New Delhi, Feb. 26 -- I was recently reading a piece on an Indian project featured in Wallpaper magazine. The 12,000 sq. ft. residence displayed a multitude of craft and design interventions-the author describing it as an effort to bring "discovery into daily life". What struck me about the images is that for all the effort to stand out-and many high-cost housing projects now seem chiefly preoccupied by standing out-it had the pastel ubiquitousness of spaces created on a digital mood-board. Many projects display several of the same design flourishes, from curvaceous edges and soft tones to the excessive use of wall treatments and furniture that seems better suited to a gallery than a home. It was a space surfeited with design flourishes, ...