NE01 / 08
North-east· Ishanya
Kept open, low and glazed. Underground water and the prayer space go here, and the walls are the thinnest on the plan. No toilet, no heavy structure — both are foundation decisions.
A-01Vastu
Vastu, settled on the drawing board.
Architects who plan to vastu from the first sketch — so nothing has to be broken later.
Most vastu problems are found after the slab is cast. We work the other way round: the directions are set while the plan is still on paper, alongside the structure, the light and the bye-laws.
Service
Houses, drawn to vastu
When
At sketch stage
Where
Punjab, Himachal and Shimla
Reply
One working day
The grid
Nine by nineEight directions
81 padas
Press a quarter
Drawn as eight quarters and an open centre, which is how a plan is set out from it. The full mandala assigns its 81 padas among 45 devatas and much of modern practice reads it as sixteen zones — this is the working simplification, not the whole diagram.
E02 / 08
East· Purva
The entry band, and the morning rooms. Tall openings and a low boundary wall, so the first hours of light reach the floor rather than the compound.
SE03 / 08
South-east· Agneya
The kitchen. The hob on the east wall of this corner, and the water inlet kept out of it — that adjacency is the one that is genuinely hard to undo once the plumbing is in the slab.
S04 / 08
South· Dakshina
Mass. Thicker walls, smaller openings, storage. It is also how you keep May out of the bedrooms, which is why following it here costs nothing.
SW05 / 08
South-west· Nairutya
The heaviest corner: master bedroom, overhead tank, and wherever the staircase lands. Floor levels sit slightly higher than at the north-east. Decided at structural stage.
W06 / 08
West· Paschima
Dining, children's rooms, study. West light is long and hot by four, so openings here are shaded by the plan itself rather than by curtains added afterwards.
NW07 / 08
North-west· Vayavya
The moving parts — guest room, garage, kitchen store, and the toilets that have to go somewhere. The corner with the most tolerance, so it is resolved last.
N08 / 08
North· Uttara
Open, and glazed where the plot allows. North light does not move and does not overheat, so this is where a study earns its window.
Brahmasthan
The centre is left open — a courtyard, a double-height space, or simply floor. No column, no toilet, no stair. On a tight plot this is the hardest rule to hold.
Vastu is stage 08 of the studio's eight →When it gets decided
Five stagesOne of them is free
The directions are free to move right up until they are not. This is where that line falls.
01
Sketch
An eraser
Nothing is committed. Rooms move around the plot as often as the conversation needs them to.
02
Concept drawings
A fortnight of redrawing
Plans, elevations and sections now agree with each other. Moving one room means moving it in all three.
03
Structural
The column grid
Columns, beams and footings are set out from the walls. A wall that moves after this moves a foundation with it.
04
Services
The slab
Drainage falls and electrical conduits are cast in. A kitchen or a toilet that moves now is a slab that gets cut.
05
Built
The wall
Whatever is wrong is now masonry. This is the stage most people first hear that something is wrong.
Everything on this page is settled at 01, before there is anything to undo. That is the only claim this practice makes about vastu that costs you nothing to test.
A-04What we do not do
We plan to vastu.We do not sell remedies.
- No yantras
- No gemstones
- No pyramids
- No muhurta
We do not take a fee for anything we cannot draw. Where vastu and the structure or the sanctioned bye-laws conflict, the structure and the bye-laws win — and we tell you which compromise we made, and why.
Questions
Asked oftenAnswered plainly
Do you charge separately for vastu?
There is nothing to charge separately for. It is part of the architectural fee because it is part of the drawing — a separate vastu line on an invoice would mean it had been a separate exercise, and it never is.
What if my plot cannot take a south-east kitchen?
Then it does not get one, and we say so at the sketch stage rather than at handover. Plot shape, road position and the sanctioned setbacks decide more than people expect. Most plans resolve six or seven of the eight directions cleanly; the honest conversation is about which one is being traded.
Can you work with our family's vastu consultant?
Yes, and it is easier when they are involved early. We would rather mark up a plan with your consultant while it is still on paper than receive a list of corrections after the structure is out of the ground.
What happens when vastu conflicts with the building bye-laws?
The bye-laws win. A plan that is not sanctioned is not a plan. The same goes for the structure: we do not move a column into a worse position to satisfy a direction, and we will tell you when that is the trade in front of us.
Do you need our birth details or horoscope?
No. We work from the site, the survey and the plot orientation. Nothing on this page depends on anyone's chart, and we do not ask for one.
Which way should the main door face?
It depends on which way the plot faces, and on where the door falls within that wall rather than on the compass direction alone — the wall is read in padas and only some of them are used. A south-facing house is not a problem in itself; a south door in the wrong pada is. It is a question about your plot, not one that can be answered in the abstract.
Do you take on vastu consultancy on its own?
No. We are architects, and vastu is how we plan a house rather than something we sell beside it. If you are building with us it is part of the drawings and part of the fee. If you are not building, we are not the right people to hire for a review — a consultant who does only that will give you more of their time than we can.
A-06Send the plan
Building? Start it right.
Tell us where the plot is and what you want on it. The directions get settled with everything else, at the sketch stage, and there is no separate vastu fee at the end of it.