In the dense urbanscape of Jubilee Hills, landscaping has a very particular job – to subtly persuade you where to settle in. The Babylon Kitchen & Bar, Hyderabad’s newest brewery landscaped by Kiasma Studio, and designed by 23 Degrees Design Shift, does just that turning a compact urban plot into a lush, immersive garden within the city.

The project began with what was already there. “The architecture was planned around the existing trees,” shares Kiasma Studio’s founder Sowmya Lakhamraju, “which created beautiful niche spaces to work on.” From there, the greenery becomes a canvas. Vast volumes of plantings spill across the space and the outdoor seating area, tucked between the trees and the brewery building, whose walls are flanked by native plants. Enveloped in this wilderness, it’s easy to forget you’re in the middle of the city entirely.

Considering the limited space of the site, and the challenging topography, which slopes gently from the southwest to the northeast by nearly six feet, the planting strategy relied on using just a few species in repetition. “The idea was to mimic the existing foliage and expand on it,” says Sowmya. The design draws inspiration from a modern reinterpretation of the iconic Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the influence is unmistakable. Instead of positioning the landscape as a secondary feature, the vegetation is the dominant one. Vines weave their way up the bordering walls, while a vibrant curtain of creepers wraps around the main brewery block.

Despite the lushness it exudes, the landscaping follows a very practical approach. “The maintenance of the plants is minimal thanks to planning the softscape ahead of time,” notes Sowmya. “Creating a shroud of greens draping the brewery building was the first thought that came to me, and felt most fitting. The harder task was giving it a wild look, as though the planting had always belonged to the site.”

Sowmya’s favourite corner is the benches nestled between the building and boundary wall clad in broken stone, where layers of creepers and wild plants make it feel “like you are sitting in a forest.” In many ways, that feeling captures the project best, reflecting Kiasma Studio’s philosophy of minimal intervention and maximum impact. “Less is more,” she signs off. kiasmalandscapes.com