Lake Mulshi · Western Ghats

Life by the water.

Private estates across 26 acres of lakefront forest, by the family behind The Machan.

Ten years of looking

Every site had a flaw. Then we drove past this one.

Six thousand trees. Streams through the land. A hundred and eighty degrees of water. And neighbouring land that has remained wooded for over a century.

6,000+
Trees on the land, each one counted and kept.
180°
Of lake, from villas set across the natural tiers.
Day 1
Carbon neutrality is built into our DNA. We have measured emissions from the first drawing and are targeting carbon neutrality from launch.
Lake Mulshi in the monsoon, the Aqua Vie land in the foreground
The land

Protected by geography.

The lake to the north. Privately held lands belonging to the Tatas to the east and west, wooded for over a century. To the south, our own hill, where The Machan Resort & Spa, Lake Mulshi is in development.

One hour from Pune, two from Mumbai
2,050 ft above sea level
Car-free beyond your own gate
Five acres of shared forest and water
The living hills

We have been counting for fifteen years.

At The Machan, merely thirty minutes away, naturalists have recorded the forest returning: birds found nowhere but the Western Ghats, mouse deer and giant squirrels, a tree count grown from four thousand to more than twenty-five thousand. Aqua Vie is being planted to the same brief. Every year it should hold more life than the year before.

68
bird species, five of them endemic to the Western Ghats
64
butterfly species across five families
139
plant taxa, most of them native, some endangered
25,000+
indigenous trees at The Machan, up from about 4,000
Air quality at Aqua Vie
AQI 30
Measured on site

Recorded at The Machan, Jambulne, by resident naturalists and visiting researchers. A similar benchmark study of Aqua Vie’s ecology is under way.

The master plan

No major tree cut.
No stream moved.
No hill flattened.

Twenty-six estates across 26 acres, placed where the land allowed. The master plan brings together hydrology, landscape and sustainability expertise. The architecture is conceived in-house and realised with leading consultants from India and Singapore.

Aqua Vie landscape layout
Master plan · Indicative
The estates

The villa is not the home. The estate is.

Organic forms that read as part of the hillside. Glass where there would be walls. Stone that weathers instead of paint that fades. Decks on every floor, and a garden inside the house.

One-acre estate at dusk
Artistic impression
The one-acre estate
Where the house ends, the forest begins.

A double-height living room with its own garden, opening onto the pool deck. A master suite of over a thousand square feet under a retractable glass roof, with a bath in the open air. A home theatre, a spa and a gym below.

Seventeen one-acre estates. Three under construction; first handovers targeted for 2028.

The half-acre estate
The same language, drawn closer.

A courtyard at the heart of the house. A master bedroom with an open-air bath and its own deck. A pool and a stream of your own. Nine half-acre estates.

Renders on request
Entry walkway across water
Water

The name is the brief.

Water shapes the rhythm of life here. You cross a koi pond on the way to your front door, hear a stream running through your estate, swim in your infinity pool and look out from your home over 180 degrees of Lake Mulshi.

Quiet technology

Curtains that know when the sun peaks.

Technology is built into the home, but kept out of the way. One tap as you leave the city readies it for your arrival: cool rooms, a warm pool and low lights. Behind the scenes, these systems are designed to reduce wasted energy and lower running costs. The result is a more sustainable home that asks less of your time.

  • Full-fibre connectivity to every home
  • Solar first, then your own battery, then the grid
  • Homes cooled by the earth and the wind, with little to no mechanical cooling
  • One app for the house, the estate and the concierge
Managed, permanently

Your neighbourhood club is a five-star resort.

The Machan will run a private concierge team for the community, keeping your home exactly as you left it, no matter when you return. Behind it, The Machan Resort & Spa, Lake Mulshi is taking shape. Residents will have unfettered access to the resort and all its facilities, including a range of dining options and its wellness village.

The Machan Group has maintained carbon-neutral operations since 2021 through measured operational reductions, its regenerated natural carbon sink and limited local offsets for residual emissions. Family-owned since 1993.

In the press
The family behind The Machan, as covered by
Journal

Notes from the land.

Weekly. Progress on site, the ecology around it, and architecture that begins with the land.

Not built for everyone.

Begin with a conversation.

Aqua Vie is being built slowly, for a small number of families who value what money has struggled to buy: clean air, open space, silence, water, and land that grows more beautiful with age. Leave your details and we will arrange a private conversation at a time that suits you.

Pricing and configurations are shared in person.

We reply personally, within two working days.