Designing for Dignity: Why Ashiana Reimagined Senior Living in India

In the sec­ond of our three-part series on Ashi­ana Hous­ing, we look at how a failed exper­i­ment sparked a bold rein­ven­tion of senior liv­ing in India. Today, Ashi­ana stands out as a pur­pose-dri­ven real estate devel­op­er — build­ing vibrant com­mu­ni­ties and set­ting a new stan­dard for how seniors live, con­nect, and thrive.

Most real estate com­pa­nies talk about square footage. Ashi­ana Hous­ing talks about freedom.

Their senior liv­ing jour­ney began with their father’s idea — drawn from retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties in the U.S. — but their ear­ly projects strug­gled. They didn’t yet under­stand the Indi­an cus­tomer and the Indi­an cus­tomer didn’t under­stand senior living.

So they did some­thing few com­pa­nies do mid-exper­i­ment. They listened.

They sat with seniors. Watched them. Asked ques­tions. They saw peo­ple light up — relearn­ing to swim, pick­ing up bicy­cles, dis­cov­er­ing friend­ships. The busi­ness case fol­lowed the emo­tion­al one. Ashi­ana wasn’t just in real estate any­more. They were in the rein­ven­tion business.

They ditched the mixed-mod­el, bolt-on approach and com­mit­ted to full, ded­i­cat­ed senior com­mu­ni­ties. They rethought every­thing — from ele­va­tor width to com­mu­ni­ty pro­gram­ming — through the lens of free­dom and dig­ni­ty. The result? Indus­try-lead­ing reten­tion, refer­rals, and res­i­dent satisfaction.

True dig­ni­ty in lat­er life doesn’t come from being tak­en care of. It comes from being in control.

Chal­lenge

Where in your busi­ness are you solv­ing for effi­cien­cy, when you could be design­ing for how your cus­tomer wants to feel?

How could you spend more time watch­ing, lis­ten­ing to and learn­ing from your customers?

To learn more, read the case study here, or watch the full inter­view below.

Resources:

• Lead­ing Side by Side: The Pow­er of Trust and Tension
• Are You Obsessed With Your Customers?
• Leav­ing Room to Learn
• Case Study — Ashi­ana Hous­ing: Build­ing on Purpose

About Ashi­ana Housing

Found­ed by the late Om Prakash Gup­ta in 1979, Ashi­ana Hous­ing has grown from a bold exper­i­ment into one of India’s most respect­ed real estate brands. Om Gup­ta pio­neered mid­dle-income hous­ing and retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties in India, dri­ven by an uncom­pro­mis­ing vision: to build homes — not just build­ings — where peo­ple could live with dig­ni­ty, com­mu­ni­ty, and pride. His lega­cy lives on through Ashiana’s award-win­ning devel­op­ments, deep cus­tomer loy­al­ty, and val­ues-dri­ven lead­er­ship. Today, his sons Vishal, Ankur, and Varun con­tin­ue to lead the com­pa­ny with the same heart, but a voice all their own.