• Raghav and Ansh Kumar quit city life, moved to the Himalayas, and built a house by hand.
• The brothers, architects by training, wanted to prove that natural materials could be durable and luxurious.
• The house took three years to build, and it's now a functional Airbnb.

Perched on the side of a hill near the Himalayas is a whimsical house made of mud, stone, and straw that two brothers built by hand.

Ansh and Raghav Kumar, a pair of architect siblings from New Delhi, moved to a remote town in India to escape the noise and chaos of corporate city life and built the house that they now list on Airbnb.

"Someone sees it as a Harry Potter house, someone sees it as a hobbit house, someone sees it as a fairytale house," Raghav, 32, said.

"For us, it's a labor of love, and every curve tells the story of all the beautiful people who had come and put in the effort."

Corporate burnout

Raghav interned with a German architectural company after architecture school and transitioned into a full-time role at another German company based in Ahmedabad. He said he loved the work culture, the people, and the company's flat hierarchy — but he struggled with working long hours.

"When you're in a corporate setup, the environment makes you believe that the longer you work, you can wear that as a badge of honor," he said. "There were days when I ended up working 48 hours at a stretch trying to cope with all the side deadlines."

Raghav also said there was a disconnect between the architect and the laborer.

"The architect sits in this air-conditioned office, designing and dreaming visionary things, whereas the laborer who builds the project doesn't get any credit," Raghav said. "As architects, we're not able to comprehend or appreciate that labor that goes into a project."

During his three-year stint at the German company, he started traveling more to destress, going to remote mountainous parts of India.

"I realized I was living for the weekends," he said. "That's when I realized I didn't want to climb the corporate ladder."

His younger brother Ansh, 29, also interned in Germany, then freelanced on sustainable architecture projects in mountainous and rural areas of India, where he got a taste for mountain life.

During the pandemic, while quarantining at home in New Delhi, the duo began experimenting with making their own building materials. They tested mycelium from homegrown mushrooms and learned about making cob, a natural material made from soil, straw, and water.

That's where the idea to move away from the chaos of the city and build a house in the mountains took root.

"Covid showed us life is short," Raghav said. "We agreed that we needed to take a leap of faith."

Moving and adapting to Rishikesh

The pair decided on Rishikesh, a town located in the foothills of the Himalayas, known as India's yoga capital. It is about 150 miles northeast of New Delhi.

It's historically been a pilgrimage destination, built on the banks of the Ganges River, but has recently become a hot spot for digital nomads, cafés, and corporate and wellness retreats.

The pair leased land in Rishikesh from a family friend, promising to build a sustainable building on it. And in March 2021, they packed their bags and moved into a house in a small village near Rishikesh.

"From where the car drops you off, you have to cross a tributary of the Ganga on foot via a wooden bridge," Ansh said, "Then you hike for more than a mile to reach the village. So that was another challenge altogether."

Building a house with their hands

In their past architectural work, the brothers used software to do concept drawings. But here, they used sticks and stones around the plot of land to mark out the house plan.

Then came the building phase. They carried thousands of rocks to the building site, trekked in sand on mules, and sourced most of the other materials from around the house.

They put out a call for volunteers on Workaway — a platform that connects travelers with hosts who provide food and accommodation in exchange for work.

The brothers estimated that, over the three years it took to build the house, more than 100 volunteers from 18 countries were involved in construction, along with about 20 local laborers they employed.

They spent about $30,000 on the project, from their savings and their parents' investment.

"You can see the progress every day; the house was getting taller daily, by about six inches to a foot," Ansh said. "So that is quite rewarding compared to eight hours of work in front of the laptop in the corporate world, where you feel exhausted but also like you didn't get anything done."

Finally, in 2024, they finished the house.

Raghav called the final project a "living sculpture."

It's full of organic shapes, with a whimsical thatched roof, and spiral patterns running around its walls.

They listed the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home on Airbnb in April 2024 for around $140 per night.

"Proceed to book only if you are comfortable hiking for 1.5 kilometers in a forest with a backpack, as the property is not accessible by car," says the Airbnb listing. "There's no WiFi in the forest, but you'll get a stronger connection with yourself, your loved ones, and your passions."

They said it's booked out about 60% of the time.

Fittest they have ever been

Now, the duo has built an architecture and design studio in Rishikesh and is working on other natural building projects across India.

Running the studio from Rishikesh has its challenges. They deal with a choppy network — they're eagerly awaiting Starlink — and must deal with safety concerns because the house is near a forest with wild elephants.

But mountain life has changed them.

"We've become the fittest version of ourselves, living here," Raghav said. On the first day of their chapter in Rishikesh, just the hike up to the site winded them both, but they can now do four trips up and down.

"You don't even know when you clock 10,000 steps. You have nature all around you, better air, and you feel your anxiety melt away," Raghav said.

• During a two-week backpacking trip in Europe, I booked an Airbnb in a small town in Switzerland.
• Roggwil is a village filled with grassy fields, quiet neighborhoods, and mountain landscapes.
• The town turned out to be a hidden gem and my favorite destination on the trip.

The last night of my two-week trip to Europe was the best one. But it didn't start that way.

Back in October 2022, I was staying in an Airbnb in Roggwil, a 1,910-acre village in the rolling hills of Switzerland that's about an hour west of Zurich by train. I chose this Airbnb rather than booking a hotel in the city to save some money.

I thought Roggwil was a quiet, modest village with friendly families and a stunning mountain backdrop. When I crossed paths with people, I noticed they smiled — something I'm not used to seeing too much, living in New York City — and little kids waved at me at the train station.

And though there isn't as much to do as there is in a city, the village has some restaurants, a library, a swimming pool, and a go-kart race track, according to its website. I didn't get time to visit these, but I still enjoyed staying in the area and thought it was a good base outside Zurich.

The area also appealed to me as a place that offered unique accommodation. Not only was my Airbnb cheaper than options in Zurich, but it was also much more interesting.

For $200 a night, I slept in a wine barrel converted into a tiny home on a garden property, steps from the train station. From the garden, I had a sparkling view of the night sky. I doubt that I would have found a similar stay in Zurich.

On my final night, I thought I'd enjoy a view of the night sky while cooking dinner on the fire pit provided by my Airbnb.

I planned to stop by the town's grocery store on the way home from Zurich and grill some sausages, or "wurst."

On my way back to Roggwil, my plan fell apart. I was three stops from the village when I searched Google and found that the store I was heading to had closed.

With no alternate plan, I ran off the train to find somewhere else to buy dinner. After scanning the internet, I found only one open store — a gas station that was a 25-minute walk away.

"Whatever they have, I'll be grateful for it," I thought.

The route led through some woods, and as the sun began to set, the path opened onto a wide-open field lined with houses beneath the mountains. I stopped in my tracks. The scene was so picturesque, and finding it by accident made me feel like I was in a fairy tale.

This was the most striking sight of my two-week adventure through four countries. I couldn't help thinking that if I hadn't booked that specific Airbnb, I never would have seen it.

About a mile later, I was thrilled to find that the gas station had a small grocery store inside selling sausages, hard rolls, and pickles — everything I needed for a fireside dinner.

As I cooked, ate, and looked up at the stars that I wouldn't have seen from the city, I reflected on my trip and decided that booking a stay in Roggwil was the best decision I'd made.