A Landscape of Meaning and Minimalism by Kiasma Studio
Imagine a quiet Sunday afternoon—soft music playing, evoking childhood memories, while a gentle breeze brushes your face. The stillness surrounds you, a sense of peace so profound it feels as though time has paused, allowing you to fully embrace the present. This must be the essence of living in Priyam, designed by Kiasma Studio – where every moment is orchestrated by thoughtful landscape design, to invite a connection to nature, and oneself. Aishwarya Kulkarni speaks to Sowmya Lakhamraju, the founder of Kiasma Studio to understand the vision behind this project.
Led by a passionate founder, Sowmya Lakhamraju, Kiasma Studio has spent over a decade creating spaces that merge art, architecture, and human experience. In a candid conversation about their latest project, Priyam, in Hyderabad, Aishwarya Kulkarni speaks to Sowmya about the ethos, journey, and vision behind the project.
SCALE: Tell us about the inception, ethos, and journey of Kiasma Studio?
Sowmya: The studio’s journey began over a decade ago, sparked by a pivotal moment during my tenure as a landscape architect. At that time, I felt that the discipline was often boxed in—reduced to feature walls, ornamental ponds, and sprawling lawns. Inspired to do more, I wanted to create a practice that could bring new ideas and deeper meaning to landscape design. When we design landscapes, we aim to create spaces that evoke emotions and lasting memories. It’s not just about a lawn, tree, or sculpture—it’s about experiencing textures, sensing smells, and seeing details that stay with you. Landscapes should offer a sense of nostalgia, a connection to deeply resonating moments. For homeowners or employees, it becomes more than a space—an experience to cherish and revisit.
Art has always been a profound influence on my life. From experimenting with photography and product shoots to serving as an art director for a film, each experience deepened my understanding of visual storytelling. In retrospect, I realise how these explorations have shaped my approach to landscape architecture, enabling me to transform abstract artistic concepts into immersive spaces that resonate with people and places.
SCALE: How do you customise materials and design elements, such as sculptures or screens, to suit each project’s unique vision?
Sowmya: Art isn’t an afterthought for us—it’s integrated into the design from the start. For example, in Priyam, elements like the wavy corten steel screen and stainless-steel discs were conceived during the early design phase. If these are removed, the landscape would feel incomplete. That’s how deeply they’re intertwined with the overall vision.
The client envisioned a minimal, Japanese-inspired aesthetic, and we suggested a bold statement with red and a human form. This led to creating custom sculptures inspired by Gandhi’s three monkeys—see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil—reimagined in a contemporary style. Despite initial skepticism, the design turned out striking, with flowing plantings complementing the bold sculptures. The result balanced minimalism and impact, aligning with the client’s vision.
These sculptures and the corten steel screen both draw from the building’s curved underside, creating continuity between architecture and landscape.
We focused on the borrowed landscape concept, making sure the client’s minimalist house had meaningful views. The spaces, including the courtyards, pool, and seating areas, were designed to connect with the outdoors. One seating area offers a stunning view of the lawn, giving a complete sense of the space. The client, who values simplicity and functionality, worked closely on furniture placement to ensure everything felt purposeful and aligned with this vision.
SCALE: How do you define minimalism in your practice?
Sowmya: Minimalism, for us, is about creating maximum impact with minimal intervention. It’s about thoughtful design that serves a purpose without overwhelming the space. For instance, the reflective stainless-steel discs in Priyam’s landscape subtly capture light, textures, and even shadows, offering moments of discovery.
We make sure every detail adds value to the design. Clients often love how everything feels important, making the final design complete and meaningful.
SCALE: Were there any challenges during Priyam’s execution, particularly post-pandemic?
