02 / Sattva: The Healing Village

Bachelor’s thesis / Rishikesh, India

Sattva: The Healing Village

Architecture, landscape and shared life as a setting for psychological wellbeing.

Three pale timber pavilions with pitched roofs in a wildflower meadow, with people doing yoga, gardening, reading and cycling, under a misty hillside and moon.

Year: 2020
Place: Rishikesh, India
Project: Bachelor’s architecture thesis
Site: 31 acres / 125,453 m²
Made of: Four therapy clusters, family, sharing and pool villas, a landscape corridor

The project

Sattva explores how architecture can support people experiencing stress and depression.

Drawing on ideals of peace, balance and harmony, the project brings architecture, nature, human interaction and therapy into one setting. On a proposed 31-acre site in Rishikesh, four therapy clusters sit alongside residential neighbourhoods. A landscape corridor, conceived as a symbolic reading of the Ganga, connects the two through gardens, water and shared paths.

Care is conceived at the scale of daily life, with courtyards and continuous routes that offer places to meet or withdraw.

Sattva / The Healing Village

01 / Project overview

A village organised around care

The architectural argument rests on a balance of privacy and participation, with nature present in both. Yoga, meditation and gardening connect the programme to Rishikesh.

Aerial rendering of circular building clusters, ponds and winding paths set among fields and trees. — 02Aerial view: circular clusters linked by a landscape corridor of water and paths.

Sattva / The Healing Village

02 / Site and context

A landscape setting in Rishikesh

The site study places the proposal near the Ganga, with road access and an existing green belt. The studies map access, sun, wind and dimensions.

Walkability, low-rise buildings, yoga, meditation and horticulture guide a village organised around outdoor life.

Location: Rishikesh, India
Site area: 31 acres / 125,453 m²

Six circular maps: Rishikesh, the site, the site area, roads, sun path and wind direction. — 03Rishikesh and the site: roads, sun path, wind direction and dimensions.

Sattva / The Healing Village

03 / Masterplan

Circular clusters, connected landscape

A central landscape corridor mediates between therapy and residential life. Circular clusters give each part of the village a recognisable centre within a connected network of paths.

Therapy clusters: Four clusters give spatial form to the proposed stages of the healing journey.
Living clusters: Family, sharing and pool villas organise accommodation around gardens.
Shared landscape: Water, sensory gardens, cafes and walking routes connect activities across the site.

Rendered masterplan of circular clusters in a triangular site beside a river, with a numbered key. — 04Masterplan.

Sattva / The Healing Village

04 / Site development

From site conditions to a village framework

The site-evolution studies identify activity nodes, connect them through circulation and group related uses into clusters.

Rather than treating the space between buildings as a leftover, the plan gives it a programme of gardens, water, walking and gathering.

The structure repeats at a finer scale: a shared centre, connected rooms and routes that extend into the garden.

Grid of twelve isometric diagrams showing a sloping site gradually filling with circular clusters. — 05Site evolution: original site, nodes, clusters, outcome.

Sattva / The Healing Village

05 / Spatial concept

The courtyard and the continuous route

Circular forms create continuous routes without dead ends; ramps connect activities across levels.

Isometric diagrams of a circular building being opened, divided into zones, looped with ramps and given rooftop gardens. — 06Form evolution and ramp usage.

Open the centre: A courtyard brings an outdoor focus into the circular volume.
Divide the programme: Smaller volumes accommodate different activities and degrees of privacy.
Connect the levels: Gradual ramps link rooms, terraces and rooftop gardens into one continuous route.

Sattva / The Healing Village

06 / Thesis argument

Four connected dimensions of care

How can everyday spaces support emotional wellbeing?

Architecture: Courtyards, sheltered edges and continuous routes organise movement and privacy.
Nature: Gardens, water and planted views bring outdoor experience into daily routines.
Human interaction: Shared terraces and courts make room for conversation, company and retreat.
Therapy: Spaces for individual, family and group work sit alongside creative and physical activities.

Curving timber building raised on slender columns above a looping path and a garden of wild grasses. — 07A generous garden edge: a route, a place to pause and a setting for shared activity.

Sattva / The Healing Village

07 / Research into design

From research to spatial choices

Light and outlook: The precedent comparison examines natural light, openings and landscape views. Sattva carries these concerns into rooms that face gardens and sheltered outdoor edges.
Connection and choice: Shared settings combine with quieter rooms: five small briefing pods can open into one larger classroom.
A daily relationship with nature: The veranda turns an outlook into an occupied threshold, a place to sit, meet and spend time outdoors.

Veranda under string lights with blue chairs, a child on the grass, a woman holding a cup and a yoga group in the park behind. — 08The veranda: an occupied threshold between room and garden.

Sattva / The Healing Village

08 / Therapy programme

The healing journey

A forty-day sequence of four stages. It is a programme framework, not a measured recovery timetable. Each stage has its own circular cluster, pairing therapy spaces with movement, social contact and access to the outdoors.

Exploded axonometric of the first therapy cluster with labelled rooms. — 0901 / Avoidance to confrontationArt and pottery spaces, individual and family rooms, and private gardens.

Exploded axonometric of the second therapy cluster with labelled rooms. — 1002 / Confrontation to staying with emotionGroup rooms, studios, yoga and meditation spaces, a Zen garden and horticulture.

Exploded axonometric of the third therapy cluster with baths and therapy rooms. — 1103 / Staying with emotions to actionBaths, movement spaces and individual, family and group rooms.

Exploded axonometric of the fourth therapy cluster with a labyrinth and sports hall. — 1204 / Positivity and gratitudeA gymnasium, indoor sports hall, labyrinth, Zen garden and yoga spaces.

