VIVEDA WELLNESS RETREAT

LITRERTURE STUDY

JAYANTH S
1KF21AT005
VTH SEM
KSSA
GENERAL INFORMATION
•Viveda Wellness Retreat is a wellness center
located in Trimbak, Nashik, Maharashtra, India.
The center is designed to create spaces that
respond to the natural setting of the site, which
is situated between the gigantic Sahyadri
mountain range, the mesmerizing waters of the
Gautami Godavari dam, and a mosaic of multi-
toned farmlands, sporadic trees, cattle, cows,
buffaloes, sheep, goats, and so on.
•The center offers a range of wellness programs
that help you practice healthy living with
ancient knowledge of wellness and health. The
programs are infused with Indian values of
hospitality and are designed to nourish the
body, mind, and soul.
MATERIALITY
•The project is designed with three materials: Basalt Stone,
Timber frame, and pot-tile roof.
•The project employed and collaborated with the local
craftsmen who have a long lineage of working with these
materials.
•Concrete and steel are consciously kept to a minimum in the
project.
•All materials have been sourced locally (within 20 to 50 km),
reducing the embodied energy.
•The stone work on the site was mainly carried by the Wadari
community, a community of expert stonemasons particularly
settled in Maharashtra and Northern Karnataka belt of India.
•Basalt stone, available in plenty in the region, is hand-
quarried, chiseled and fitted on site by the stonemasons.
•Most of the project is made with Basalt -load-bearing walls,
steps, courtyards, landscape etc. This is done to deliberately
create a monolithic character for the building, like a solid stone
mould sitting gently on the landscape.
•Two kinds of timber are used in this project:
•Haladu (yellow toned timber, which derives its name
from Haladi or turmeric). This is primarily used for the
roofing system and columns in certain spaces.

•Upcycled Wood – Indian teakwood, salvaged from 100

to 150 old dilapidated buildings in the region. Majorly
done by local carpenters headed by a sutar, who is a
master-carpenter, carrying his skills through generations
•.
•Clay pot tiles, which are used for roofing, are made by a
kumbhar (from the potter community) using the
traditional methods learned over decades usually within
the community itself. This was the largest consignment
of pot tiles the kumbhar had ever received. As the
kumbhar involved various family members and other
villagers in the process, it became a good economic
opportunity for the community.
•The project intends to deliberately invoke a sense of
inhabiting the historically prominent architectural types
of the region.
•Several political and spiritual practices have left their
architectural traces in the landscape of Sahyadri hills and
Trimbekashwar.
•Among which the fascinating ones are the medieval
forts -typically built on top of the mountains; Wadas -
beautifully crafted medieval houses of the rich
merchants; Kunds -subterranean water bodies popular
since the Harappan cities but explicitly seen in the
temple towns across the regions; Chaityas -the beautiful
and tedious Buddhist caves and monasteries; Ghats - the
sacred river-front stretches of steps leading to various
rivers where architecture and landscape becomes one.
•Each of these building types has a very specific and
memorable spatial quality which the project invokes in
various parts.
The amenities block at Viveda Wellness Retreat is made of five
squares, each of which is designed separately with five different
functions and a corresponding spatial quality. The Naturopathy
cluster is designed as Wada; Massage rooms as courtyard
houses; yoga and meditation dome as Chaityas; Swimming pool
as Kund; and the amphitheatre and restaurant as ghats. The
five squares are merged into one long block, with specific
transition spaces, to create a spatial sequence with different
volumes, qualities of light and shadow, textures, and
movement patterns that are learned from the above
mentioned architectural types, from the region, and an in-
depth understanding of the respective functions. One of the
results of such an approach is that it creates a heterogeneously
homogeneous space. The guest rooms are mainly conceived as
clusters from a small settlement with winding streets and
courtyards. Each cluster is organized as a circle, freely placed on
a natural sloping ground to create a meandering path around
all the clusters at different levels. The common court shared by
four cottages becomes a social space for the guests to interact
with each other and enjoy the distant views of the landscape,
sitting in their verandahs.