Sethji Ki Haveli Restoration

The Sethji Ki Haveli is among the finest surviving examples of traditional Gujarati merchant architecture in Ahmedabad's UNESCO-listed old city — a four-storey, 8,200 sq ft haveli constructed in 1903 for a prosperous textile merchant family, featuring an extraordinary sequence of carved golden sandstone facades, intricately carved wooden brackets and balconies, traditional perforated stone jali screens, and a central chowk (courtyard) of breathtaking architectural drama.

When the Lalbhai family commissioned EcoBuild Studio to restore and upgrade the haveli for use as a boutique heritage hotel, the building was in a serious state of disrepair: sandstone facades with significant salt spalling and biological growth, structurally compromised wooden floor beams, failed plumbing and electrical services throughout, and the kind of energy performance that only a century-old uninsulated stone building can produce. The brief was to bring the building back to life — but to do it in a way that was both authentically respectful of its extraordinary heritage and meaningfully improved in energy performance and sustainability.

The facade restoration programme consumed eight months and the skills of a 12-person team of specialist stone conservation craftspeople, trained by the Archaeological Survey of India's conservation unit. Every carved element was carefully cleaned using a biocide wash and low-pressure steam cleaning; salt-damaged stone was consolidated with a breathable lime-based consolidant; missing or severely damaged carved elements were replicated by hand by the team's master stone carver using matching Jaisalmer golden sandstone from the same quarry as the original material.

The traditional jali screens — the haveli's most technically sophisticated climate control feature — were carefully repaired and restored to full function. These perforated stone screens, designed centuries before the concept of passive ventilation was formalised, create a Venturi effect that draws cool air from the shaded courtyard through the building's deep interior spaces, maintaining comfortable temperatures through Ahmedabad's fierce summer heat. Our thermal analysis confirmed that a fully restored jali screen system reduces the cooling load of the spaces it serves by up to 38% compared to equivalent glazed openings.

The energy upgrade strategy was guided by a single principle: use only techniques and materials compatible with the building's historic lime-mortar construction and vapour-permeable fabric. Internal insulation using 50mm cork board — the only rigid insulation compatible with lime construction — was applied to the external wall faces of the new guest rooms, concealed behind lime plaster. Lighting throughout was upgraded to LED. A 30kW rooftop solar PV array was installed on the terrace level — entirely invisible from the street and approved by the Ahmedabad Heritage Conservation Committee — providing 70% of the hotel's electricity requirements. Solar water heating supplies all domestic hot water needs.