Author: Vartik Sethi | New Delhi

Delhi is a city of palimpsests of sandstone courtyards and skyline-piercing towers, Mughal symmetry and millennial asymmetry. Its interior design ecosystem postulates that same paradox: a meeting point of age-old craft and algorithm-driven aesthetics. In a city where nostalgia and novelty collide, three designers from three generations are reimagining space, each through their own cultural memory and technological lens. Chapter I: The Bohemian Alchemist Mawash Sheeki, Interior Designer and Stylist, Sheek Design Studio For Sheeki, design was never about degrees or formalism. It began as an instinctive act, staging college rooms with DIY crafts, sourcing natural elements from the green…

When Rohit Sethi founded Abitare in 1997, it was more than just the beginning of a design firm; it was a declaration of intent. Launched on his wife’s birthday, the practice emerged at a time when the Indian interior design industry was still in its infancy, with aesthetics often overshadowing function. A Form-First Philosophy Grounded in Function In the late 1990s, design in India was often defined by bold colours and surface-level glamour. “There was little consideration for climate, sustainability, or long-term utility,” Sethi reflected. Abitare’s early work in interiors consciously rejected this fleeting aesthetic in favour of spaces that…