The Studio
The studio
A practice
of sixteen
years
A practice
of sixteen
years
Small teams, long site presence, and a refusal to hand over a drawing the principal has not stood in front of. That has not changed since the first commission in 2009.
Years in practice
16+
Projects delivered
148
Client satisfaction
98%
Awards & citations
11
Samir Sain — Founder & Principal Architect
Founder story
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.
The practice began with a single renovation in Bandra and a conviction that had not yet found its words: that Indian architecture had spent a decade borrowing a vocabulary it did not need.
Sixteen years and one hundred and forty-eight projects later, the studio still works the same way — small teams, long site presence, and a refusal to hand over a drawing the principal has not stood in front of.
Vision
To build a body of work that is unmistakably of this place and this climate, and that ages into something better than it was on the day of handover.
Mission
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.
creativity · sustainability · precision
creativity · sustainability · precision
Studio values
Five words we can be held to
Creativity
A new idea for every site, never a house style pressed onto a plot.
Sustainability
Passive first, mechanical last. Local material, local labour, long life.
Functionality
Beauty that fails at storage, circulation or maintenance is not beauty.
Precision
Tolerances written into the drawing, not negotiated on site.
Innovation
Parametric shading, low-carbon concrete, digital twins — where they earn their place.
Meet the team
Five people, and the person you call is the person who draws
We cap the studio at a size where the principal can still review every drawing that leaves the office. Growth beyond that would cost the thing clients come to us for.
Samir Sain
Founder & Principal Architect
22 years
Residential & hospitality
Nandita Rao
Design Director
15 years
Concept & massing
Faraz Sheikh
Head of Technical Design
13 years
Detailing & GFC sets
Ananya Bose
Head of Interiors
11 years
Material & joinery
Karan Mehta
Landscape Lead
9 years
Site & planting strategy
Studio journey
From one room
in Bandra
From one room
in Bandra
The first drawing board
Studio founded in a one-room office in Bandra with a single renovation commission.
First ground-up house
Vaan House I in Alibaug — the project that set the studio's material language.
Bengaluru studio
A second office opens to serve workplace and hospitality clients in the south.
Ten years, sixty projects
The practice crosses sixty completions and takes on its first master plan.
Building for climate
Every new project is designed to a passive-first brief as studio policy.
148 and counting
Recognised by IIID, A+D and Architectural Digest India in a single year.
Years in practice
Projects delivered
Client satisfaction
Awards & citations
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.