Echoes Of Kerala Architects

The voice of Indian as well as Kerala architecture hold its own importance in architecture in our daily life, The use of vastu is a booming trend between elite builders. Here we are exposing the life of  some of the legends in architecture who have Kerala roots.

Laurie Baker

Indian Coffee House,Trivandrum

Laurie Baker : Laurence Wilfred "Laurie" Baker (2 March 1917 – 1 April 2007) was a British-born Indian architect, renowned for his initiatives in cost-effective energy-efficient architecture and for his unique space utilization and simple but aesthetic sensibility. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he sought to incorporate simple designs with local materials and achieved fame with his approach to sustainable architecture as well as in organic architecture. He has been called the "Gandhi of architecture".

He moved to India in 1945 in part as an architect associated with a leprosy mission and continued to live and work in India for over 50 years. He became an Indian citizen in 1989 and resided in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala from 1963 and founded COSTFORD (Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development),Throughout his practice, Baker became well known for designing and building low cost, high quality, beautiful homes, with a great portion of his work suited to or built for lower-middle to lower class clients.

 His buildings tend to emphasize prolific - at times virtuosic - masonry construction, instilling privacy and evoking history with brick jali walls, a perforated brick screen which invites a natural air flow to cool the buildings' interior, in addition to creating intricate patterns of light and shadow. Another significant Baker feature is irregular, pyramid-like structures on roofs, with one side left open and tilting into the wind. Baker's designs invariably have traditional Indian sloping roofs and terracotta Mangalore tile shingling with gables and vents allowing rising hot air to escape. Curved walls enter Baker's architectural vocabulary as a means to enclose more volume at lower material cost than straight walls, and for Laurie, "building [became] more fun with the circle." A testament to his frugality, Baker was often seen rummaging through salvage heaps looking for suitable building materials, door and window frames, sometimes hitting a stroke of luck as evidenced by the intricately carved entry to the Chitralekha Film Studio (Aakulam, Trivandrum, 1974–76): a capricious architectural element found in a junk heap.

Eugene Pandala

Eugene Pandala: Eugene Pandala studied for a Masters in Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. He had his Fellowship in Heritage Conservation at University of York and at Fort Brockhurst (English Heritage Training Centre) in the U.K. He was the founding head of the department of Architecture at the Architecture School in Quilon where he spent educating and researching on traditional building technologies of India.

Pandala while studying at Delhi School of Planning and Architecture met the legendary architect Hassan Fathy, and was inspired to build with mud. As a nature lover, and cultural heritage conservation activist, he designs buildings with natural materials such as cob or wattle and daub, preferring interesting organic forms. Pandala built his first mud house in Kollam in 1996,comprising 2,500 sq. ft. of building, bringing him to the public's attention.

Mud House

His unique Architecture style paved way to many awards, and recognition. In 2011, Lalith Kala Academy awarded him the first Laurie Baker award .(The Hindu The Sunday, Jan 30,2011). The Designer of the year Award given by Inside Outside design magazine in 2007 (Kerala artist retreat bags best eco-friendly design award Business Standard Sunday, Mar 25, 2012) was for eco friendly design. His heritage Conservation project in East Fort Trivandrum was chosen for a commendation award by Inside Outside magazine in 2004. In 1999 for one of his residential building built with mud "Bodhi", Pandala was given, a Commendation award, by J.K. Foundations, Architect of the year award.

Fort Cochin Heritage conservation project, Trivandrum East Fort Conservation projects, is often cited as good examples of Kerala heritage conservation initiatives. This was led by Eugene Pandala’s conservation team, enabling the State Government to win the PATTA award. Sustainable architecture/Green buildings is a field where Pandala has excelled. His Tsunami rehabilitation projects, and buildings for hospitality industries receives wide acclaim due to its interwoven complicity with nature.

Kerala's elite builders like NeST Infratech, encompass low cost ideas which makes the design more exquisite , following the path of these legends of architecture.

JKH Signature Apartments

JKH signature is  a premium waterfront apartment project from Nest Infratech. It is located on the banks of Periyar river, Alwaye, Kerala.This dream project is conceived and conceptualized by none other than Dr Javed. K.Hassan, the chairman and founder of the Nest group. It is a much awaited project from Nest with a unique feature, as all the properties will be personally allotted by the Chairman to the aspirants chosen by a panel of experts based on a certain criteria. 

