Project: Nisarga Art Hub
Architecture: Wallmakers
Lead Architects: Vinu Daniel, Oshin Mariam Varughese
Junior Architects: Subhrodipta Ghosh, Rosh V. Saji
Location: Ernakulam, India
Area: 2557 ft2
Year: 2023
Photo Credits: Syam Sreesylam
Nisarga Art Hub is an initiative by a family of musicians to make a community residency where people can interact and congregate for art and cultural events. The site was near a paddy field, with the traditional “Kerala Roofs” being the only feature crowding the horizon around it. Even though these traditional roofs are famous for being the ideal insulators and temperature regulators, it’s a waning feature in contemporary architecture today, simply because the darkness they bring is not suited to the modern man’s comfort and aesthetics. Thus, the idea to break open the roof to accommodate skylights that stream in the light was conceived.
The 35° angle of the roof seemed to perfectly match the 30° angle of an Open-Air Amphitheatre, and the idea for the same skylights to become seating spaces for an audience was born. A series of wooden planks could be set on the swimming pool and immediately double up as a stage for open-air concerts accommodating 75-80 people.
The separate entry to the Hub, ensuring that activities can happen parallelly above undisturbed, opens into a large living space overlooking the field. The interior spaces are conceived as open, flexible spaces where the occupants mostly use the wooden floors for interacting with visitors and dining, as was the preference of the clients who advocated the benefits of the ‘Padmasana’ position (Sitting Lotus Pose).
The walls built with our patented Shuttered Debris Wall Technique, made with construction debris collected from the neighboring town and soil from the site, are load-bearing, supporting even a 4-meter cantilevered recording studio on the first floor.
The west-facing side of the Hub had the guest rooms protected with discarded racks collected from a scrapyard that became the grills and allowed for a curtain of creepers to shield it from the afternoon sun. The strategically designed breaks in the roof allow light to stream in, diffused by Jute Sack rolls, and permit the hot air to escape. Reclaimed laterite blocks from demolished buildings form the verandah in front of the home, reminiscent of the old “Muttams” of traditional Kerala homes.
The building is designed like music- where the pauses between the notes are more important than the notes themselves. Where the built architecture stops and the empty spaces in between speak volumes.