Sattva / The Healing Village

09 / Movement and encounter

Circulation as a place to meet

Raised timber walkway and open gallery beside planted courts, with people gathered underneath. — 13A connected routeRaised walks and open galleries make circulation part of daily life, keeping contact with planted courts.

Stepped timber seating around a lawn, with a ramp gallery curving overhead. — 14A place to gatherStepped seating turns the courtyard into a shared destination, linked to smaller places to pause.

Sattva / The Healing Village

10 / Water and retreat

A sequence of water spaces

Curved timber pergola around a circular pool with a person stretching and others talking. — 15The quiet edgeA covered curve and stepped seating frame the pool, making room for conversation beside the water.

Timber bathing pavilion with hot pools, garden views and bathers. — 16Bathing and the gardenBathing is part of the therapy programme. Daylight, warm surfaces and garden views give the pavilion an intimate scale.

Sattva / The Healing Village

11 / Movement and contemplation

A garden setting for yoga

Yoga and meditation recur throughout the village programme.

An open pavilion gives group practice a defined place while keeping contact with planting, light and the surrounding garden.

Open timber pavilion with a rhythm of sloping beams over a meadow where people practise yoga. — 17An open pavilion for group yoga.

Sattva / The Healing Village

12 / Everyday community

Courtyards for shared daily life

Courtyard with a stone circle, a person meditating, walkers and low timber buildings. — 18Room to pausePlanted beds and curved edges create smaller settings for sitting and conversation within the larger court.

Timber deck among flowering beds, with a woman watering plants and a family gardening. — 19Room to participatePaths and common gardens offer informal contact beyond scheduled activities.

Sattva / The Healing Village

13 / Sensory landscape

A corridor for the senses

A sequence of gardens invites exploration through sight, scent, touch, taste and sound.

Plan of a leaf-shaped corridor ringed by circular photographs of gardens, ponds, cafes and canopy walks. — 20Landscape corridor plan with its sensory gardens.

Sight gardens use flower colour and pond reflections; scented beds include hyacinth, catmint and creeping thyme. Lamb’s ear and wormwood introduce contrasting leaf textures, while mango, guava, chives and nasturtiums inform the taste gardens. Bamboo, wind chimes and bells create distinct sound settings.

Sattva / The Healing Village

14 / Landscape structure

The landscape corridor as a connector

Inspired by the Ganga, the landscape corridor marks a transition between therapy and living areas while giving them a common outdoor setting.

A landscape to experience: Sensory gardens introduce changes in colour, scent, texture, taste and sound along the route.
A shared daily route: Cafes, seating, hot springs and the yoga and meditation park provide destinations between home and the therapy clusters.

Vertical plan of the corridor with circular diagrams of the yoga park, gardens, cafes and hot springs. — 21The corridor linking the healing areas with the residential part of the site.

Sattva / The Healing Village

15 / Residential life

Living within the garden

Accommodation is arranged as small residential groups around shared gardens. Low-rise villas keep a domestic scale within the wider care setting. Large openings and sheltered edges mediate between home and shared landscape, so residents can stay close to their rooms, sit at the threshold or join the life of the garden.

Pitched-roof timber villas around a winding path and meadow, with neighbours chatting. — 22Villas around a shared garden.

Timber villas with blue-framed glazing opening onto a deck, benches and wild planting. — 23Between the room and the courtyard.

Sattva / The Healing Village

16 / Residential form

A family of small buildings

Contemporary volumes are combined with pitched-roof forms associated with Uttarakhand.

Seven volumetric prototypes are combined into units and clusters. Variations in roof profile and arrangement establish a common architectural language without repeating one building type.

Sharing villas: Types A and B, 170 m² each. Living, kitchen and dining spaces with sleeping rooms, bathing and balconies.
Pool villas: Types A and B, 130 m² each. Sleeping, living and dining spaces beside a private garden and pool.

Line diagram of seven house volumes and their combinations into units and clusters. — 24Seven volumes combined into units and clusters.

Two annotated floor plans of sharing villas. — 25Sharing villas, Types A and B.

Two annotated floor plans of pool villas. — 26Pool villas, Types A and B.

Sattva / The Healing Village

17 / Construction studies

Timber, glazing and the domestic section

Exploded studies show how roof, enclosure and structural grid define the residential spaces.

Exploded axonometric of a pool villa above an aerial view of the finished villa. — 27Pool villa Type A.

Exploded axonometric of a sharing villa above an aerial view of the finished villa. — 28Sharing villa Type A.

Exploded axonometric of a family villa above an aerial view of the finished villa. — 29Family villa.

Sattva / The Healing Village

18 / Productive landscape

Growing as part of everyday life

Raised vegetable beds, a canal and tall aquaponic towers with residents harvesting, tending and eating together. — 30Seasonal gardens, aquaponic towers and a shared table.

Residents are invited to grow and tend plants in seasonal gardens and aquaponic systems. Horticulture connects the project’s environmental ambitions with shared activity, routine and responsibility for the landscape, linking the care of plants with conversation, participation and the production of food.

Three landscape sections showing villas, gardens, compost pits and aquaponics. — 31Sections link the villas to seasonal gardens, aquaponics and bird-watching areas.

Sattva / The Healing Village

19 / Environmental strategy

Food, water and daily participation

Isometric diagrams of recreational, private and seasonal gardens, aquaponics, water body and bird-watching area. — 32Types of outdoor space in the living colonies.

Circular flow diagram linking rainwater, villa, waste, biogas, compost, seasonal garden and aquaponics. — 33The food and waste management mechanism.

Grow and tend: Seasonal gardens and aquaponics combine food production with resident participation. The aquaponic cycle connects fish cultivation, plant nutrients and water reuse.
Collect and reuse: Organic waste feeds biogas and composting. Underground tanks store rainwater, and villa roofs carry solar panels.