A new wave of Indian luxury is being shaped by architects and designers who prize heritage, craft and restraint over ostentation. From Abha Narain Lambah’s meticulous restorations and Bijoy Jain’s site-led, hand-built architecture to Ashiesh Shah’s material-driven minimalism, Gauri Khan’s polished classicism and Charu Munjal’s curated ‘ethos era’, they redefine fine homes as enduring, humane and deeply contextual spaces.
“When people have known a building before its restoration and return with the same sense of familiarity, ownership, and immediately recognise its spirit, it’s a powerful sign that the restoration has been done well,” shares Abha Narain Lambah, principal architect at Abha Narain Lambah Associates. Describing her conservation work as “a bit like forensic science”, Lambah defines architecture that is crafted with care and built to last as the true measure of luxury.
For one of her earliest projects, restoring the Maitreya Buddha Temple in the village of Basgo, Ladakh, she found herself working at a “high altitude with barely any network, very little water, and limited resources, so everything depended on local knowledge,” she recalls. The community, initially her clients, soon became craftsmen on the site. “It completely overturned the idea of a top down approach and reinforced the value of community participation. That lesson has stayed with me ever since, whether working on smaller urban interventions like the Dadabhai Naoroji Road Heritage Streetscape project, or inscribing Mumbai’s Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.”
At times, what may appear unconventional in her work is often the result of rigorous research and careful reading of a building’s past. At the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue in Mumbai, layers of paint were peeled back to discover its original colours; while the restoration of the Royal Opera House in Mumbai drew from archival footage found in an old Hindi film to guide its gilded interiors.
In an era of rapid urban development, Lambah emphasises the need for preserving historic buildings. “The case is stronger now than it has ever been, and will only continue to strengthen. Reusing and adapting existing buildings is a critical and environmentally conscious response that saves embodied energy and preserves the memory of a place. Cities steeped in rich history rely on this kind of continuity for their identity. Many buildings we consider modern today, such as the works of Charles Correa, will one day be part of the heritage we protect.”
“I think we are moving towards luxury defined by what a space chooses not to say,” predicts Ashiesh Shah, explaining how material integrity and the authority of craftsmanship will matter far more than grandeur over time. Through his award-winning atelier, Shah has shaped a multidisciplinary practice spanning architecture, interiors, and collectible design, with work that has been exhibited internationally. “The most profound spaces don’t announce themselves. They simply hold you,” says Shah. Some of the most instructive moments in his practice have unfolded through close collaboration with artisans, when an idea meets the realities of material and process, as seen in the work Channapatna Stambh, where a traditional 18th-century toy-making craft is reimagined into a larger-than-life sculptural form, testing both material and technique. “When you attempt to scale a craft that has spent centuries existing at an intimate register, you encounter its resistance. The material pushes back.” he says, adding, “What those experiences gave me was patience, and something even more valuable: humility.”
In one of the most defining decisions in his practice— the creation of his atelier—Shah moved away from architecture to work at the scale of an object that allowed for a different kind of inquiry. “The atelier became a laboratory where questions of form, geometry, and material could be turned over slowly. That intimacy of scale taught us things about proportion and surface no site could have.” When a material ages within a space, Shah begins to see luxury reveal itself. “The patina of stone, the warmth of wood, the tactility of handcrafted surfaces— these subtle qualities create depth and permanence, allowing a space to feel lived in and enduring.”
Long before the architecture of a building takes shape, Bijoy Jain looks closely at the land, the climate, the material, and the people who will inhabit it. His practice, Studio Mumbai, has worked outside the conventional framework of architecture, bringing together architects, craftsmen, and artisans to build slowly, often by hand, and always in close dialogue with the site. Trained in India and the U.S., Jain returned to Mumbai in the mid1990s to set up his studio, choosing early on to work differently. Instead of separating design from making, he brought the two together, building an in-house workshop where models, mock-ups, and full-scale prototypes could be tested before construction. This way of working has remained central to his practice, where drawing, material, and craft evolve alongside each other, rather than in sequence.
Much of his work is defined by restraint, such as in projects like the Palmyra House in Alibaug and Copper House II in Chondi (both in coastal Maharashtra), where natural materials, filtered light, and simple forms come together with clear precision. Walls are thick, openings are deliberate, and materials are left close to their natural state. He draws attention to how light enters a space, how air moves through it, and how a building ages over time, making each of the places he builds feel like they have emerged from their surroundings. Jain has often spoken about how architecture, for him, is not about creating objects, but about shaping experiences that unfold gradually within them. This approach has found resonance globally, with Studio Mumbai’s work exhibited at institutions such as the Venice Biennale and the Fondation Cartier in Paris. Yet, even at that scale, the work holds on to a certain intimacy. What defines his practice is a way of working that values time, care, and attention. In a world that often moves quickly, his buildings ask you to slow down, to notice the grain of a material, the shift of light across a wall, and the natural rhythm of a space being lived in.
Charu Munjal has spent two decades sourcing, studying, and living among the world’s finest objects— spending time with craftsmen in Italian workshops, building relationships with heritage ateliers most people may not have heard of, and developing a curatorial eye. In 2015, she channelled all of it into Casa Oma, a home and lifestyle concept store in New Delhi that houses over 90 international brands across 6,000 square feet. The store collection was built slowly and deliberately. Years spent in Italian workshops taught her that to attain mastery one must first learn to surrender. “In a world of fast retail, the master craftsmen in Italy taught me that perfection cannot be scheduled. I remember a glassblower telling me that the temperature of the furnace is secondary to the ‘mood’ of the glass,” she reminisces. She brought this skill of patience back to India.
