Arbor's By the Lake

Located at the edge of the Bommasandra industrial area, Arbors by the Lake is a 22-acre villa development conceived as an attempt to recreate the charm and character of old Bangalore. Set alongside a lake, the development draws from the city's erstwhile garden neighbourhoods, where tree-lined avenues, generous setbacks and intimate streets created a distinctive sense of place.
The masterplan is structured around a network of streets, with each avenue defined by a specific species of tree. Over time, these avenues are envisioned to develop their own identity, creating a landscape that is both diverse and cohesive.
The development comprises generous 18 x 24 metre villa plots and 10 x 24 metre twin-villa plots. The individual villas are designed around large private gardens, while the twin villas are organised around a combination of rear gardens and internal courtyards, allowing landscape and natural light to become an integral part of everyday living.
The houses were conceived through a modular design approach, where a carefully developed set of architectural components could be combined in multiple ways. Rather than creating a series of identical homes, the system allowed different configurations, spatial arrangements and façade options to come together, giving each homeowner the ability to create a distinct house while retaining an underlying architectural coherence across the development. We called this approach "Mass Customization."
A key challenge was the approach road, which sits significantly higher than the development. This change in level meant that the roofs would become a prominent element in the visual experience of the project. The roofscape therefore became an important part of the architectural response. Multiple iterations of roof forms were explored to create a varied and dynamic silhouette when viewed from the approach road, transforming what could have been a visual disadvantage into a defining characteristic of the development.
The result is a neighbourhood that combines the intimacy of a traditional Bangalore residential street with the flexibility of contemporary villa living—where landscape, architecture and the idea of individual identity come together to create a modern interpretation of the city's garden suburb.