Biome Environmental Solutions hides Indian eco-resort under stone

An 854-square-metre eco-resort in Vikarabad, near Hyderabad, India, has been concealed beneath a hill-like roof covered in local stone by architecture studio Biome Environmental Solutions. The project, named Gamaya Farms, wraps individual guesthouses and farm plots around a shared amenities block, with walls built from compressed earth bricks.

"Gamaya Farms redefines architectural iconism not through bold geometry, but through absolute camouflage and tectonic erasure," studio director Anurag Tamhankar told Dezeen. "Rather than treating the program as a monolithic footprint, the master plan deconstructs the traditional resort layout into distinct, site-specific architectural typologies."

The resort spreads three distinct building types across the site, each engineered to frame the landscape differently.

How the architecture disappears into the site

The centrepiece is a curved, single-storey pavilion containing the main entrance and reception at its western end. Beyond that sit a large multi-purpose hall and dining room, plus utility areas and bathrooms.

Large circular windows punched into the exposed earth-block walls light these spaces. Above them, the pavilion's vaulted, hill-like roof shades the interiors and extends north to shelter a paved terrace.

That roof is the camouflage mechanism. Rows of large arched openings puncture its surface, and builders constructed it from shotcrete — concrete sprayed onto a mould — applied over chicken and weld mesh, then topped with a layer of unworked local rubble.

Tamhankar explained the logic: "Taking cues from the surrounding hills and forest to create an intervention that transitions out of the ground, the design disperses the program across decentralised pockets of the land, offering distinct sensory experiences."

What do the guesthouses look like?

In front of the central pavilion, four guesthouses sit partially sunken into a slope. Guests enter via narrow, dark staircases that open into bedrooms with large north-facing windows.

"The subterranean cottages, sunk into the ground, preserve the expansive view from the pavilion, while getting their own private views," Tamhankar said.

Closer to the wooded edges of the site stand two Forest Pavilions: cylindrical guesthouses perched on concrete stilts and reached by yellow-painted spiral steel staircases. Bathrooms lined in smooth, curved plaster occupy the lower levels, while the circular bedrooms above are wrapped in glazing and open onto balconies with yellow railings.

"The isolated forest cottages are tucked into the woodland perimeter, with a 360-degree view of the forest canopy," Tamhankar added.

A broader Indian trend

Gamaya Farms joins a run of recent Indian resort projects working with local, low-impact materials. These include The Earthen Retreat by AKSH Architects, a cluster of small abandoned buildings coated in mud and lime plaster, and Serenity by Ma+rs, distinguished by its thatched roofs. For hospitality design in India, the message from Vikarabad is that disappearance — not spectacle — can now carry a resort's identity.