01/09/2026
DO OUR MEMORIES SHAPE THE SPACES WE CREATE?
I often share childhood stories with my daughter. She loves listening to them repeatedly, and somehow, the stories never seem to get old.
But I have realised something while telling them.
I don't just remember what happened.
I remember the spaces where it happened.
The warm patch of winter sunlight beside the jamun tree where I would lie bundled in a quilt.
The little space under the terrace staircase where I studied during exams—connected to the life happening downstairs, yet somehow completely my own.
The Mall Road in Jalandhar, outside our Army accommodation, covered in yellow amaltas flowers.
These places are still alive in my memory because they were more than physical spaces. They were experiences. Feelings. Sensations.
Perhaps this is why, when we design our homes today, we unconsciously recreate fragments of places that have meant something to us.
A particular kind of light.
A material.
A quiet corner.
A connection to the outdoors.
Peter Zumthor speaks beautifully about architecture as an encounter with the physical world—an experience that engages all our senses.
At Stonehenge, we try to bring these deeply embedded memories into our clients' present-day spaces—sometimes directly, sometimes in ways that are almost imperceptible.
Because sometimes the best compliment a space can receive is not “It looks beautiful.”
It is:
“This feels strangely familiar.”