The stilted frame of a cottage at Yercaud on a rocky hillside, in black and white, sketched over in yellow marker

The Empty Space: architecture and interior design in Bengaluru

Since 2000, Bengaluru

We let nature and the site speak. Brick, stone and concrete stay raw. We build for light, for stillness, for the ground we did not touch. Intentional simplicity is not what remains. It is the point. 

A double-height living room in exposed brick, lit by jaali clerestory windows beneath a white pitched ceiling

We believe the intersection of architecture, meditation and sustainability creates spaces that evoke calmness, connection and harmony, bringing out the intangible essence of spirituality and the seamless integration of eco-friendly practices.

We begin with people and place, not with a style.

  1. Listen.

    Every project begins with the people who will live, work or pray in it: how they move through a day, and what lets them feel at ease.

    A hibiscus in bloom beside a verandah of timber columns, a lawn beyond

  2. Read the land.

    Then the site: its slope, trees, water, wind and light. We decide what to leave untouched before we decide what to build.

    Site plan of the Pyramid Valley campus, with its legend, landscape and meditation pyramid

  3. Build lightly.

    Brick, stone and concrete, left honest. Raised on stilts, cooled by cross-ventilation, roofed with filler slabs. The ground stays.

    A stilted timber-and-steel cottage frame standing on a rocky hillside

Selected work

All work
Curved terracotta pagoda roofs of the cottages framing the spiral-patterned meditation pyramid beyond

Kanakapura Road, Bengaluru, 2011

Pyramid Valley International

A 28-acre spiritual campus among hillocks and dense foliage.

View project
A deep verandah with timber columns on white bases and a red-oxide floor

Bengaluru

Residence

A family home built around a deep timber verandah.

View project
A stilted timber-and-steel cottage frame standing on a rocky hillside

Shevaroy Hills, 2018

The Yercaud

62 stilted cottages floating over a 147-acre coffee estate, untouched below.

View project
Warm wall lights along the brick balconies of the Starlight block at night

Pyramid Valley, Bengaluru, 2022

Starlight

A block of guest rooms at Pyramid Valley International, in brick and perforated concrete among coconut palms.

View project

Gallery

Enter the gallery

Left honest to the eye.

Portrait of Ar. Bharathi Prem

Ar. Bharathi Prem

Founding principal, LEED AP

Quiet work since 2000.

Bharathi Prem graduated from UVCE in 1995 and founded the practice in Bengaluru in 2000, working across architecture and interior design. The studio builds spiritual campuses, eco-resorts, institutions and homes, shaped around the site, the client and a modest material palette of brick, stone and concrete left honest to the eye.

A LEED-accredited professional, she has been recognised among the IGEN Top 50 Architects of India and featured in leading architectural journals. Her work at Pyramid Valley International and beyond follows a simple rule: build lightly, let nature lead, and keep the architecture quiet.

About the studio

Recognition

  • 2012IGEN Top 50 Architects of India
  • 2014–15Highly Commended, Asia Pacific Property Awards, Public Service Architecture India
  • 2018BUILD Sustainable Buildings Award, Pyramid Valley International
  • Press“Seven Wonders of Bengaluru”, Bangalore Mirror
“…what is striking is the aesthetic value that has been extracted out of this simplicity by the architects.”

Indian Architect & Builder, December 2011Read the feature

In print

  • Indian Architect & Builder
  • Architecture Update
  • Journal of the IIA
  • Society Interiors
  • Better Interiors
  • India Art N Design
  • Architect and Interiors India

Have a site in mind?

architectbpa@gmail.com+91 98867 40198

Call any day, during working hours. If we miss you, we will call you back.

The meditation pyramid seen between the curved roofs of two pagoda cottages, in black and white, sketched over in yellow marker