Atelier Studio
Spaces that
outlive
their moment
Spaces that
outlive
their moment
Atelier Studio is an architecture and interior practice designing residences, workplaces and hospitality across India — built on restraint, daylight and material honesty.
Established 2009
Mumbai · Bengaluru
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architecture · interiors · landscape
architecture · interiors · landscape
Selected work
Four buildings that explain how we think
Every project below started as a constraint somebody else called a problem — a flooding plot, a 1:6 slope, a lobby nobody would sit in.
Samir Sain — Founder & Principal Architect
The studio
We are a small practice that stays on site until the last handle is set.
Samir founded Atelier Studio in 2009 after seven years between Mumbai and Rotterdam, working on civic buildings and a handful of houses that taught him more than any of them.
To give every client — a family of four or a hospitality group — the same rigour of thinking, the same detail set, and the same person answering the phone.
Years in practice
Projects delivered
Client satisfaction
Awards & citations
Design philosophy
Restraint is the hardest thing to draw
Design thinking
Every project starts as a question about how people will actually live in the space, not as a shape. We interrogate the brief until the plan writes itself.
Process
Discovery, site, research, concept, drawing, execution — an unbroken chain where the studio stays on site until the last handle is set.
Attention to detail
A shadow gap of six millimetres. A door that closes without sound. Detail is not decoration; it is the difference between a house and a home.
Sustainable approach
Local stone, passive cooling, rainwater harvesting and a preference for buildings that need less rather than systems that do more.
What we do
Six services, one team, one drawing set
Most clients take two or three of these together. They are separated here for clarity, not because we hand a project between departments.
How a project runs
Eight stages, fortnightly reporting, no surprises
Brief, budget, aspirations and constraints — mapped in a single working session.
Clients
“They spent three full days on our Alibaug plot before drawing a single line. That patience shows in every monsoon — the rain-fed court collects light and breeze exactly as promised.”
Rhea Malhotra
Private Villa, Alibaug
“We briefed four top practices across Mumbai. Atelier was the only team that re-engineered the floor plate logic. The commercial tower cut our energy bill by 32% in year one.”
Arjun Sethi
Managing Director, Nirvaan Real Estate
“Luxury in India is judged by material authenticity. Guests stop at our stone pavilion court before checking in. That is the architecture doing our marketing.”
Kavita Iyer
Founder, Kaash Retreats (Coorg)
“An eleven-week coastal renovation delivered in eleven weeks, to the rupee. In Mumbai real estate, that level of site execution and discipline is rare.”
Devan Rao
Sea-Facing Penthouse, Worli
“They designed with local basalt and passive cooling for the Deccan heat. Three dry summers in, the house stays naturally cool without heavy air conditioning.”
Meera Krishnan
Estate Villa & Vineyard, Nashik
Recognition
Awards, citations and where we have been published
Journal
Writing from the studio
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Let's build
something
that lasts
Let's build
something
that lasts
Tell us about the site, the brief and the budget. We will tell you within a week whether we are the right practice for it — and who is, if we are not.