India House is conceptually derived from a traditional urban prototype called a haveli, or a wada in Pune. Wadas form the urban fabric of Pune’s core, old city, where they enclose central courtyards, from where one moves into activity zones for various social, cultural and occupational activities. These central courtyards also facilitate movement, air circulation and gift privacy to structures facing upon chaotic urban streets. The employment of this traditional prototype is a counter-blast to the sprawling, alien ‘bungalow’ typology generating a low-density, high cost suburbia, dependent on automobiles, across the sub-continent. The bungalow prototype is the type most validated, praised and promoted by foreign academics and journalists through exhibitions and awards, seeing in it styles and mechanisms they recognize and are comfortable with.