The driveway looks like that to any other suburban Goan house, but enter the betelnut wood stockade and you’ll be amazed. Two old Goan houses, set admist a sea-breezed orchard, have been renovated into 3 stunning loft suites. Beautifully designed and decorated in rustic reds and earthy ochres, their large and airy living spaces soar 6.5m up to the rafters, and their loft bedrooms are reached by fun (if occasionally precarious) twists of free-standing steps. Outside the light-spilling French windows, roomy verandas are screened into privacy by the orchard of banana, mango, papaya and cashew nut trees (Kaju Varo means ‘Cashew Breeze’ in Goan). Then there’s the more modern eco lodge, built using green materials it retains a sense of simple luxury with the private lounge and lap pools. The fifth space is a unique 2-storey modular house, which feels more air than wood. If you’ve ever been seduced by the magic of treehouses, it will transport you right back there.

Created by ‘Shunya’, the brainchild of an Indian creative director-turned-social entrepreneur and his Scandinavian interior-designer partner, it’s the sister to Noi Varo, both are pilot projects, designed to boost rural employment and increase sustainable development in Goa. Great for couples, friends or families (each sleeps 2-4), the lofts and house can be booked individually or together, and the outdoor dining table can seat a sociable 14. Along with dappled shade, fans and air con, there are 3 cascading plunge pools to keep you cool, and 4 double lounge platforms on which to read, doze and dream.

Rooms

Two old Goan houses were reworked to make Kaju Varo’s loft suites. Their huge living areas now soar right up to the mango-wood rafters and pink tiles.

We stayed in Poilo Gor: the grandest (a complete house), with an enclosed air-conditioned loft bedroom above a living area you could fit 3 beach huts into, plus a separate bathroom.

The second house is divided into 2 mirror-image, air-conditioned, open-plan spaces (Dusro Gor and Tisro Gor), with their bedrooms looking down onto the lounge. Bathrooms are also on ground level, and have high pressure outdoor showers with 3 different kinds of jets; natural soaps are supplied.

Each suite has its own style of spiral staircase leading up to the loft, where comfy kingsize beds await (no twins). These rooms stay deliciously cool thanks to oblong air-vents, fans, rattan blinds and shady eaves.

Back below, divan bench beds in each lounge make room for teenagers or extra guests, the floor is smooth, mellow-yellow ochre concrete, and the photographer-owner’s boldly-framed pictures and huge, free-flowing canvases by a Goa-based Italian painter add dash to the walls.

For those who prefer a more modern dwelling there’s also a newly built house and an eco lodge. Shunya Gor is a prototype modular house, which is so light and airy its wooden walls feel as if they’re hardly there. Verandas provide views of the pool, paddy fields and mango trees. Drop-down canvas blinds lend some welcome shade, and one bedroom is air-conditioned, but otherwise it feels like breezy treehouse-living.

Built using green materials, the Shunya Eco Lodge also has a sense of openness; walls are pure white or are made up of foldable wood framed doors which blur the distinction between indoors and outside. For families there are 2 bedrooms, or for a couple, the second room can be converted into a lounge area, either way the simple stylish décor will go down well.

Photos