PROJECT DOSSIER — SHEET L

BANER RESIDENTIAL SOCIETY LANDSCAPE

Baner, Pune — 2022

Layered native garden with stone path winding through young trees at the Baner residence

The Walkthrough

A layered native-species garden that returned birdsong to a bare plot — designed as a small forest, not a lawn.

THE BRIEF

The residential society committee requested a low-maintenance, green buffer zone for their common area that could double as a peaceful retreat for residents without the high water demands of a traditional manicured lawn.

THE SITE

The plot came to us scraped bare by construction — compacted earth, two surviving gulmohars, and a drainage problem. Instead of importing a lawn, we proposed importing an ecosystem.

THE CHALLENGES

The primary challenge was the severely degraded soil quality left behind by the builders. The compacted earth was almost impermeable, leading to severe water-logging during the monsoons and bone-dry conditions during the summer.

Dense planting beds with native shrubs and grasses in layered heights — Seven canopy layers, from groundcover to gulmohar

PLANTING PLAN — L-02

THE SOLUTION

Over 90% of the 140 species planted are native to the Deccan. Gravel swales harvest every drop of monsoon runoff into the soil rather than the storm drain. The two old gulmohars were kept as anchors — the design grew outward from them, not over them.

Basalt stepping-stone path through dense planting — The path takes the long way, deliberately

Close-up of native grasses catching evening light — Deccan grasses

Within eighteen months the family counted twenty-two bird species from the breakfast table. The garden keeps its own guest list now.

— Post-occupancy review, 2024

We asked for a garden. Weaver gave us a habitat — and it has changed how our family spends every evening.

— S. Iyer, Baner Road

MORE LANDSCAPE WORK

Terraced hillside garden with dry-stone retaining walls stepping down the slope

PANDHARPUR BUNGLOW LANDSCAPING

Pandharpur, Pune — 2023

RESIDENTIAL LANDSCAPES

Terraced gardens that follow the hill's own contours — every existing tree kept, every retaining wall dry-stacked from stone found on site.

Rooftop terrace garden with pergola, planters and city skyline beyond

PUNE TERRACE GARDEN

Pune, Pune — 2024

TERRACE LANDSCAPES

A twelfth-floor terrace turned into a monsoon-proof garden room — lightweight, wind-wise and alive through every season.

Stone and timber farmhouse at dusk with landscaped gardens and pathway lighting

FARMHOUSE AT BAVDHAN

Bavdhan, Bengaluru — 2023

FARMHOUSE ESTATES

A complete estate outside Bengaluru — luxury minimalist interiors and a working landscape of orchards, water and native woodland, designed with uncompromising attention to detail.