Project Narrative
The landscape design of Devasom- The Wellness Retreat exemplifies a deeply immersive, biophilic, and spiritually responsive approach, positioning the environment as an active medium for holistic wellness. Rather than serving as a passive backdrop, the landscape is choreographed to guide visitors through multisensory experiences that heal, ground, and uplift, integrating terrain, vegetation, water, light, and air into a continuum of therapeutic zones. The retreat’s peninsular setting, embraced by a five-acre lake, allows the built form to dissolve into the natural environment, heightening awareness of elemental presence. Meandering paths and graded trails, lined with native vegetation, encourage visitors to pause at benches and contemplative points, creating moments of attunement to nature’s rhythms.
A series of tropical courtyards functions as climatic and experiential cores, providing passive cooling, thermal buffering, and humidity regulation. These courtyards blend terracotta-hued walls, sculptural water features, fragrant planting, and tactile surfaces, forming meditative spaces that evolve with light, season, and time. Water plays multiple roles- reflecting pools and lily ponds offer evaporative cooling, cascading walls muffle mechanical noise, and lotus basins act as ritual anchors. Nightscaping is designed to be subtle and symbolic, with low-height fixtures and warm LEDs preserving night-sky visibility while fostering a grounding ambiance.
Layered planting celebrates biophilic principles, integrating texture, scent, and biodiversity. Native palms, understory layers of heliconia, ferns, and spider lilies, and lotus along aquatic edges create a multisensory experience that frames views, softens transitions, and connects all programmatic zones. Materiality emphasizes local and sustainable choices: terracotta stucco, lime plaster, natural stone, and clay-finished flooring merge the built form with the site, while permeable paving, vegetated joints, and cobbled transitions reference vernacular idioms. Geomantic planning and Vedic principles subtly inform the masterplan, with central axes guiding movement, cardinal directions determining layout, and curved vaults softening massing while allowing light to animate surfaces.
Passive strategies ensure ecological and climatic responsiveness: deep overhangs, semi-open verandas, planted pergolas, bioswales, rain gardens, and vegetated channels support comfort, stormwater management, and groundwater recharge. At Devasom, landscape is the very medium of wellness, fostering a dialogue between the built and unbuilt, sensory and spiritual. Through ecological sensitivity, material honesty, and ritualistic design, it creates a sanctuary for reflection, healing, and reconnection with oneself and the earth, establishing a contemporary Indian landscape language that is immersive, restorative, and profoundly grounded in its context.
A series of tropical courtyards functions as climatic and experiential cores, providing passive cooling, thermal buffering, and humidity regulation. These courtyards blend terracotta-hued walls, sculptural water features, fragrant planting, and tactile surfaces, forming meditative spaces that evolve with light, season, and time. Water plays multiple roles- reflecting pools and lily ponds offer evaporative cooling, cascading walls muffle mechanical noise, and lotus basins act as ritual anchors. Nightscaping is designed to be subtle and symbolic, with low-height fixtures and warm LEDs preserving night-sky visibility while fostering a grounding ambiance.
Layered planting celebrates biophilic principles, integrating texture, scent, and biodiversity. Native palms, understory layers of heliconia, ferns, and spider lilies, and lotus along aquatic edges create a multisensory experience that frames views, softens transitions, and connects all programmatic zones. Materiality emphasizes local and sustainable choices: terracotta stucco, lime plaster, natural stone, and clay-finished flooring merge the built form with the site, while permeable paving, vegetated joints, and cobbled transitions reference vernacular idioms. Geomantic planning and Vedic principles subtly inform the masterplan, with central axes guiding movement, cardinal directions determining layout, and curved vaults softening massing while allowing light to animate surfaces.
Passive strategies ensure ecological and climatic responsiveness: deep overhangs, semi-open verandas, planted pergolas, bioswales, rain gardens, and vegetated channels support comfort, stormwater management, and groundwater recharge. At Devasom, landscape is the very medium of wellness, fostering a dialogue between the built and unbuilt, sensory and spiritual. Through ecological sensitivity, material honesty, and ritualistic design, it creates a sanctuary for reflection, healing, and reconnection with oneself and the earth, establishing a contemporary Indian landscape language that is immersive, restorative, and profoundly grounded in its context.
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