The Grounds
Sixty percent, left to the land.
The brief to the landscape architects was one line: make it look like the villa arrived last. Two point four acres, one gate, and a garden that was mostly already here.
Twenty-five metres, pointed at the horizon.
The pool is heated for December and shaded for May. The water feature at its head — a single curved steel arc — was the sculptor's idea, and the architects had the sense not to argue. Loungers face west. Everything here faces west.
The planting
Nothing imported for effect.
- FrangipaniPlumeria rubra
drops its flowers on the drive, on purpose
- Coconut palmCocos nucifera
the estate's original residents
- BougainvilleaBougainvillea glabra
riots quietly along the south wall
- PlumbagoPlumbago auriculata
a blue you stop noticing, then miss
- CasuarinaCasuarina equisetifolia
the windbreak between you and the beach
- ChampaMagnolia champaca
you will smell it before you see it
The Shore
Eighty metres, mostly yours.
A stone path leaves the lawn, ducks through the casuarinas, and puts you on Kihim sand in ninety seconds. The beach is grey-gold, long, and lightly used. This stretch of it, entirely so. There is a gate. It has never once been locked from the inside.
The last ninety seconds of the commute.
A house this size runs on quiet hands.
Staff quarters stand apart, past the service court, with their own entrance and their own garden. A keeper, a gardener, and a cook came with the construction and know the house better than its drawings do. They stay, if you wish. Most wish.
- Keeper — resident, twenty years in Kihim
- Grounds — full-time, plus monsoon crew
- Kitchen — on request, trained in Mumbai