Palay House

At the meeting point of mountains, wind, and memory, in Ladakh, a quiet home learns to breathe again. In the old village of Phey, resting along the timeless Indus River near Leh, abandoned earthen houses once faded back into the landscape they came from. Instead of replacing them, they were listened to. The conservation of Palay House and the revival of the Old Phey precinct were conceived by Abeer Gupta, Director of AchiAssociation India , envisioning a holistic restoration of both the architectural fabric and its surrounding cultural landscape. Field Architects restored Palay House using the same vocabulary of earth, stone, poplar, and willow. Excavated soil returned as plaster, local timber returned as structure, and water found new cycles through filtration and reuse. The house now lives lightly — carbon-neutral, climate-wise, and rooted in its terrain.