Oasis is a residence in Mumbai that unfolds as a study in quiet luxury, where simplicity and utility are elevated by timeless materials and finely tuned detailing. Designed for a couple deeply engaged with design as the wife is an architect with a Masters from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, the home reflects a shared aspiration for elegance without ostentation. Every space of this 3054 sq. ft. residence is crafted to feel purposeful, restrained, and enduring, defined not by trends but by a sensibility that prizes proportion, spatial planning, and clarity.
Designed by Rutam Intarch, though officially a three-bedroom home, its layout carries the flexibility of a fourth room that doubles as a study. Sharing insights on the design plan, Sheffalie Jhaveri, Designer, Rutam Intarch, says, “The plan integrates a living and dining area, kitchen, staff room, and three en-suite bedrooms, with circulation and scale carefully considered to balance openness with utility. A six-foot-wide entry passage was transformed through the use of Bog Elm veneer panelling, concealing storage seamlessly within its grain and establishing the home’s understated richness from the very first step inside. The living and dining space flows into the home office through massive L-shaped sliding doors, which allow the room to merge effortlessly into the entertainment zone when required. Balconies extend the living spaces outward, bringing in light, air, and panoramic sea views that animate the interiors.”
The most significant challenge lay in timing. The residence was delivered within just seven months, even as the building was still under construction. This demanded constant on-site involvement and precise coordination with services, particularly the VRV air-conditioning system, to preserve the apartment’s 12-foot ceiling height. The resulting generosity of volume is one of the defining features of the home, amplifying its sense of openness and calm.
Explaining the material palette, Sheffalie informs, “Materials form the tactile soul of the project. Carrara marble, selected from a rare lot with soft grey veining, flows through the home as a luminous foundation. Bog Elm veneer, rare and richly textured, continues seamlessly across surfaces, infusing warmth into the otherwise airy spaces. Brass accents appear as subtle inlays and fittings, quiet gestures of refinement rather than show. Stone and specialty finishes deepen the palette further: a limestone-clad master bath in Chiku stone, bespoke mirrors with MS cutwork, a handcrafted grungetextured wall built up in pigments, and a traditional Lippan-work mandir executed by Rajasthani artisans, which anchors the home in cultural craftsmanship.”
The interiors are softened with hues drawn from nature: sea-greens, skyblues, and coral tones, echoing the everchanging play of sea and sky visible from the apartment’s expansive openings. Fabrics, rugs, and handcrafted lights contribute tactile richness without crowding the spaces, while the scale of furniture is calibrated to the soaring volumes, ensuring proportion and balance.
What defines this home most is not a singular stylistic statement but a design process that privileged intuition and trust over rigid planning. With minimal reliance on renderings, the home evolved on-site, with details emerging organically in response to context and proportion. For the team, designing for the couple meant engaging with clients who were collaborators, bringing both refined taste and practical sense to the table. The outcome is a residence that is simple in its forms, rich in its materials, and timeless in its presence; a place where the quiet rhythm of daily life can unfold with elegance, and where the architecture itself recedes to let proportion, light, and atmosphere define the experience of home.
Photography: Pulkit Sehgal
Vendor Credits: Jade Lights (Mansi Jade), Hatsu Mehra Carpets, Sarita Handa Fabrics, Amish Cambay (Cambay Stones)
