Architect brothers moved to a Himalayan town and built a mud villa by hand. It's now a busy Airbnb.

• 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.

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.