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Architecture

2021

Photographer : Shamanth Patil

Nenapu - where the traveler’s memories goes into the album and experience the traditional Architecture.

“Nenapu” villa in the home town of famous poet Rashtra Kavi Kuvempu, Thirthahalli is set amongst a 30-acre wooded property in the Western Ghats. The first visual of the site was that of towering Rubber trees forming the skyline to the North with the site sloping towards the North West.

The client ran a 2nd generation family hospitality business. The demand was for a 3-bedroom villa, a recreational pavilion and a swimming pool as an extension to the already existing leisure stay.

Boasting spectacular views of the plantation, “Nenapu” is a modern interpretation of a traditional architecture. Firstly, I’m a huge follower of Geoffrey Bawa and Palinda Kannangara’s works, where they keep the design rooted to the vernacular architecture and blend well with modern interpretations. Apart from that I took inspiration from the architecture of Kuvempu’s house which is designed with the concept of “Thotti Mane” (Courtyard House) architecture including colonnaded central courtyard and verandahs.

From the minute I saw the property and took down the client’s brief, I envisioned for a deep dive into the indoor-outdoor living experience with spaces to breathe, a colonnaded verandah to watch the rainfall and lots of natural light and ventilation. The rooms are designed with large openings that open onto the expansive shaded private balconies and landscaped courtyards that offer cool breezy gathering leisure spaces with inspiring views of the dense foliage of rubber trees and an immediate connection to nature.

In the design, the main challenge was to find a common logic between the landscape and the client’s requests while optimizing the use of the lot and eliminating the least possible number of trees. The west wing of the villa was skewed, this decision was taken at site at the time of marking in order to preserve a couple of existing rubber trees.

Another major challenge was the location of the site which is located in a remote area, nearly 70kms away from the nearest city, Shimogga in Karnataka. Transportation and labors were the biggest issue we faced.

[{"value":"Shimmoga"},{"value":"Karnataka"},{"value":"India"}]

Architects	:	Architecture Saga
Area	:	Site Area : 30-acre
Year	:	2021
Website	:	https://www.instagram.com/architecture.saga/

Prominent features are the sloping roof with the locally sourced terracotta tiles that ties the built structure further to the land and the use of stone and wooden pillars in verandahs and balconies which the client had collected over the years from Chettinad in Tamil Nadu. The arched window in the recreational pavilion was to break the monotony of sloping roof and create an emphasis yet maintain harmony and balance in the use of material - exposed brick.

The design utilizes simple earthy local materials for construction like terracotta roof tiles, shabad stone for pathways, locally procured wood, etc.

The interior mood board is simple with polished wooden furniture, white walls and doors, terracotta ceilings and is broken occasionally by the ochre-colored niches with pattachitra paintings from Odisha. The entire flooring is a right combination of cement finish tiles and kota flooring.

The objective was to create an earthy ambiance, with good balance. The design brings a flavour of quirkiness, but in a subtle way. The use of colours and artwork helps the overall narrative and is further supported by the super-imposed neutral colour palette.

There was not much of manicured landscaping was made as we had enough of natural landscape and entire concept revolved around how effectively we worked with it. Finally, the landscape comes together in complete synergy with the villa, with the court, and the garden peppered with tropical plants and complementing an architecture at ease with its context.