On the patient virtue of lime plaster
What our grandfathers' masons knew about lime mortar that the modern building site has forgotten — and why we have returned to it.
Read essay →VANTA
Spaces that breathe, structures that endure. Built for a century.
VANTA is an award-winning architecture and design studio crafting residential, cultural, and commercial spaces across India. We design buildings not for the next trend — but for the next hundred years.
FEATURED PROJECT · 2024
The Concrete Pavilion
Auroville, Tamil Nadu
RECOGNITION · 2024
Dezeen Awards
02WINS
STUDIO SIZE
Architects + Designers
28
01 — FEATURED WORK
Recently unveiled.
A monumental cultural commission completed earlier this year — eighteen months of design, fourteen months of construction, and one quiet opening night in November.
02 — SELECTED PROJECTS
An archive of work.
Twelve representative projects from our last decade — residential homes, public institutions, hospitality, and adaptive reuse. Each photographed on completion.
PROJECT 01 / 74
2024
PROJECT 02 / 74
2024
PROJECT 03 / 74
2023
PROJECT 04 / 74
2023
PROJECT 05 / 74
2023
PROJECT 06 / 74
2022
03 — PRACTICE AREAS
What we design.
Five interlinked practice areas, each led by a senior architect with at least a decade of experience in the typology.
01 /
Residential Architecture
Private homes, weekend villas, hill-station retreats, and family compounds. From brief to last cabinet handle.
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02 /
Cultural & Public
Libraries, museums, performing arts centres, and community spaces. Civic projects across South India.
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03 /
Hospitality Design
Boutique hotels, restaurants, and resorts. Specialised in regional vernacular for Goa, Kerala, and Rajasthan.
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04 /
Adaptive Reuse
Heritage restoration, industrial conversions, and conservation work. Mill rebuilds, fort restorations, palace revivals.
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05 /
Interior Architecture
Material palettes, custom furniture, lighting design, and curation. Often executed for projects we did not design.
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PROCESS
04 — HOW WE WORK
A measured process.
From the first site visit to the final walkthrough, our projects typically span eighteen to thirty-six months. Here is the rhythm.
01
Site & Brief
Multiple site visits across seasons. Long conversations with clients about how they live, work, and gather. No drawings yet.
6 — 12 WEEKS
02
Concept Design
Initial sketches, models, and material studies. We present three directions, never one. Iterations follow honest feedback.
8 — 16 WEEKS
03
Documentation
Detailed working drawings, specifications, and contractor coordination. Tendering, BOQ, structural and MEP integration.
12 — 20 WEEKS
04
Construction
Weekly site visits by the project architect. Material selections, custom fabrication, hands-on supervision until handover.
12 — 30 MONTHS
05 — BY THE NUMBERS
Eleven years, in figures.
Quietly tracked. Not the loudest practice in India — but one we hope is among the most considered.
74PROJECTS
Completed Since 2014
From private homes of 200 m² to public libraries of 4,200 m². Across eight Indian states.
28PEOPLE
In The Studio
Architects, designers, and support across our Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi offices.
14AWARDS
International Recognitions
Dezeen, ArchDaily, AD100, Wallpaper* Design Awards, and more — between 2018 and 2024.
7YEARS
Average Project Duration
From the first conversation to the warranty period ending. We stay long.
FOUNDER · PRINCIPAL
Devanshu Rao
06 — THE STUDIO
A studio shaped by quiet rigour.
VANTA was founded in 2014 by Devanshu Rao, after a decade at Studio Mumbai and a year teaching at the CEPT University in Ahmedabad. The studio's name comes from the Sanskrit varta — to choose carefully, to select.
We design slowly. We refuse projects that do not align with how we work. We have never run an open competition entry. Our entire client base has come through introductions, often from people whose homes we built ten years ago.
Our buildings are made from concrete, lime, brick, teak, and stone — materials that age with grace. We resist novelty. We design for the next century.
— Devanshu Rao
FOUNDER · COUNCIL OF ARCHITECTURE REG. CA/2003/27418
07 — RECOGNITION
Quietly honoured.
A selection of international awards and shortlistings from 2018 onwards. We have not pursued recognition — it has found us.
2024
Dezeen Awards
Cultural Building of the Year
2024
AD100 India
Architectural Digest
2023
ArchDaily Building
Featured Project of Year
2023
Wallpaper* Awards
Best Residential Design
2022
Domus India
Design Critics' Choice
2021
IIA National Awards
Excellence in Architecture
2020
WAF Shortlist
World Architecture Festival
2018
Rethinking The Future
Sustainability Award
08 — OUR PEOPLE
The hands behind the work.
A small team by design. Each architect holds project responsibility from concept through completion — and visits site weekly.
Devanshu Rao
FOUNDER · PRINCIPAL
Anjali Krishnan
DIRECTOR · MUMBAI
Rohan Bhattacharya
DIRECTOR · BANGALORE
Iyla Sahgal
ASSOCIATE · DELHI
"
Devanshu and his team designed a home that has, in the seven years since, become the centre of our family's life. Every angle of light, every breath of breeze, every quiet corner — accounted for. It is rare to find an architect who builds buildings that age this gracefully.
09 — IN PRINT
Featured widely.
10 — THE JOURNAL
Words on architecture.
Long-form essays by Devanshu Rao and senior associates — on materials, place, and the slow craft of building. Published quarterly.
The Hayagriva Library: an opening journal
Eighteen months of design, fourteen of construction. Photographs from the final week before the November 2024 inauguration.
Read essay →
Why we no longer pitch for projects
The studio's 2023 decision to stop responding to RFPs — and what that policy has meant for our calendar, our clients, and our work.
Read essay →BEGIN.
11 — GET IN TOUCH
Let's build
something quiet.
We work with a small number of clients each year — typically four to seven new projects. If your project is one we should be doing, we want to hear about it.
MUMBAI · HEAD OFFICE
7th Floor, The Loomworks, Lower Parel
Mumbai 400013, Maharashtra
Mumbai 400013, Maharashtra
BANGALORE
42 Cunningham Road, Vasanth Nagar
Bangalore 560052, Karnataka
Bangalore 560052, Karnataka
NEW DELHI
Studio 9, The Quorum, Sector 53
Gurgaon 122002, NCR
Gurgaon 122002, NCR
DIRECT