When a historic hill-station bungalow in Dalhousie, tucked into the Himalayan landscape near the Dhauladhar hills, started a new life as a heritage resort, the biggest design feature was not something newly installed. It was what the team uncovered.
The residence carries a rare story. After his release from British house arrest in 1937, Indian freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose spent six months in Dalhousie recovering from tuberculosis. In 1972, writer, artist, and cartographer Manmohan Singh Bawa bought the property, later converting it into a boutique resort that he ran for decades.
As the building aged and maintenance grew harder, Bawa’s daughters, Anuradha Bawa Singh and Seema Bawa, took on a full restoration with their spouses. They brought in the Pathankot-based studio Design Legends, led by architect Madhur Gupta and interior designer Nitika Mahajan. What started as a straightforward rehab turned into a careful hunt for original materials and forgotten building methods.
As layers of plaster came down, the crew found stone walls beneath. Those walls were built with traditional mud mortar, and the discovery created a new challenge. The exposed masonry looked striking, but it was also delicate, requiring protection without stripping away the character that made the building worth saving. The same push and pull showed up in the timber, too. Deodar elements surfaced in strong condition in some areas, while other sections needed reinforcement.
For mason contractors and restoration crews, the project is a reminder that older buildings set the pace. The team kept returning to one core idea: retain what can be retained, and make modern upgrades, including bathrooms, lighting, and other comforts, fit the structure rather than forcing the structure to fit the upgrades.
Read the full, original article from AD Middle East (subscription required at source) here.