Turiya Villa, architect Sandesh Prabhu's home-stay in Goa, stays true to the sensibilities of a bygone era.

1. Sandesh Prabhu's Turiya Villa Introduces You to Goa Once
Again
Turiya Villa, architect Sandesh Prabhu's home-stay in goa, stays true to the sensibilities of a
bygone era.
Far removed, both geographically and literally, from the now-cliched associations with beach
paradise, Turiya Villa introduces you to Goa, once again. A place of virgin beaches and
mountainous landscapes, the comforting quiet of a tucked-away location, a place that awakens
the pure consciousness. Turiya, meaning the fourth state of consciousness, is a home stay with
the comforts of a hotel and architect-designer Sandesh Prabhu's personal project. You
understand how personal the project was when you come to know that he has even painted
the tables in the porch and fashioned the trays in the bedrooms, besides designing and
executing the project.
Sandesh shifted to Cancona for a year to complete this project. This 150-year-old home was
once a part of larger home owned by Maniole Gracies. In 1945, (the date is still inscribed on the
porch) the family renovated the space and moved in. After the death of Grades, his son
Reginald Gracies inherited the main home while the rest of the property and buildings on it
were sold by the family The home was then bought by an English couple who made some
changes to the original design. The typical Goan-style kitchen made of cow dung and mud that
came with the original home was upgraded to a kitchen with modern amenities by same. The
bathrooms were modernized too and an attic was added.
It took Sandesh 15 months to repair, restructure and re-invent the space into a home stay-spa.
"The home and spa are spread over 7,500 sq. ft. My sister, Manasi, runs the spa and she's a
qualified Ayurvedic practitioner. The spa is open to walk-in guests as well as in-house guests
and has separate entrances for both," says the designer. Each of the five rooms at Turiya are
named after the five nakshatras Bharani, Punarvasu, Rohini, Ashwini and Ardra. To make the
property vastu-compliant, he converted the east-facing rear of the home to the front. To retain
its old-world charm, he retained the IPS flooring with marble grains. The old home came with
18 doors and windows and Sandesh broke down one of the side walls and added French
windows which faced a patio. The entrance veranda was appointed with built-in seats, chairs
with patchwork cushions and a long table, hand-painted with flowers. The bright yellow wall of
the entrance with an old carved temple door makes Turiya hard to miss. To retain the authentic
feel of the home, even now, the bathrooms at Turiya are not strictly attached. The bathrooms,
leading off from the bedrooms, have been enclosed with a high wall, with two of them having
open-to-air shower areas. In one of the rooms, the bathtub overlooks a landscaped garden but

2. all bath areas are discreetly sheltered to ensure privacy, while being in/overlooking landscaped
areas.
In the restoration of this home, Sandesh has recycled, upcycled and repurposed a lot of used
products. Most of the carved doors and columns are from old temples in Karnataka. The
headboard of the bed is a railing found at the back of the old home. Sandesh had the paint
scraped off and repurposed it into a headboard. The bamboo for the roof comes from his
father's farm while the lamp bases in the room have been fashioned from old table leg s. The
spa office partitions are made from dried coconut leaves.
He has designed the trays from leftover pieces of wood. The furniture in the common living
room comprises two old sofas which have been re-upholstered. The only new accessories in
this room which were bought are the rooster placed on the centre table and two wall lights.
The dining room has another spanking new chandelier, with the six-seater dining table, a
sideboard and a wall-mounted cupboard being the other accessories in this room.
The kitchen and attic at the back of the home form the other rooms, while a bar painted in
purple with cane furniture is the other common area. A separate residence for live-in help and
a laundry room have been added by Sandesh.
The spa, called Hastha, after another nakshatra, is a separate entity with a hard-to-miss pink
wall and a carved wooden door at the entrance. A column at the entrance of the spa was
another piece picked up from an antique dealer for free. "He said that the base of the column
had been destroyed and was of no use to him. I had it restored and used here," says Sandesh.
The spa's framework is made from antique temple pillars. With a bamboo roof, coconut leaf
partitions and fabric curtains, the spa is as earthy in its decor as it is in the natural treatments
on offer. The entrance of the spa is partially hidden by a wooden partition grid, which he plans
to fit with coloured glass. All along the treatment rooms is a water body which comes alive with
candles as twilight falls. The spa and villa gardens have full grown Frangipani trees which were
part of the original landscape.
From the concept to the site plan illustration that commissioned, hand-picking materials and
products for this homestay in Goa, this is truly Sandesh's labour of love. Staying true to the
original design of the home and the sensibilities of a bygone era, Turiya Villa is an ode to the
past.
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