Casa Vela
Fourteen versions of this living room existed in 3D before the first bag of lime plaster arrived. The final one moved the sofa 400mm to keep the evening sun off the screen.
Alibaug
2025
Interior & spatial design — Mumbai · Lisbon
Walk the room
before you build it.
Every Atelier Ochre project begins as a 3D model you can move through — bulk, light, sightlines and storage resolved digitally, long before a wall is opened.
Model 01 — Casa Vela living room · scale 1:20
Drag anywhere to look · Scroll to move in
Live model
Change the palette, change the light.
This is the actual working model type we use in stage 02 of a project — same geometry, same materials, same decisions you would be making with us in the room.
Palette
Bone & Oak
Camera
Rendered live in your browser with WebGL. No plugin, no download.
Your browser blocked WebGL, so the model is showing as stills. Everything else on this page works normally — the interactive model opens on desktop Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Edge.
Built work
Modelled first. Then made, exactly as modelled.
Hover a project to look around it. Photos from the finished rooms, shot on handover day.
Noor House
Nine keys, each modelled separately so no two guests get the same view of the courtyard.
Lisbon
2026
The Reading Room · Bandra
“They showed us the shadow the bookshelf would cast at 4pm in November. We bought the flat because of that screenshot.”
S. Iyer — remote client, Colaba
How a project runs
The Reading Room
A spare bedroom converted for two people working three metres apart. Joinery does the dividing; we modelled the sightline so neither desk can see the other.
Bandra
2024
Material library
Six surfaces we keep coming back to.
Every project draws from the same working library of finishes we have tested on site for years. Spin the block — it is a real 3D object, not a video.
- Lime plaster
- Surat, hand-burnished, 3-coat
- Oak
- European white oak, 22mm engineered
- Travertine
- Unfilled, honed, Italian
- Clay linen
- Heavyweight, plant-dyed
- Unlacquered brass
- Patinas in 6–9 months
- Terracotta
- Hand-thrown floor tile
01
Lime plaster
02
White oak
03
Travertine
04
Clay linen
05
Brass
06
Sage
Drag the block to rotate
The studio
Small on purpose. Digital where it helps.
Atelier Ochre was founded in Mumbai in 2011 by Nivedita Rao; the Lisbon studio opened in 2021. Seven people, around ten projects a year — enough to stay inside every decision, few enough that the drawings keep being drawn by the names on them.
We model in 3D from the second week, not the second month. You see the room at eye level, from above, and at 4pm in November before anything is ordered — which is why our site visits are mostly about confirming, not deciding.
Nivedita Rao
Founder & principal designer
- Founded
- 2011
- Rooms completed
- 240+
- Cities
- 9
- 3D revisions, average project
- 31
“Nine guest rooms, all different, all unmistakably the same house — and every one of them signed off from a laptop in Lisbon.”
Services
Four ways to work with us.
Stage fees are fixed and agreed before we start. Full-home projects run six to fourteen months depending on site and scope.
01
Full interior design, modelled
Concept, 3D model, technical drawings, finishes, joinery detailing, procurement and site supervision through to styling day.
02
Single-room reset
One difficult room, resolved properly — usually a living room, kitchen or study. Fixed scope, six to ten weeks, with a shopping list you can execute yourself.
03
Remote design
The same model and drawing package, delivered online with a materials schedule and local supplier introductions. Same studio, no travel costs.
04
Styling & art curation
For finished interiors that read as empty. Furniture, textiles, lighting and art from our maker network in India and Portugal, installed in a day.
Process
Four stages, four points where you sign off.
Stage 01 · Week 1
Conversation & brief
A ninety-minute call or site visit. How you actually live, what you cannot lose, and an honest budget range. You leave with a written brief and a fee proposal.
Stage 02 · Weeks 2–6
Model & layout
The 3D model you played with above. Two or three spatial options, walked through at eye level and overhead, with lighting tested across the day. One direction is chosen and frozen.
Stage 03 · Weeks 7–18
Detail & making
Joinery drawings, material samples you can hold, lighting plans and a costed schedule. We manage the makers and vendors and review site on a fixed cadence.
Stage 04 · Final 2 weeks
Styling & handover
Snagging, soft furnishing, art placement, and a handover book listing every material, maker and care instruction so the rooms hold up over the years.
Start a project
Send us the floor plan.
If you have a plan or a survey, attach a note about it — we will tell you honestly whether we are the right studio, and reply within two working days either way.
Mumbai studio
Third floor, 14 Kala Ghoda Lane, Fort, Mumbai 400001
Lisbon studio
Rua da Boavista 82, 1200-069 Lisboa, Portugal