What Munjal notices first in a room isn’t furniture or the art. Rather, it’s the negative space. “I look at how the objects allow the room to breathe,” she says. To her, the honesty of materials takes precedence—“like the way light hits a hand-etched crystal or the authentic patina on antique brass,” she elaborates. That instinct runs through every decision at Casa Oma. “If I wouldn’t have it in my own home, it wouldn’t make it to the shelves,” she says. For Munjal, the store is an extension of her home and her personality—a self-portrait of sorts. The Indian luxury consumer, she says, has moved on from the logo era to what she calls ‘the ethos era’. Now, people come in asking about the artisan, and how ethical the materials sourced are. The younger generation are already aware of the difference between hand-tufted and hand-knotted rugs. “They aren’t just buying for status,” she explains.
“They are buying for alignment with their personal values.” Not every instinct of hers has landed immediately. An early collection— ultra-minimalist, clinical—didn’t resonate with people, she recounts. “The Indian heart inherently seeks warmth,” she opines. Even in the most contemporary homes, there’s a pull toward what she describes as a ‘maximalist soul’: clean lines but executed in textures that feel inviting and tactile. “A lesson in warm modernism,” she summarises. Today, the same philosophy underpins Casa Oma. Looking ahead, she believes luxury will be defined by silence. Not exclusivity, not price, but the capacity of a home to function as a sanctuary. “Luxury will be measured by how well a home allows you to disconnect from chaos and reconnect with yourself.
What began as redecorating her own spaces gradually turned into something more, as friends began approaching Gauri Khan to design their homes. This eventually led to Gauri Khan Designs—a studio that reflects her eye for creating spaces that feel polished, while leaning into comfort layered with visual impact. Her interiors tend to favour strong materials, layered textures, and a certain visual richness, but always with an underlying structure that keeps them from feeling excessive. “I prefer to stay away from trends, my style has always been classic,” she said in a recent reel on Instagram.
Her work today spans a wide range of projects, from private residences to retail and hospitality, such as actor Ananya Panday’s home and filmmaker Karan Johar’s home terrace. In retail, her work for couturier Manish Malhotra’s boutiques across India and abroad reflects a more theatrical style with designs that frame fashion as an experience. In Mumbai’s hospitality scene, she has shaped restaurants such as Torii and Arth, each carrying a distinct richness of material and finish; and, more recently, her invite-only club, Fielia, that’s designed to be unapologetically maximalist.
Alongside her design practice, Khan’s work also reflects a broader engagement with the business and culture of design. She co-founded Red Chillies Entertainment and later brought that same instinct for building and curation into her interiors brand. Since launching Gauri Khan Designs in 2017, she has expanded into curated product lines, collaborations, and design showcases, including presenting her work internationally at design platforms such as Maison et Objet in Paris, in 2018. There, she showcased a range of bespoke furniture and design collections, including her Tattvam rug line created with Jaipur Rugs, along with furniture inspired by traditional Indian craft techniques, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens. These presentations reflect a consistent direction in expanding her design language across different formats, while positioning her practice within a global design conversation.
Hafeez Contractor has spent over four decades shaping the skylines of Indian cities, working at a scale few architects in the country have attempted. From large residential townships to institutional campuses, his work is defined by its ability to accommodate life at volume— buildings designed for thousands to live, work, and move through every day. Trained at the Sir JJ College of Architecture and later at Columbia University, Contractor returned to India in the mid-1970s—a time when cities were expanding rapidly. His practice grew alongside that transformation. Over the years, he has been behind some of the country’s most recognisable developments— from the expansive township of Hiranandani Gardens in suburban Mumbai to large-scale institutional campuses such as those for Infosys in Bengaluru.
In 2016, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India, recognising his contribution to architecture in the country. More recently, he won the bid to design the new Bombay High Court complex, a closely watched competition that saw proposals from some of the country’s most prominent architects. Across his work, there is a consistent attempt to bring openness into dense urban settings. Large balconies, connecting bridges, and shared amenities are often used to break the rigidity of high-rise living, creating spaces that allow for both privacy and interaction. At a time when cities continue to grow at an unforgiving pace, Contractor’s work stays focused on a straightforward question: how do you build at scale without losing sight of the people inside it?
“Resilience, restoration, and rest,” says Kunaal Maniar, when describing what will come to define luxury in landscape design. It’s a way of thinking that begins with what a space can give back over time—ecologically and emotionally. This became clearer to him through a project in south Mumbai, where mature frangipani trees were transplanted onto the terrace of a skyscraper. What began as a technical challenge soon opened up a larger possibility. “I came to realise how even dense cities can accommodate complex, living systems if we design with enough conviction,” he says.
Across his work, decisions that may seem understated are often driven by this kind of thinking. In one home, he chose to keep the road level higher than the plinth, allowing the landscape to manage water more intelligently rather than relying on heavy intervention. Elsewhere, planting, shade, filtered views, and the presence of water come together to shape outdoor spaces that settle gradually, becoming part of how a home is experienced day to day. That same approach extends into his collectable pieces. The ‘Love Bench’, with its colliding forms of black granite, and the ‘Shanti Bench’, shaped by the symbolism of the trishul, both invite stillness and introspection, built with indigenous materials and craft traditions. In cities that rarely slow down, Maniar continues to return to landscape as a way of creating pause. Even a small patch of green, he believes, can shift how a space is felt. Increasingly, he sees clients (especially his younger ones) moving towards planting that supports biodiversity and responds to climate, favouring landscapes that evolve rather than demand constant upkeep. For him, the sign of a landscape done well is quite simple. “It’s a space that slows you down,” he shares, “where you find yourself lingering, and it reveals itself gradually over time.”