—Modern, and still a Kerala house
Clean modern volumes that keep the shade, the cross-ventilation and the warmth this climate has always required — modern homes that still behave like Kerala houses.
—Approach
A lot of new building in Kerala is modern in appearance and nowhere else. Glass on the west, no overhang, a flat roof without falls, and rooms that need air conditioning from March. The look is contemporary; the performance is worse than a house built here a century ago.
We design contemporary homes that behave like Kerala houses. Long elevations north and south. Openings sized differently on each face. Overhangs, pergolas or perforated screens where the sun actually lands. Every room with two external walls where the plan allows it, so air moves through instead of sitting still.
What that buys you is a modern house you can live in with the fans on and the doors open for most of the year — and one whose surfaces are still worth looking at after five monsoons.
—How they work
Deep overhangs, pergolas and perforated jali screens do the work that a bigger air conditioner would otherwise be asked to do. On the Harish Residence in Kozhikode the screens shade the balconies and give the façade its depth at the same time.
The Iqbal Residence occupies a 4.82-cent plot in Pondicherry. On a site that tight the section matters as much as the plan — open terraces, a shaded entrance court and planting placed where it will actually be seen from inside.
Render, local stone, timber accents and one warm masonry tone. A restrained palette ages more gracefully than a varied one, and it keeps a contemporary house from looking like a showroom. The Sharika Residence at Ambalappuzha works this way, and it is the one house in the portfolio now complete.
—Questions
Behaviour, not ornament. Orientation against the sun and the rain, deep shading, cross-ventilation through every room, a plinth clear of the ground, and materials that weather well in humidity. A flat-roofed white box with those things is a Kerala house. Without them it is a box that will be hot, streaked and expensive to run.
That is one of our most common briefs, and it works extremely well. A contemporary plan with a single-sided or double-height court keeps the climatic advantage of an open court without the traditional four-block footprint.
They can, with correct falls, a proper waterproofing system and generous overhangs or parapet detailing. We are candid with clients that a flat roof here demands better execution and more maintenance than a pitched tiled roof, and we often combine the two.
Orientation first, then shade — deep overhangs, pergolas and perforated jali screens, as on the Harish Residence in Kozhikode — then openings sized and placed for cross-ventilation. Air conditioning becomes something you use on the worst nights rather than something the house depends on.
Yes. The Iqbal Residence sits on a 4.82-cent site and still gets open terraces, shading and planting. Compact plots need the section worked as hard as the plan — where the light comes from, where the air leaves, and what you look at from each room.