Excerpt: House of Volumes, designed by PRAJC Design Consultants LLP, combines tropical modernism and contemporary Kerala architecture. The residence features various volumes, creating spacious, breathable spaces. The design balances private and open spaces, with public spaces having larger volumes. With materials creatively repurposed to create a cohesive environment, the new building retains the nostalgic essence of the old house.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] In the rural fabric of the Kottayam district, Kerala, home isn’t a dream, it’s a continuation of many generations, the past, the ancestors and their stories. Therefore, House of Volumes was a chance to connect the dots between many time periods of an ancestral property. Key element of the design process was to create a contemporary structure that would physically hold the remains and relics of the old house on the site.
With the new structure, the client wanted a house that was more spacious and open. The architects reflected on this need by creating volumes that come together in harmony to create interesting niches of greenery in the interiors and functional spaces that simultaneously converse with them.
Design innovations, planning and space utilization: In creating a place where diverse individuals come together to make a home in stages, across time, the architects designed House of Volumes by bringing many volumes of varying characteristics into one cohesive environment. Owing to the client’s desire for a spacious, breathable space, this interplay of volumes creates interesting voids that optimise sunlight and openness in the interiors.
The zoning, both vertical and horizontal, was the crux of the design concept keeping in mind the need for a balance between private and open spaces. Public spaces had bigger volumes than private spaces. Imbibing the nostalgic essence of the old house into the new, many materials have been inventively reused in the structure.
The client’s intent to expand their over five-decade-old house was to create a more spacious residence that would be welcoming of a larger group of people. This requirement arose from the fact that their old residence was restrictive of the growing needs of the family. With the new structural intervention in the site, they hoped to create a home where ample sunlight and ventilation filled the interior spaces throughout the day and would remain connected to the outdoors.
Sustainability Features in Design: Contrasting the current debates on sustainability, the designers’ approach doesn’t come from designated additions of sustainable features. At House of Volumes, every stage of construction has been dealt with, keeping sustainability and environmental responsibility in mind. As much as materials from the old demolished house are reused in the new house. Site’s natural vegetation has been maximally preserved and the construction has caused minimal disturbance to the surrounding ecosystem. Materials and labour are mainly sourced locally. The design maximizes natural light and ventilation, minimising day time energy consumption.
Aesthetics (organic design, innovative concept, clarity of context etc.): The architecture of the residence hails from the concepts of Kerala’s contemporary architecture and tropical modernism. Therefore, every space in the house maintains constant relation to the surrounding natural environment. The carefully carved-out niches in the planning accommodate small courtyards alongside the private spaces like bedrooms. Elevating the contextual beauty of the site and inviting it aesthetically indoors, a waterbody has been introduced to the design.
Furthermore, placing the pieces of the old, the roofed tiles of the ancestral house are innovatively repurposed in House of Volumes as a screen. Laid horizontally, one over the other, these roof tiles with slightly weathered edges and tinted shades on time reminiscences the memories of the old house helping the family stay connected to it even in its absence. The roof-tile wall becomes a significant element of the design, not only as a key feature but also emphasizes how every element in architecture has the capacity to tell a story.
Considering the contextual value of ancestral houses and the history that these houses hold in the cultural fabric of Kottayam, the architects envisioned a project that would blur the lines drawn between generations. House of Volumes is a space where things and spaces people left behind become stories, relics and memories. When they stepped onto the ancestral plot of the client where a small house shaded by a mighty mango tree stood, their primary question was “How can we create a home that lies on the threshold of the new and old?”
With younger generations moving away from their roots, the architects intend for House of Volumes to initiate a new conversation on the current multigenerational houses in the context and what is architecture’s role in this change. House of Volumes is a tale of how many different things of varying forms and personas come together to form a single whole, a volume, a house. In the globalised world, this residence was their attempt to understand how the best of both worlds can be merged while respecting the context and culture of the place so as to not lose the threads of identity. Architecture, even in the minutest intervention, has a role to play in how our socio-economic fabric functions. While the House of Volumes is just a residence for a family of many generations, it is also a step towards realizing the potential, possibility and responsibility architecture holds.
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