As you step through KOSA, you feel a sense of peace and the presence of nature.
This makes sense for an Ayurvedic wellness spa, but it’s also an interesting full-circle moment, given the space’s history.
KOSA is set on the second floor of the Garver Feed Mill, a historic structure built in 1905 on Madison’s near-east side. Originally a sugar beet processing plant, the building was later turned into a feed mill, before more recently taking on a new life as hub for food, art, events and wellness. For many years, KOSA’s space existed with no ceiling or floor, to accommodate a grain bin.
“This was the outdoors for so many years,” says KOSA founder Shilpa Sankaran. “It carries that energy.”
Since opening the spa and retreat space in 2019, Shilpa has brought her own energy, and beautiful intention, to the place as well.
Born in India and raised in Middleton, Shilpa drew inspiration from her father, who left the corporate world to become an entrepreneur, instilling in her the drive to follow her heart in business. After starting her career in Chicago, Shilpa moved to San Francisco, where she developed a passion for sustainability. She co-founded with another woman a construction company focused on zero-energy pre-fab buildings, and also served as the executive director of the Net Zero Coalition.
But after she and husband Greg started their family — they’re now parents to nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son — they decided to move back to Wisconsin.
“It was a welcome change, an easier way of life,” Shilpa says, explaining that in Madison she doesn’t have to walk up and down two flights of stairs with a grocery bag in one arm and a baby in the other while her car is double parked outside, as she did in the Bay Area.
Shilpa was also happy to find her hometown had evolved in her nearly two decades away. “Madison had grown up a lot,” she says. “There is more local craft everything and attention to where things are coming from and where they’re made.”
And in returning to the Madison area, Shilpa found herself surrounded by family — and not just her husband and kids. While her father had passed away years before, her mother was here and her younger sisters both moved back from the Bay Area. “We all just had the intention that we wanted to be together,” she says.
Her family proved helpful as she fulfilled a longtime dream of opening a wellness retreat.
Shilpa put a tremendous attention to detail into KOSA, from the open-ceilinged, brick-walled spaces filled with natural light and decorated with plants, to the organic towels and robes and ceramic mugs sourced from women-owned businesses and makers both from Madison and India. In addition to an airy lounge area and steam room sanctuary with a hot stone sauna, the spa has eight treatment rooms representing different elements, as Ayurveda, the five-thousand-year-old Indian art of medicine, is founded on the principle that all of the five elements of nature exist in us and that life is best lived when these elements are in balance.
“The dream was people could just spend the day and go inward,” Shilpa says. “We need quiet and time to hear our own voices. It’s just noticing what our body is telling us.”
And services such as massages, facials and personal Ayurvedic wellness consultations, as well as time spent in calmness and contemplation, are exactly what busy, constantly plugged-in people need today, Shilpa says. Her goal is to help visitors find their true nature and ways to connect with the world around them.
Running KOSA has also allowed Shilpa to integrate work with other elements of her life like never before. Her mom, sisters, husband and kids all help out at the spa, and lessons of Ayurveda guide them in their daily lives.
More recently, the pandemic prompted Shilpa to align even further: She and her husband decided to homeschool their children and teach them about the things that inspire them. “In addition to age-appropriate core curricula, they are learning astrology, mythology, breathwork and yoga,” she says. “For the first time, I’ve been able to integrate my life across work and personal activities.”
That includes another new endeavor, 5Elements Learning Community, an outdoor social-emotional learning program for children ages six to seventeen that Shilpa launched during the pandemic. Most of the students’ time is spent outside, and indoor time is devoted to mindfulness, yoga and wellness.
When she considers her path, and her present, Shilpa feels proud that she has learned to tune into and trust her intuition. It takes practice, she says, but it’s something that can lead you to wonderful places.
“I don’t need to teach anyone in this moment that we don’t have control,” she says. “But if I could tell my younger self anything, it’s that you don’t have control and when you let go, so many more opportunities present themselves.”
– Katie Vaughn
Photos courtesy of Shilpa Sankaran.
Katie Vaughn is the editor and co-founder of Northerly. She is a University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford University-trained journalist with experience as a writer, reporter, editor, blogger and author. She lives in Madison with her husband, daughter and son, and is always up for an adventure.