Another great fact is that all these projects are available at a reasonable price range. You can now bring excellence to your existence with the wide range of amenities available at JKH signature apartments. Some examples of such amenities available are discussed below:

Incredible interiors: All the rooms are airy, spacious and trendy. Every room makes a unique style statement and you will surely experience 365 days of delight. 

Lively interiors at JKH Signature apartments

Proximity: This project is fortunately located at one of the prominent locations of Cochin.   It is just 300 metres away from the proposed sea port and 2.5 metres from the proposed metro. The Alwaye railway station and bus stand are also close by. You can go wherever you want in a matter of few minutes like shopping centres, hospitals, recreation areas, and educational institutions. When you have all these facilities around, your life becomes much easier like never before. 

Green Building: As JKH Signature apartments come under the list of green buildings, you can proudly tell the world that you are living in an environmentally responsible building. Enjoy the benefits of a green home especially when you can lower your  operating costs with the water and energy savings right from day one.

Relaxing Zone: After a long tiring day, there are many relaxing zones awaiting you at the JKH signature apartments.The infinity pool with water fall, landscaped gardens, private boat jetty are just few examples for such spaces.

A view of the private boat jetty at JKH Signature apartments

Security: When you are into community living, security is often a major concern. At JKH Signature apartments, you get added benefits like round the clock security. Video door phone with camera outside front door, intrusion alarm system, and guard tour system are the other unique security facilities available at these apartments.

Sports and Recreation: Now kickstart your day by hitting the roof top multi gym. You can  jog in the jog trails or  play some badminton or lawn tennis in the respective courts. If you are fond of indoor games, then also you have separate billiards, table tennis, card and chess rooms. There is also a clubhouse and party area for having a great time with your friends and family. 

Fitness gym at JKH Signature apartments

Parking space: There is a spacious covered car parking area. Apart from that, each home has a special slot for parking  two cars. 

Connectivity: Internet broadband connectivity and intercom facility make connectivity and communication easier like never before.

In-house convenience store: There is an in-house convenience store, you can go there if in case you wish  to buy something. 

Update your life by receiving all these amenities and add life to your living. When you live at JKH signature apartments, you can always keep your heads high!

Green Building

A Green building is one which uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building. Transformation of building homes from the old ways to eco-friendly ways is taking place a slow and steady pace. 

With the increase in population and lack of living spaces along with the increasing pollution rate has left humans with no other choices than to shift to a place which is far away or to build homes in a eco-friendly way. With the increase in land rates people are switching their minds from villas and bungalows to flats and apartments. There can be a lot of other reasons to choose flats and apartments as they provide a lot of facilities like swimming pool, security, gyms and many other facilities, getting which is more difficult in villas and bungalows. Social get together in apartments and flats is much more easier than in a private villa. So need for a eco-friendly building becomes more essential. 

A building is assessed based on its predicted performance over its entire life cycle. The stages identified for evaluation are:

Pre-construction: Intra- and inter-site issues like proximity to public transport, type of soil, kind of land, location, flora and fauna before construction activity starts, natural landscape and features.

Planning and construction: Issues of resource conservation and reduction in resource demand, resource utilization efficiency and recovery, reuse, and provisions for occupant health and well-being. Prime resources considered are land, water, energy, air and green cover.

Operation and maintenance: Of building systems and processes, monitoring and recording of energy consumption, occupants' health and well-being and issues that affect the global and local environment. The builders concentrate on the following things before building such homes.

1. Energy saving

2. Water efficiency

3. CO2 emissions reduction

4. Indoor environmental quality

5. Preservation of resources

6. Sensitivity to the impact of development on natural resources

Nowadays a lot of builders are emerging and among them is NeST Infratech. They recently finished their project on "KERALA'S FIRST GREEN TOWNSHIP" which focuses on building homes surrounded with eco-friendly elements, for example Coconut trees. This novel township comprises of architectural styles that includes Contemporary as well as Traditional Nalukettu Villas and Luxurious Apartments, ranging from 29 lakhs, The World sprawls over an area of 25 acres in the ever bracing surroundings of Alwaye.