Studio Mitti
Double-height living volume with a slatted teak ceiling

Rain Tree House · Malleswaram · 2025

Homes and small workplaces, built from materials that age well.

We design homes and small workplaces in and around Bengaluru. Lime plaster, solid teak, terracotta, cane — materials that age rather than degrade, made by people we can drive to. Fourteen projects a year, no more, because that is how many we can be present for.

BengaluruFounded 2016Residential & workplaceStart a project →

Selected work

Four of the fourteen we finished last year. Areas, durations and final costs are the real ones, including the two that ran over.

Living room in cane, lime plaster and teak — Malleswaram residence
Double-height living volume with a slatted teak ceiling
Cushion and throw detail in rust and cream
Reading nook with cane screen and arched mirror

01 · Private residence

Rain Tree House

Location
Malleswaram, Bengaluru
Area
3,150 sq ft
Duration
9 months
Cost
₹1.05 Cr

A 1960s house with good bones, dark rooms and a rain tree in the courtyard the family refused to lose. The brief was to open it up without turning it into a glass box.

  • Two internal walls removed and replaced with a teak-and-cane screen, so the living room borrows the courtyard light without losing separation.
  • Floors relaid in Kota stone with a lime-plaster skirting instead of skirting board.
  • All joinery in solid teak from a Yeshwanthpur yard, oiled rather than lacquered so it can be reworked in ten years.
  • The kitchen moved to face the tree; the old kitchen became a utility and a maid’s room with its own entrance.
Curved sofa and travertine coffee table
Bedroom with planted balcony
Open oak shelving against a lime-washed wall
Terracotta and rust palette in the family lounge

02 · Apartment renovation

The Anjali Apartment

Location
Indiranagar, Bengaluru
Area
1,680 sq ft
Duration
5 months
Cost
₹42 lakh

A builder-finish 3 BHK for a couple who both work from home and had been fighting over one desk. Two workspaces, no extra room, and a strict budget.

  • The dining alcove became a shared study with a nine-foot table, used for both work and eating.
  • A folding cane-and-teak partition lets one person take a call without the other leaving the room.
  • Bedroom wardrobes rebuilt full height to reclaim the six inches of dead space above them.
  • Existing vitrified floor kept — the budget went into joinery and light instead of ripping up a perfectly good floor.
Villa living room opening to the deck
Fluted teak screen with planting
Terracotta and rust palette in the family lounge
Powder room in honed grey stone

03 · Weekend house

Terracotta Farmhouse

Location
Kanakapura Road
Area
2,400 sq ft
Duration
14 months
Cost
₹78 lakh

A weekend house on a two-acre plot with no reliable power. It had to be comfortable in April without air-conditioning, and to be shut up for three weeks at a stretch without deteriorating.

  • Filler-slab roof with terracotta blocks, and a 600mm cavity wall on the west face — the interior sits 6–7°C below outside at peak.
  • Every finish chosen for a house that will be empty and shut: no MDF, no laminate, no fabric that will hold damp.
  • Deep verandah on three sides with a lime-washed ceiling that bounces light without glare.
  • Kitchen in granite and stainless steel, so it can be hosed down and locked.
Studio office fit-out in oak and rattan
Cushion and throw detail in rust and cream
Curved sofa and travertine coffee table
Open oak shelving against a lime-washed wall

04 · Workplace

A Quiet Office

Location
Richmond Town, Bengaluru
Area
4,200 sq ft
Duration
7 months
Cost
₹1.4 Cr

Twenty-eight people in a firm that does deep, quiet work. The client had been in a glass-box office and wanted the opposite: acoustic calm, no open-plan bench farm.

  • Six four-person rooms rather than one open floor, with a shared central table for everything else.
  • Acoustic ceiling in recycled cotton, jute panels on the long wall, carpet only where people walk.
  • Furniture in oak and powder-coated steel, specified to be repairable rather than replaced.
  • Every desk within four metres of a window; the meeting rooms took the internal core.

How we work

Three stages, and a partner on your site every week.

One

A long first conversation

Two hours in your existing home or office, not our studio. How you actually live matters more than what you have saved. We charge nothing for this and we will tell you honestly if we are not the right practice.

Two

Design, in three rounds

Concept, then developed design, then working drawings. You see hand sketches and physical material samples before any render. Renders come last, and only to check something specific.

Three

On site, every week

One of the two partners is on your site weekly, with a written note after each visit. We work with four contractors we have used for years and we do not take a cut from them.

Materials

Four things we keep coming back to.

  • Lime plaster

    Breathable, repairable, and it improves with age. We use a Kerala lime and a local applicator we have worked with since 2018.

  • Solid teak

    From a Yeshwanthpur yard, seasoned eighteen months. Oiled, never lacquered, so a scratch is fixed with a cloth.

  • Kota and Sadarahalli

    Stone quarried within 400 km. Honed rather than polished — better underfoot and it does not show every mark.

  • Cane and rattan

    Woven by two families in Chikkaballapur. It costs more than a laminate screen and it lasts thirty years.

Cushion and throw detail in rust and cream
Open oak shelving against a lime-washed wall
Fluted teak screen with planting
Powder room in honed grey stone

Fees

What we charge, published.

We do not take a commission from contractors or suppliers. If a vendor offers one, it is passed back to you as a discount.

Consultation & site study

Two hours, in your space. No obligation.

Free
Design only

Drawings, specifications and material selection. You execute.

₹110 – ₹160 / sq ft
Design & supervision

Everything above, plus weekly site supervision and vendor coordination.

9% of project cost
Turnkey

We hold the contracts and hand you the keys. Fixed cost agreed before work starts.

14% of project cost

The studio

Two partners, six people, one workshop in Malleswaram.

Studio Mitti was started in 2016 by Aparna Sridhar and Rohan Dev, both of whom trained at CEPT and worked in larger practices before deciding they wanted to be on site rather than in review meetings.

The studio has a small workshop attached where joinery details are mocked up full size before they go to the carpenter. It is slower. It also means fewer surprises on site.

Press

  • Architectural Digest IndiaTen small studios to watch, 2025
  • Elle Decor IndiaRain Tree House, June 2025
  • The Hindu“Building with what is already there”, 2024
The Studio Mitti workshop in Malleswaram

Start a project

The first conversation is free, and it is in your space.

Studio Mitti18, 8th Cross, MalleswaramBengaluru 560003+91 80 2334 6611studio@mitti.design

We take on fourteen projects a year. If our next slot is six months away, we will tell you that in the first reply rather than the third meeting.