Doshi Retreat

This contemplative structure on a design campus was conceived by the Indian architect with his granddaughter Khushnu Panthaki Hoof and her husband Sönke Hoof. Inspired by Indian spirituality, it offers a sensory journey of sound and stillness. It is the architect’s first project completed outside his home country and the last design he worked on before his death in 2023.

The retreat unfolds as a winding path that invites both physical and metaphorical exploration. According to Khushnu Panthaki Hoof, the form was born from a dream of two interweaving cobras. Visitors move below ground level between walls that resonate with the soft tones of gong and flute, played through a discreet audio system set into concave recesses in the ground.

At the end of the walkway, a hand-hammered brass mandala crafted by Indian artisans covers the ceiling of the contemplation chamber and scatters refracted light into the space. The structure is built from forged and formed low-carbon steel, made with a high share of scrap and produced with renewable energy, which develops a warm patina over time through controlled corrosion.

The design draws on the idea of Kundalini, a Sanskrit term meaning coiled, which describes a latent energy whose awakening is central to spiritual transformation in yogic and tantric traditions. Sacred sound plays a key role in that process, and here it underpins the flowing geometry of the path. The designers never gave the retreat a formal label, leaving it free to serve as a space for solitude and contemplation.