In a world rushing to seal doors and thicken walls, verandahs are making a quiet return – and nowhere is this revival more poignant than in Kashmir.
At Design Ethos, we see more and more homeowners rediscovering the value of outdoor living – not as nostalgia, but as a conscious, contemporary choice. A choice rooted in wellness, tradition, and connection to climate.
As concrete homes rose across cities, verandahs quietly disappeared. Spaces grew smaller, walls grew higher, and the boundary between inside and outside hardened. But in a post-pandemic world, as people seek nature, community, and breathing space, the verandah is being reimagined – not just as an architectural flourish, but as a way to live slower, closer, better.
In Kashmir – where each season is a vivid, living theatre – the verandah offers a front-row seat: to snowfall, to saffron fields, to monsoon skies – all while resting in the comfort of home.
Historically, the Kashmiri Dalan – the verandah – was not just a transition zone. It used to be the heart of the home’s outward life. It was where yarn was spun, stories were told, and walnuts were cracked open in winter afternoons.
At Design Ethos, we are bringing this spirit back, thoughtfully adapted for modern life with wood and stone finishes that echo traditional craftsmanship, with built-in seating that doubles as storage, with pergolas and skylights that welcome winter sunlight, with outdoor fireplaces and heating for year-round comfort, and with smart, discreet lighting that highlights form and atmosphere.
Varendah is more than an aesthetic. It is a state of mind. The verandah offers more than beauty. It offers belonging. In Kashmir’s climate, it is a quietly intelligent design choice that shields interiors from summer’s sharp sunlight. It traps winter warmth when oriented south. It encourages pause, conversation, and community – the very things modern interiors often forget.
Its uses are as versatile as its moods: a mudroom after a day outdoors, a tea lounge at dusk, a children’s play corner in spring, a reading nook on a snowy afternoon.
Kashmiri architecture has always listened to the weather – and the verandah was its gentle, genius answer: half-inside, half-outside, deeply human.
Today, as the lines between interior and exterior blur, the verandah returns not just as a built form, but as a philosophy, a place to observe without intruding, a place to be still, yet connected, a place where home breathes outward, and the world breathes back.