Imran Khan used a year of sunlight study to design Karjat home

Imran Khan has traded film sets for a rather different kind of project: a Karjat home he designed himself. The actor spent a full year studying the plot before any plan was finalised. He watched how sunlight moved across the land at different hours and seasons, noted the seasonal streams after rain, and observed how the foliage changed through the year.

He had no formal training, so he taught himself 3D modelling and worked with a contractor and a structural engineer to bring the plan to life. The result is a single-storey home that feels less like a showpiece and more like a shelter built into the landscape.

Letting the land lead

The site itself is uneven, with trees, a nearby cliff and seasonal streams. Instead of levelling it for a conventional villa, Imran let the terrain shape the design. The house has a stone base, brick walls and a pitched roof. Inside, sloping ceilings, exposed wooden beams and floor-to-ceiling glass doors keep the greenery in view.

As he put it: “The house isn’t meant to be the view, it’s a shelter from which to admire the view.”

• Stone base: grounds the structure and echoes the local build language.
• Brick walls: single-storey, earthy and low-key instead of a concrete slab.
• Glass doors and windows: open the interiors to trees and natural light.
• Steel roof beams and insulated sheets: a practical, site-friendly roofing choice.

The pictures show restraint

The photographs Imran shared in 2024 reveal airy rooms with sloping ceilings and exposed wooden beams. One space looks out through a large window over the trees, while another connects to a wooden deck through sliding glass doors. The bedroom keeps the same unfussy tone: a simple bed, a lounge chair and a built-in wooden unit, with broad windows letting in natural light.

A different idea of luxury

The actor was not chasing a showy holiday villa. The interiors keep furniture minimal, and the broad windows do the visual heavy lifting. By removing clutter, the home lets the surrounding trees and hills become the main event, which keeps the space airy rather than bare.

Why it matters for film fans

For fans, the home is another side of Imran’s curious, do-it-yourself streak. He has said he enjoys tinkering and learning new things, and this project is a concrete example. It also shows how a star chooses to live away from the camera: uncluttered, low on flash, and designed around the outdoors.

The timeline matters too. Imran purchased the property and then spent 2021 tracking the movement of the sun before drawing the design. Photographs of the finished home emerged in 2024, making the slow, careful process part of the story.

The practical takeaway

There is a genuinely useful lesson for anyone planning a home. Imran has said the self-designed route worked out less expensive than purchasing a ready-made villa advertised nearby. Working with a contractor and structural engineer, while handling the design and 3D model himself, kept both the cost and the character under his control.

It is not a shortcut: the year of observation became the foundation for nearly every choice, from where the windows sit to how the rooms open outward.

Source: The Times of India