecture’s scale, while cascading curtain creepers drape from the roof edges, adding shade, movement and a poetic sense of time as they sway gently in the breeze.
The verandah welcomes visitors with a bold sculptural staircase that forms the backdrop to a semi-open lounge. Through expansive sliding glazing, the verandah seamlessly merges with the indoor living room, transforming the two spaces into a single pavilion where family life effortlessly spills between indoors and outdoors. Completing the architectural composition, the third stone wall along the southern edge discreetly screens the service areas from the primary living spaces.
The home’s five-bedroom layout reflects its grounded philosophy. Four bedrooms occupy the ground floor, allowing the architecture to remain closely connected to the landscape, while a single first-floor bedroom positioned on the southeast corner enjoys sweeping views across the gardens.
Materiality reinforces this connection to place. Having spent much of their lives in refined urban residences, the family desired a retreat that celebrated authenticity and tactile simplicity. Neutral light-grey lime plaster allows the building to blend effortlessly into its surroundings, while the defining stone walls are constructed from locally sourced Khammam Brown sandstone. Floors are finished in Markapuram slate stone, both materials originating from the Telugu states and grounding the home firmly within its regional context.
The porous sandstone welcomes creeping vegetation over time, while the gently textured slate encourages barefoot living. Reclaimed teak furniture, live-edge timber pieces, jute textiles and understated black metal detailing complete a palette that is both restrained and deeply connected to nature.
Yet, beyond its architecture, this home’s greatest achievement lies in what it enables. It is a home designed for conversations that continue long after dinner, for celebrations that span generations, for children discovering the outdoors and grandparents passing down stories beneath the shade of a tree. Contemporary in its planning yet timeless in its spirit, it demonstrates how architecture can become the quiet framework within which family life flourishes.
Appropriately named ANTRIYA, meaning “a space to self-reflect and become one with,” this home remains open to the landscape while nurturing moments of intimacy. It is not simply a weekend retreat; it is a place where memories are preserved, relationships deepen and nature gently reminds its inhabitants to slow down.
Photography: Shamanth Patil
