Site Planning IntelligenceVolume 1 · Issue 1 · June 2026
Before you build
Read Your Plot Before You Build
A house is only ever as good as the reading of its land. This is the literacy library for that reading — a 10-guide reference on evaluating and choosing a plot, understanding its orientation, sun and wind, and designing well on the corner, narrow or sloping site you actually have — written for homeowners, grounded in NBC 2016 and Indian practice.
Site Analysis for Homeowners: How to Read a Plot Before You Build
Before you buy a plot or draw a single line, learn to read it. This master guide walks through the ten dimensions of site analysis — from setbacks and FSI to sun, wind, slope, soil, views and microclimate — with a homeowner's visit checklist and links to every deeper guide and tool in the set.
Read itChoosing the land
Evaluating & buying a plot
Evaluate01How to Evaluate a Residential Plot in India
Buying a plot in India is a stack of legal, regulatory, technical and financial decisions. This guide gives you a clear due-diligence checklist, the FSI-and-setback maths that decides what you can actually build, and a weighted scorecard to compare plots with confidence.
Pitfalls02Plot Selection Mistakes to Avoid
Most plot regrets in India trace back to a handful of avoidable mistakes — buying on emotion, skipping the title search, ignoring drainage and orientation, or never doing the FSI maths. Here is each mistake, why it hurts, and how to avoid it before you pay a token.
Reading the site's forces
Orientation, sun & wind
Orientation03Site Orientation Explained: Which Way Should Your Home Face?
"East-facing" sells, but the sun does not read property listings. Learn the difference between plot facing and building orientation, the climate-optimal layout for an Indian home, and a practical method to decide when solar logic, Vastu and your street disagree.
Sun04Understanding Sun Path Analysis for Your Home
A homeowner's guide to reading the sun over your Indian plot: the daily and seasonal arc, why east sun is gentle and west sun is brutal, which rooms want morning light, and how overhangs and trees tame the heat.
Wind05Understanding Wind Analysis for a Comfortable Home
A homeowner's guide to site-level wind and natural ventilation for comfort: India's prevailing wind directions, cross-ventilation, the stack effect, opening placement and sizing, courtyards, and how to block the hot 'loo' while catching the cool monsoon breeze.
Designing for the plot you have
Corner, narrow, sloping & views
Corner06Corner Plot Design Strategies
A corner plot trades buildable area for light, air, access and frontage. This guide quantifies the two-side-setback hit and gives you a practical strategy to turn the corner into the best feature of your home.
Narrow07Narrow Plot Design Strategies
On a narrow Indian plot only the two short ends touch light and air, so the middle goes dark and stuffy. This guide shows the moves that fix it — courtyards and light wells, a central skylight, the staircase as a ventilation shaft, open planning and clever vertical zoning.
Slope08Sloping Site Design: Building on a Gradient
Sloping plots are cheaper and often more beautiful than flat ones — but only if you work with the gradient rather than bulldozing it flat. A practical guide to reading the slope, the three core strategies, retaining walls, drainage and turning the fall into free floors.
Views & Privacy09Designing for Views and Privacy
Good views and real privacy are decided at the site stage, not the curtain stage. This guide shows you how to audit your plot's views, frame the ones worth keeping, and screen the overlooking neighbour — without giving up the light and air you came to India's climate for.
Turn the reading into decisions
Four free tools that take a plot from a hunch to a scored, sized, sun- and wind-read decision.
Plot Evaluation Toolkit
Score any plot across 20 parameters before you commit.
Open tool CalculatorFAR / FSI Calculator
Plot size + your bylaw → the built-up area you can actually build.
Open tool AnalyzerSun Path Analyzer
See where the sun falls on your site across the year.
Open tool AnalyzerCross-Ventilation Analyzer
Visualise the breeze so you place openings to catch it.
Open tool