Facing the northern shore of the Fateh Sagar lake in Udaipur and overlooking splendid vistas where mountain, sky and temple spires meet is a modernist masterpiece of an expansive family home commissioned by a couple with business interests in the region.
What started as a possible restoration of a tumbledown stone dwelling on a three-quarter-acre plot in 2013 is today a 12,000-square-foot set of three interlinked blocks, with an imposing colonnaded facade of slender pillars in precast white concrete. This is the work of Verendra Wakhloo, the Germany-trained, New Delhi-based head of Matra Architects—a visionary interpretation, or “abstraction” as he calls it, of the chhatris and baradaris, elegant pavilions supported by fluted columns that are a recurring leitmotif of Rajput- Mughal architecture. The pared-down verticals and tiered garden terraces of Wakhloo's design are complemented by Mumbai-based designer Ashiesh Shah's interiors, emphasized by seamless floors of white marble and walls clad in pale American oak.