Stormy Weather Is a Delight in This "Monsoon Cabin" Near Mumbai

Most vacation homes focus on maximizing sunlight; this little getaway in Maharashtra, India, is all about celebrating bad weather.

"We call it Monsoon Cabin because the house is designed around the notion of enjoying the rain," says homeowner Mridu Sahai Patnaik, a self-taught designer with a fashion background who is a partner at the firm Studio Archohm. "You can lay on the bed and see it through the sky, or hear it and feel it while you’re cooking." 

It had always been Mridu’s dream to build something of her own. She and her husband, a corporate lawyer, live in Mumbai on the 31st floor of a high-rise, and like many city residents, they enjoy escaping to the Western Ghats for a hit of nature on weekends and holidays. "Mumbai is double the density of New York," she says. "There’s a need to rejuvenate, to change the scenery."

The region is known for its monsoons, and out in the countryside, the rainfall feels charming and relaxing. The intense, sometimes sideways, deluges bounce off of low-lying mountain ranges to create what Mridu calls "a green Niagara Falls."

In other words, embracing the wet weather is essential if you’re going to build a getaway there. And while many folks erect giant farmhouses in the area to hide away from the storms, Mridu took inspiration from an exhibit at the Utzon Center in Denmark—focused on legendary designer Jørn Utzon’s commitment to dreaming big, but building small—to create a relatively humble, minimalist structure that celebrates the beauty of a rainy day.