Ramani Guest Houses
Uttarakhand, India
2023 - Ongoing

Nestled into the agricultural terraces overlooking the expansive Nanda Devi mountain range, the guest houses near the village of Ramani face the Nepalese Himalayas to the east and the central Kumaon range of Uttarakhand to the north and west. A ten hour drive from the nearest airport in Pantnagar, the site is reached on foot via a steep mountain trail that winds its way through picturesque forests, villages, streams, farms, and temples.

Based on the initial concept developed and constructed by Studio Mumbai Architects in 2007 for Leti 360, the Ramani Guest Houses use the building blocks from the first project to reimagine and expand on the programs and experiences of the original site. Set to be closed in 2024 due to encroaching development in the region around Leti, the dry stacked stone masonry and interlocking timber joinery will be taken apart piece by piece and transported to Ramani. Adapted to the new site conditions, the project will create an expanded guest experience that includes four additional rooms, communal living, dining, and kitchen spaces, a forest spa and sauna, meditation machans, and an elevated yoga platform. Designed to be a permanent home for the boutique hotel, walls will be constructed using locally sourced mud and lime mortar, enclosed with insulated double glazing, and capped off with neatly trimmed copper roofs to better address the heavy snowfall of the mountain winters.