The gate of KIKI at the end of a cobbled drive, pink blossom and a vine-covered arch beside it.

Where Nature Heals Quietly.

KIKI isn't a resort with wellness activities. KIKI itself is designed as a wellness experience.

A break is not always enough.

KIKI is a wellness retreat under development at Kadadhe in the Sahyadris near Pune, Maharashtra. We know how to get away. We know how to fill a weekend with a beautiful room, a good meal, a view and somewhere to go. What happens afterwards is less certain.

KIKI began with a different question: what if recovery was considered from the beginning, not as a treatment added to a stay, but as something built into the way the place works?

A few days, designed differently.

  1. LAND
  2. WATER
  3. FOOD
  4. MOVEMENT
  5. SLEEP
  6. SILENCE
  7. PEOPLE
  8. REST
Water stepping down a stone wall into a channel beside a lawn.

The landscape stays close.

The land is read before the buildings. Existing trees, contours, views, water movement, shade and changing microclimates all have a role in deciding how the retreat takes shape.

Cottages are dispersed within a continuous landscape rather than gathered into a conventional hotel block. Places to pause are found between buildings as much as inside them.

The retreat from above in daylight: rounded roofs, gardens and water in a grid of trees.
A planted courtyard path seen through a pierced stone screen wall in daylight.

A day does not need to be filled.

A morning might begin with movement. Breakfast may take its time. There may be a guided wellness session, a walk, time beside the water or an afternoon with nothing planned.

The programme gives a stay a shape when structure is useful. The rest of KIKI gives guests permission to follow their own pace.

A room you can stay in for a while.

The cottages are being conceived as private places for deep rest rather than conventional hotel rooms. Current studies explore organic forms, natural materials, shaded openings, planted edges and a close relationship between inside and outside.

A single round cottage with one large window, a carved stone at its door and trees overhead.
A stream running between cottages, seen from above, purple blossom at its banks.

KIKI is still taking shape.

Status
In design
Location
The Sahyadris, near Pune

Some of the most important decisions are happening before the first guest arrives. A building may move because the land makes a better argument. A wall is weighed against the heat and the monsoon. Water finds its level.

The making of KIKI is not a prelude that needs to be hidden until opening day. It is part of the story. The Journal will follow those decisions as the retreat becomes a real place.

“A holiday asks what you want to do today. I wanted a place that could ask, quietly, what you need. Nobody here is asked to give up the world, only to spend a few days in which it asks less of them.”

From the founder

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