‘NEAR MUMBAI, SOUTHEAs
COLONIAL 7
Architecture by
Text by Penelope
SIAN AND BRITISH
TOUCHES MARK A GRAND HOUSE
of the couple for whom he designed an Ag, India, residence (abn) on
or a visitor new to the Mumbai
const, the cultural differences be-
gin at the front door. Or, rather,
the lack of one, “Irs an open
house,” the wife says of the plantation-
style weekend residence that she and her
husband share on the Alibag peninsula,
just outside the «
proper entrance.”
Instead, you cane
er the space she cals,
“the main transit room” through any of
its dozen tall, glass-paned doors. Or you
‘might step into another room altogether
by way of the colonnaded corridor extend-
ing around much of the exterior, its floor
of Kotha stone, as reflective as water
x with designer Sui Jas
rer Mumbaic
orin the entrance hall The vouve sat
iv a tropical house, South
according to its architect
Phis is particularly true of the
first floor, with its colonnade and stone
arches. On the second floor, other influ-
ences come into play: What Wijaya call its
“timber elements" —balustra
like—are classically South Ir
some of the windows and
from Southeast Asia
‘The architect is himself a hybrid. Born
in Australia, he moved to Bali at the age
of 35, changing his name from Michae!
White and developing a reputation for
his landscape designs. “I'm Truman Ca:
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