What Does 'Designed to Order' Mean at MAIA Mansion?

Most villa projects offer a choice between two or three fixed elevations. This one works the other way round: each residence is developed to a brief with the design team before construction begins, so the interior programme and finish selections reflect how a particular family lives rather than what a typology assumed. Understanding where that flexibility starts and stops is the useful part.

Programme is where variation happens. Households arrive with specific requirements and the drawing gets built around them — a wellness wing with gym, spa and sauna on one plot, a wine cellar or art room on another, a library folded into an upper floor on a third. Bedroom count moves with the band, running four to five on the standard format, five on the large and five to six on premium. Entertaining volumes, kitchen configuration and the balance between formal and informal living all sit inside that conversation.

Certain things stay constant regardless of brief. Structure follows an RCC frame and shear wall system conforming to IS design codes. The specification base runs to Italian marble through living, dining, family room and primary suite, oak veneer joinery, heat-strengthened laminated glass in aluminium frames, and CP fittings from the Grohe, Kohler and Hansgrohe selection. Staff quarters with a private entrance and separate service court come as standard across all three bands. Setbacks, plot demarcation and the site's density are fixed by the master plan and are not negotiable per house.

Sequence puts design development between plot selection and construction. After an Expression of Interest secures queue position and a plot is chosen, owners engage with the design team to develop the brief. Customisation is quoted separately at that stage rather than being bundled into the base price, which is why a cost sheet issued at booking will not carry it. Reviewing the how each residence is planned alongside the brief conversation helps set expectations about what the base programme already includes.

Two implications follow, and both are worth planning for. Cost is one — a wellness wing or a materially expanded primary suite is priced at design development, so a total outflow model built without it will be incomplete. Timeline is the other: because design development is partly buyer-driven, a family that settles its brief quickly moves faster than one still deciding. Our team answers these case by case rather than with a blanket assurance, because the honest answer depends on the brief.

Related reading: MAIA Mansion Plot Sizes Compared: 8,000 vs 10,000 vs 12,000 sft.

FAQs

1. Can I change the layout of my residence?
   Yes. Each residence is developed to a brief with the design team before construction, and the interior programme and finishes are settled during design development.

2. What cannot be customised?
   Structural system, the base specification standard, staff quarters provision, and anything fixed by the master plan — setbacks, plot demarcation and site density.

3. When is customisation priced?
   Separately, at design-development stage, rather than at booking. It does not appear in the base cost sheet.