BuildAware

10/06/2026

The terrain of Hyderabad is hilly and undulating, and the site of is on the rise of a hill abutting the boundary of the Qutb Shahi Tombs. The site surface is doubly-curved and requires a detailed understanding of the existing levels to arrive at a smooth gradient for the parking garage, to perfectly match the parking floor with the road level, and to ensure that any pavers laid would not come loose or crack due to the variations within the ground level. Fractured flooring ensures that the oddly-shaped stone pavers packed within the space create a higher resolution of detail at every point, adjusting to the undulations and micro-variations in level, resulting in a smooth, continuous surface.

The stone used is rough-textured blue slate from Tandur, Telangana.

Did you know that there are different color palettes that go with cool and warm grays? Tell us which gray you prefer!

08/06/2026

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

~Martin Luther King, Jr

is a house as narrow as a ribbon! Due to space constraints and shared walls with neighbors, had to come up with creative design solutions to incorporate two stacked duplex apartments for a brother and sister. We wanted to create something in between an apartment building and a family home: with some shared spaces and some segregated ones. We love slate as a flooring material because it’s locally-sourced, minimalistic and earthy. This is Tandur blue slate from the Deccan Plateau. The staircase was specially designed to fit into a very narrow area, and so it has three winders in each flight. Since a single slab of stone is not available in this size and would require at least one joint in each triangle, we decided to make these three winders in mosaic or crazy paving, that gives a rustic look to the house.

Skilled craftsmanship was required to reuse stone wastage from the site itself and convert it into artistic crazy-paving that takes inspiration from terrazzo flooring, a sustainable method that originated in 15th century Venetian architecture.

The most important ingredients for such experiments to be successful are clients who trust us and give us design liberty, and a skilled team of craftspersons who are patient and openminded.

Together, we were able to make this exploration possible!

05/06/2026

It’s super important for designers and architects to be well-acquainted and comfortable with the construction site. Designers who know how something can be fabricated, built or assembled are a great asset to engineers and ex*****on teams.

Many of ’s radical and non-standard designs were confusing to ex*****on teams, especially conservative thinkers, but we knew exactly how to build what we designed! And that’s why we started , with an aim to bridge the gap between studio and site.

In parallel, we started Studio_to_Site, a long-term, hands-on program that provides students of design, architecture, and engineering, as well as young professionals access to our live construction sites, where they learn from experts on site in real time at every stage as the building is being constructed.

03/06/2026

Look closely at the underside of this staircase, and you’ll see something off.

Why is this one step the height of three? This is how we turned a tricky height gap into a stunning design feature.

Because of the extremely tight space available, every centimeter lost makes a big difference, especially in a functional and structural system such as a staircase. It had to be carefully designed to utilize every bit of space while maintaining comfort for navigation.

Instead of a landing, reworked this staircase to have not two but three winders to reduce the overall length by 60cm while achieving the same height.

But three winders added another complication: the thickness of each structural winder (with its internal reinforcement) would add to the thickness and width, and not allow the three to meet at one point (on site they call it “zero.”)

Structural designers replaced the winders with one big-ass step that is structural. It accommodates the three winders which are non-structural, and can have very narrow widths, meeting at one clean, precise, sharp, “zero” point. This also gave the freedom to use any material they wanted, and in this case, it’s mosaic stone paving that mimics the flooring used in the balconies, verandahs and parking, turning the space constraint into an ingenius design feature.

03/06/2026

Why is this one step the height of three? This is how we turned a tricky height gap into a stunning design feature.

Because of the extremely tight space available, every centimeter lost makes a big difference, especially in a functional and structural system such as a staircase. It had to be carefully designed to utilize every bit of space while maintaining comfort for navigation.

Instead of a landing, reworked this staircase to have not two but three winders to reduce the overall length by 60cm while achieving the same height.

But three winders added another complication: the thickness of each structural winder (with its internal reinforcement) would add to the thickness and width, and not allow the three to meet at one point (on site they call it “zero.”)

Structural designers replaced the winders with one big-ass step that is structural. It accommodates the three winders which are non-structural, and can have very narrow widths, meeting at one clean, precise, sharp, “zero” point. This also gave the freedom to use any material they wanted, and in this case, it’s mosaic stone paving that mimics the flooring used in the balconies, verandahs and parking, turning the space constraint into an ingenius design feature.

27/05/2026

Eid Mubarak from BuildAware!

21/05/2026

Rough sketches today, solid structures tomorrow.

20/05/2026

studio to site

17/05/2026