Wright Inspires

From designing homes for hundreds of others, our Principal architect, Prathima Seethur found herself seeking a unique challenge – designing a residence for her own family. Still at the young age of 32, she started this journey by putting her foot down and opting for a larger plot in the ever-expensive city of Bengaluru facing a quiet 60ft road to the south. The initial plan was simple: design a home for a family of 4 with ample greenery and sunlight and a cool basement space where she could continue her architecture practice. But the basement seemed to be the largest obstacle in her grand plan, as only upon digging the land for the plot, they discovered gigantic boulders that covered a fifth of the total land area. Thus began the quarrel on whether to spend money to remove the boulders, hence buying back the precious real estate space they’re taking up or retain them. Retain them? How can one retain boulders in a home? How would it feel to wake up in the morning, make a coffee in your kitchen and have massive piles of rock stare back at you? Well, at one of the early site visits, with her little 2-year-old son accompanying her, Prathima stared back at the boulders that created such a huge obstacle, and suddenly she remembered all the wonderful moments she spent as a child climbing rocks and mounds at her hometown of Seethur, a magical village nestled in a valley in the Western Ghats. Then, it struck her, “My kids or any kids at this day and age would never be able to get that magical experience, being so close to nature! Let’s retain the boulders!”, she exclaimed, and so she took upon herself the incredible challenge of building a home so close to nature that it wraps itself around a tiny hill of rocks and the greenery that accompanies it. Prathima went on to face many challenges while building this home, from working with a new but experienced contractor to casting a futuristic slab that happens to be only a few inches thick and creating a never-seen-before open floor plan to stretching the young couple’s budget so much that they were forced to sleep on a mattress laid bare on the floor once they moved in. But boy was it worth it! From running a home and office in a 900 sq ft shoebox studio, she went on to create the most magnificent abode and extraordinary office space ever seen. From countless site visits dragging along her two children aged 2 and 7, she created a dwelling that bemuses and bedazzles every visitor. From running a small practice in her late twenties, this piece of brick-clay and mortar marked the beginning a new journey of a firm that would hence be known as “Wright Inspires” From that day standing in the dust and sand, staring at the boulders to today, having built a thriving architecture practice that has realised over 250 homes and empowered 100s of youngsters. Her ideology remains the same, to design spaces that are close to nature and support every young architect sharing the same vision. The young couple named their home “Prakrti”, Sanskrit for “Nature” and Prathima named her practice “Wright Inspires”, a homage to her Guru, Jaisim Fountainhead and Ar. Frank Lloyd Wright, whose works inspired her to this day.