Sowmya: The project had a unique journey. Construction began in 2011 but paused for eight years due to some challenges. During COVID, the client resumed work, aiming to complete the interiors in a year. The house, previously used as a cowshed, presented a surreal contrast—an Austrian-designed structure in an Indian context. The client wanted a minimalist design emphasising landscape views. Given the house’s large volume, we carefully planned fenestrations, planting schemes, and open spaces, ensuring views framed the garden beautifully. Spaces were designed for functionality, accommodating their dogs and frequent gatherings. The result blended simplicity with thoughtful connections to the outdoors, creating a serene home.
The client had pre-purchased materials years ago, which limited our choices. We had to count every slab of stone, strategically design around it, and fill gaps with washed concrete. This process required creativity and precision but ultimately aligned with the project’s aesthetic.
SCALE: Priyam features diverse elements like fragrant Sampangi trees, grasses swaying near the corten steel screen, and even a 90-year-old cannonball tree in the courtyard. What inspired these choices?
Sowmya: The cannonball tree, with its Nagalingam flowers, is the centerpiece of Priyam’s courtyard. Its shadow inspired the amoeba-shaped paving, creating a poetic dialogue between light and form. Fragrant plants like Sampangi and seasonal flowering trees like Tabebuia Rosea and Cassia Fistula add dynamic, sensory layers to the landscape.
In this project, we played with tree heights and grasses to create a sense of scale, using tall trees to open up the canopy and strategically highlighting windows with a composition of greens, something we don’t often get to do in many projects.
The tree takes center stage in the design, with its natural beauty requiring little around it. We used two colour variations, with dark shades symbolising the tree’s shadow and a muted gray for the rest, creating a subtle scene. A pop of red was added to connect with other red elements in the design, like the chair. The sculpture of the lady, though minimal in scale, stands out as a striking contrast to the overall controlled style, adding a bold touch to the space. It’s a small detail that might go unnoticed due to the house’s vast scale.
The corten steel screen is both a privacy barrier and an artistic statement. Its wavy form allows planting on both sides and appears almost invisible from certain angles—a detail best experienced in person.
The landscape design drew inspiration from the building’s architecture, mirroring the curved underside of the structure and translating it into soft, flowing curves in the garden to contrast the building’s strong, perpendicular form.
SCALE: With so many large openings in Priyam, how was privacy ensured?
Sowmya: Privacy was achieved through thoughtful planning and natural elements. For instance, a privacy wall near the pool incorporates a peek-a-boo design softened by trees. The site’s expansive size also helped, ensuring functional separation between spaces without sacrificing openness.
SCALE: The project feels like a theater where trees, sculptures, and spaces interact. Was that intentional?
Sowmya: Absolutely. Every project tells a story. In Priyam, the sculptures, landscapes, and even the choice of plants contribute to a narrative. The stainless steel discs in the landscape, placed on stone, reflect the surroundings like tiny mirrors. They capture the lawn, tree canopy, and sky above, offering a surprising discovery for visitors who notice the reflections as they walk by. This concept extends from a stone bench with a stainless steel installation that also reflects the environment. The discs mimic mirrors, giving a dynamic and unexpected reflective experience, without using actual mirrors, to enhance the landscape design.
SCALE: You’ve worked on various projects, from Priyam to tropical spaces like the Sanctuary project in Vagator, Goa. What sets each project apart?
Sowmya: Sanctuary, for instance, is vastly different from Priyam. It’s extremely tropical and features a two-year-old tree growing through the building. Each project reflects its unique context and client needs, whether it’s an institution like Great Lakes or a public space like a restaurant.
But Priyam is one of those houses you need to experience in person. You’ll notice so much more than what pictures can show. Often, projects look great in photos but don’t feel the same when you visit, but this house is definitely the opposite—it feels even better in person.
SCALE: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not designing?
Sowmya: Art remains a big part of my life. I’ve been painting watercolors and working on small product designs. These creative pursuits often feed into my architectural practice, inspiring new ideas.
SCALE: Your mantra for life?
Sowmya: “Live and let live.” I also believe in the philosophy of connecting the dots, as Steve Jobs famously articulated in his Stanford speech. Every seemingly random experience contributes to where you are today.