Architecture & Interiors — India

Spaces that holdtheir quiet.

AHA Architects designs residences and interiors with restraint, material honesty and an obsessive regard for detail — homes made to age well, not to date quickly.

Tara House — Alibaug, Maharashtra

We design a small number of homes each year, slowly, and with an unreasonable regard for the details nobody photographs.

AHA Architects works across luxury residences, interiors and a small number of boutique hospitality projects — in Mumbai, Goa, Bengaluru and beyond. Our work is quiet, material-led and built to improve with age rather than photograph well once.

We take six to eight commissions at a time. That is a ceiling, not an ambition: it is the number at which the founding partners can remain personally on every site and across every drawing that leaves the studio.

Our Approach

Restraint is themost expensive material.

AHA Architects was founded in Mumbai in 2011 on a fairly unfashionable belief: that a house should get better with age, and that almost everything worth doing in a building happens at the junctions nobody photographs.

01

One idea, held

We present a position rather than a menu. A project survives eighteen months of compromise only if it began with a single clear idea worth defending.

02

Materials that age

Lime, stone, timber, unlacquered brass. We choose finishes that improve with use rather than ones that must be protected from it.

03

Detail as substance

The quality of a home is decided at its junctions. We draw at 1:5 and 1:1 because that is where the money either shows or disappears.

04

Nothing by surprise

Costs, constraints and bad news arrive early and in writing. Trust is built in the boring updates, not the presentation evenings.

The Process

Six stages,and no surprises in any of them.

Design is the visible part. What clients remember afterwards is usually the process — that they always knew where things stood, and that the final number resembled the first one.

The full process
01

Discovery

3–5 weeks

We spend time on the site and considerably more time with you, before we draw anything.

02

Concept

5–8 weeks

A single clear idea for the project, tested against the brief and the site.

03

Design Development

8–14 weeks

The idea is held constant while every room, junction and dimension is resolved.

04

Detailing & Documentation

8–12 weeks

Drawings precise enough that the quality survives contact with the site.

05

Execution Coordination

Through construction

Regular site presence, weekly reporting, and decisions resolved before they become delays.

06

Styling & Handover

4–8 weeks

The final layer — and a home you can actually live in from the first night.

In Their Words
We had spoken to four practices. AHA were the only ones who asked how we spend a Sunday before they asked about the budget. Three years later, the house still answers that question.
R. & M. SethiPrivate residence, Alibaug
They removed far more than they added, which took some persuading. It was the right call. The apartment is quiet in a way I did not know a home in Worli could be.
A. MehtaApartment interiors, Mumbai
What we appreciated most was the honesty. When something would not work, we were told plainly and early. Nothing on this project was a surprise, including the final number.
S. KapadiaHeritage restoration, Marine Drive
As Featured In
AD IndiaElle Decor IndiaIIID Design Excellence AwardsArchitectural DigestDezeenIndian Institute of Architects
Start Your Project

If you are planning somethingworth doing properly.

We take on six to eight commissions at a time and are currently in conversation about projects beginning next season. Tell us about the space, the timeline and what you are hoping it becomes — we reply to every serious enquiry within two working days.