ECO-FRIENDLY LIVING AT SAVISTA

Set in its own fields and groves, and surrounded by rolling cropland interspersed with sand dunes and ravines, the countryside setting of Savista on the outskirts of Jaipur city provides a soothing integration of desert landscape, greenery, clear blue skies by day, and a star-lit canopy by night.

Around the rustic elegance of the 12-acre Savista estate and cozy comfort of the haveli (mansion) complete with its modern appointments, rural India plays itself out. Guests have the unique opportunity to come up close to simple people's lives and work. This is an everyday India that city hotels never give you a peep into…

At least half the energy requirements at Savista - for heating and cooling of rooms and water - are met from solar powered energy systems. Much of the cooking is done using locally available natural fuels and solar cookers.

Most of the furniture at Savista is made out of rubber wood, and other locally available renewable sources. Savista itself was built using local materials, traditional eco-friendly methods of construction, and the expertise and labour of local masons and carpenters. In place of steel and cement, our rooftop slabs are made of stone. These are then insulated through the unique method adopted in the construction of the region's old forts and palaces: hand-made tiny bricks laid vertically in circles within a bed of sand, and then plastered over with hand-ground limestone. This serves to temper the effect of extremes of heat and cold. We were lucky to find and rehabilitate the last of the two families whose hereditary specialization is the production and preparation of these materials.