The Screen Lantern House is nestled among coconut plantations and native vegetation in a peaceful area of northern Kerala. The design approach respects the surrounding landscape, aiming to blend the house subtly into its environment. The home's exterior acts as a "screen," shielding the interior from the outside while allowing light and fresh air to filter in, creating a harmonious relationship with nature.
The facade of the house resembles a lantern, protecting the beauty of the inner spaces and becoming illuminated at night. Its clean and simple design keeps windows and doors concealed, resulting in a monolithic form. Inside, visitors encounter a spacious area where common spaces are connected by a long water feature at the entrance. Minimal walls ensure privacy in the bedrooms while maintaining an unobstructed view of the surrounding landscape.
Designed for a family of four who live in the UK and visit their ancestral land for holidays, the home aims to facilitate memorable gatherings. The design process focused on creating personalized spaces within the common area, featuring delights such as a floating deck by the living area, a reading nook on the stair landing, and a private balcony with plantation views. These thoughtfully designed spaces foster a sense of homecoming and emotional connection for the family.
They wanted their house to be almost invisible.
As in they didn't want anything very polished
or that lies in very stark contrast with whatever is there.
Like the house is calling you and saying,
hey I'm here, look at me.
Nothing like that.
So this itself is a large property,
say about five acres of land
in Thirur, Malappuram district, northern Kerala.
And what we were given is approximately about 50 cents of land
where the eldest son was allotted to build the house.
The screen basically screens off the built from the unbuilt
and the built entity is inside
and you have the unbuilt entity outside the site.
The purpose of having no walls meant, you know,
there is no contrast with the setting.
The outside or the exterior
doesn't give a clue about what is happening inside.
So this element of curiosity was purposefully there.
It was intentional.
We were building the volume,
how the volume should look like
and how do we add interest to the volume.
So that was how the periphery came,
the landscape, the screen came.
And when we went about having a larger volume
where we would fit in the living, family living, dining, etc.
and how do we add more interest to it
and how do we bring in more wind and more warmth inside.
That is how we went about having a water body and this opening.
So all of this came as part of a composition.
So we had the thought that we should have a space for reading.
We can very well have arranged it in the first floor
where it is kept hidden.
So why don't we fit in the reading space
where light comes in plenty.
So that was how we went about having the reading space over the deck.
We can have personalized spaces
where it caters to different members of the family,
including the bedrooms.
We have four different bedrooms.
One is guest bedroom and the master bedroom
and just two bedrooms in the first floor for the kids.
The view from these bedrooms are such that
they can partially see the landscape in the ground floor
growing up towards the second level.
The balconies have been set like that.
That sort of responds to what they need in their home, the kids.
Different lighting, lighting patterns,
different reflections and different reactions of these spaces
during different times of the day has been
the whole idea of how we went about having these spaces.
I remember we never spoke about having
this much area should be dedicated to this activity,
this activity, not like that.
It all was stitched into one,
but how well each area would respond to the light
during each time of the day and the setting.
That was the main thought.
In some areas of the periphery,
we have replaced the plantation with water body,
like in the prayer room.
So that was also a part of bringing in more interest and detail
to have just one detail going along everywhere.
So there has been a play of mix and match,
adding solids and voids with the periphery itself.
From the outside, it does look like a single-story residence.
It doesn't talk much about the volume.
So we have the linearity in the ground floor
because it is spread across through the ground floor
more than in the first floor.
We only have two spaces there.
Pallet has been mostly neutral,
so we didn't want anything that pops out
of the entire frame or entire composition.
Then we thought of having different,
play with different kinds of textures
so that we bring interest.
It doesn't look very monotonous.
The house itself is monolithic from the exterior,
but you should have a different character to different spaces.
You can see different kinds of openings
where the light comes to the inside.
All these textures and openings
were the element that we could play with.
Every home is special to us,
but this one in particular,
we were very close to the family,
so we could really connect to what they really wanted
or what would make them happy.
I was glad to see that over the seven years,
the end product made them happy.
The time that house offers or tells you that,
you know, I'm here when it is lit.
And that's why we sometimes call it the lantern house.
