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Thiruvannamalai Residence

Location

Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu

Type

Private residence

Program

Family home, living and dining, bedrooms, pooja room, home theatre

Stages

Concept, interior design, joinery detailing, construction

Status

In progress

Bedroom with a woven cane bed, timber joinery, a bench at its foot and warm layered lighting

Grounded, cool rooms at the foot of Arunachala.

This family home sits in the temple town of Thiruvannamalai, in the shadow of the sacred hill of Arunachala. The plan is contemporary and calm, warmed throughout by a distinctly South Indian material palette: exposed brick, carved and solid timber, cane, stone floors and soft, layered lighting.

The house is designed to feel restful rather than showy. Rooms are kept cool and grounded, each one opening to light and greenery, while the joinery does much of the architectural work. Carved columns, a brick feature wall and long timber consoles give the living spaces weight, and quiet detailing carries the same idea through every bedroom.

Starting from the frame

The interiors were developed with the structure already standing, working within a concrete frame and generous openings. Reading the light and cross ventilation of the shell came first, before any surface was chosen.

The house under construction, an open concrete frame with wide openings to the garden — The concrete frame during construction

Interior of the shell showing the structural bays and openings — Structural bays and openings

Site view of the unfinished house with brickwork and timber props — Brickwork in progress

Working the plan in three dimensions

The stair, the entry and the double-height volume were resolved in model before detailing, testing how the house reads as you move through it rather than only in plan.

Working model view of the entry and staircase volume — Entry and stair, working model

Working model view of the ground floor circulation — Ground floor, working model

Brick, timber and the weight of joinery

In the living spaces the media wall becomes the room's anchor. Exposed brick, carved timber columns and a long low console are set against pale plaster and grey stone floors, with a clerestory pulling daylight across the surface.

Living room with exposed brick feature wall, carved timber columns and a long timber console beneath the television — Brick feature wall and carved columns

Media wall in brick and timber with the door open to the garden — Opening to the garden

Minimal media console with a clerestory window above — Clerestory above the console

Traditional carved timber media unit with a shuttered upper panel — Carved timber unit

Timber media wall with carved detail and daylight from the side — Detail and daylight

Bedrooms with a traditional grain

One set of rooms leans into heritage detail: carved beds, patterned floors, brass and glass pendants and panelled wardrobes, held together by a warm, low light.

Bedroom with a carved timber bed, patterned floor and hanging lanterns — Carved bed and lanterns

Bedroom with green cornice detail, timber doors and a cane headboard — Green cornice and cane

Bedroom with panelled wardrobe, timber bed and a patterned rug — Panelled wardrobe wall

Bedroom with fluted glass wardrobe doors and a timber bed — Fluted glass joinery

Bedroom with a dresser, mirror and layered warm lighting — Dresser and mirror

Bedrooms with a quieter, modern hand

Elsewhere the palette relaxes: cane headboards, a bench at the foot of the bed, soft rugs over dark stone and a cove of warm light around a clean ceiling.

Contemporary bedroom with cane headboard, bench and a soft rug — Cane headboard and bench

Bedroom with cove lighting, a leaf artwork and dark stone floor — Cove light and dark floor

Compact bedroom with warm ceiling cove lighting and a timber wardrobe — Compact room, warm cove

Bedroom with layered lighting, timber doors and a soft rug — Layered light

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