Kusum Vilas Palace — Heritage Destination Development
Category: Consultation | Location: Chhota Udaipur, Gujarat | Year: 2026
Overview & Concept
The Brief
Kusum Vilas Palace is a genuine royal palace in Chhota Udaipur, Gujarat, which has over 3.85 lakh sq. ft. of usable space, currently used mostly for storage. We were asked to turn it into a working heritage destination: a place people travel specifically to visit, celebrate at, and remember, while protecting its historic fabric for generations to come.
What We Found
The palace was sitting on huge untapped value. India's heritage tourism market is growing 14–18% a year, and destination weddings at royal palaces now run ₹40 lakh to ₹2 crore. But the approach road didn't match the palace, there was no visitor experience or storytelling, security was thin, and maintenance had fallen behind.
Our Approach — Six Zones, Six Businesses
Rather than treat the palace as one building, we split the property into six zones, each designed to run as its own income stream:
- The Gazebo Area (~40,000 sq ft) — the fastest zone to activate. Designed for royal dinner nights, heritage salons, yoga retreats, micro-weddings, brand shoots, and stargazing evenings under Chhota Udaipur's dark skies.
- The Mandapam (~40,000 sq ft) — the large-event zone for 300–1,000 guests, fitted with a removable canopy roof and modular staging for weddings, Navratri, and concerts.
- The Open Ground / Cricket Pitch (~40,000 sq ft) — corporate team days, an annual heritage cricket cup, outdoor cinema nights, and seasonal fairs.
- The Three Lawn Gardens (~2,00,000 sq ft) — the flagship wedding and fashion-show space, split into Entry Lawn, Fountain Lawn, and Palace Lawn sections.
- The Main Palace Building (40,000 sq ft) — opened carefully for guided heritage tours, a small museum, film/OTT location shoots, and exclusive Durbar Hall dining — under strict reversible-change conservation rules.
- The Guest Residence (25,000 sq ft) — 14 rooms across Heritage Suites, Deluxe Garden Rooms, and Standard Heritage Rooms, plus full-property buyouts.
We also proposed a seventh zone: a 2-acre permaculture Royal Farm on the palace's surrounding land, supplying the kitchen and events with fresh, chemical-free produce grown on-site.
Design & Conservation Principles
Every new addition, like canopy roofs, event decking, lighting, and signage, was designed to be reversible and never touch the palace's original stonework, floors, roofline, or courtyard. New materials were restricted to local stone, corten steel, brass, teak, bamboo, and clear glass, so nothing competes visually with the heritage structure.
Revenue Model
We built a full income-stream map across weddings, room bookings, dining experiences, film/OTT shoots, corporate retreats, an annual Heritage Festival, tours, brand partnerships, and craft fairs, projecting growth from roughly ₹1–4 crore in Years 1–2 to ₹5–18 crore by Year 5 as occupancy and event volume scale up.
Outcome
A phased roadmap: fix the arrival experience first (road, gate, fountain), activate the Gazebo zone early since it needs the least investment, then scale into the Mandapam, gardens, and full palace tours, turning a storage building into a self-sustaining heritage business.
Project Specifications
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Location | Chhota Udaipur, Gujarat |
| Client | Shri Jai Pratap Sinhji Virendrasinhji Saheb (kusum vilas palace) |
| Techniques | permaculture, strategy, revenue generation |
| Year | 2026 |
| Status | Delivered |

