Shilamay by Naman Shah
Shilamay sets a family’s daily rhythm in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, where stone, lime, and planted courtyards temper sun and heat. Designed by Naman Shah as a house for his own household, it folds reclaimed wood and playful elements into durable, lived-in rooms. The result isn’t precious or remote; it’s a home tuned to games, chores, and weather.
Morning air moves across cool stone as light glances off lime-plastered walls. By afternoon, the same walls hold a softer glow, shading rooms where play and routine overlap.
This is a family house in Ahmedabad by Naman Shah, composed of local stone, traditional lime plaster, and reclaimed wood. The project centers everyday life: movement, play, and a porous boundary with weather. Rather than pin-drop quiet, it embraces energy and flux, letting children, plants, and rain set the pace.
Play Reroutes Circulation
A slide tracks the main stair, turning a route into a daily game. Passing from floor to floor becomes an invitation, not a chore, and the sculptural tree trunk at its base anchors the junction with a tactile pause. Handcrafted critters climb that salvaged trunk, a tiny menagerie that steadies the eye while feet and laughter move past in waves. Movement has hierarchy here—stairs for stride, slide for joy.
Roof Frames Weather
Above the living room, a sweeping glass roof pulls the sky indoors. Rain draws lines across the glazing, becoming a seasonal show that gathers the family beneath a clear plane of light. On bright days, daylight pours from above and from the sides, reducing the need for lamps until late evening (shadows soften and stretch across the stone). Even monkeys turn the ceiling into a stage, a reminder that the house shares a wider habitat.
Garden Joins Living
Planting isn’t a garnish; it’s architecture. Greenery threads indoors and out, cleaning the air and tempering glare while the garden reads as an extension of the living room. Doors and thresholds drop the distance so daily life spills into the yard, and the yard pushes back with scent, shade, and a trace of breeze. The line between built and landscape stays deliberately soft.
Water Guides Routine
By the dining area, a sculptural runnel carries rainwater and overflow from the terrace down to the garden. Its gentle sound locates meals, chores, and conversation, a low metronome that ties upstairs weather to ground-plane planting. Children lean to track the flow, learning seasonality at the table—practical and poetic in equal measure. Water work becomes daily knowledge rather than hidden service.
Memory Builds Fabric
Reclaimed wood from the family’s ancestral house returns as beams and panels. The patina carries time into new rooms, giving grip and warmth where hands meet rails and doors. Local stone and lime plaster handle Ahmedabad’s harsh summers with passive cooling, while the lime finish breathes and holds light through the day. In the children’s room, ladders and nets add climb and pause, turning bedtime and cleanup into small adventures.
Toward evening, stone cools and the lime walls dim to a calm matte. The house keeps time with the weather—play, rest, and work braided into one lived pattern.
Photography courtesy of Naman Shah
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