Mountain Shadows Lake Resort is an eco-friendly resort layout designed in a scenic setting at Wayanad. The 50-key hospitality project is developed so that every room absorbs the outstanding natural landscape around. There are single cottages, twin cottages, pool cottages and suites. Each cottage gets the breathtaking views of the Banasura Lake and surrounding hill ranges of the Western Ghats. The site planning is done with minimum disturbance to existing terrain. Buildings are given the touch of mud plaster and mountain thatch roof, evoking the vernacular and submerging in the hillside landscape. Special care is given to minimize the impact of development, so as to protect the soil and natural habitat. Roads and pathways have been optimized to reduce hard surfaces and include more greenery. (Interior Design by: Design Combine, Kochi)
Nannilam is an upcoming Eco Farm Community Living project in Kalrayan Hills. The project consists of participatory community agriculture units in 100 acres along with a research station in 25 acres, which will startup centre and collaborative engagement to promote agriculture, horticulture, farm and dairy products. The project will also be a sustainable development centre which will showcase and promote sustainable architecture and construction methods, sustainable lifestyle products and alternative energy. The investors, partners and visitors can experience farm visits, petting zoo, dairy training, pickle & jam making, walking & trekking trails, fishing, star gazing, camping, fire-pit story-telling, yoga, meditation etc. Facilities will include an eco-shop, eco-lodges, e-cottages, eco-villas, natural pool, community kitchen etc.
This traditional house on the backwaters of Kumbalanghi had undergone an intense restoration process to get itself converted into a heritage hotel with 7 Keys and 20 Cover Poolside Restaurant. The traditional charm of the building was reinvented through a surgical effort for removing a later concrete addition to this structure. Located right at the entrance to the Kumbalanghi Island, this project marks the entrance to the Model Tourism Village. The premise is expressly landscaped with indigenous plants and local grass lawns.
The project won Indian Institute of Architects State Award 2008 for Excellence in Architecture.
Jury Report Excerpts:The Heritage Methanam, is a renovation and re-adaptation of a bungalow of colonial character into a small hotel. The intervention was very carefully handled removing certain unfitting elements like concrete porch and introducing tiled roofs and courts and new staircases substantially improving the quality of spaces and befitting detailing to existing elements. The introduction of traditional wooden partitions and rustic flooring were commendable. On the whole, the building renovation and adaptive reuse showed a maturity in intervention and conservation.
This proposed River Retreat is designed as a boutique property charmingly located by the Idamalayar River facing Malayattur Forest. The property features a fully private stay with 7 keys. The spacious rooms are attached with featured garden toilets with plunge pools and jacuzzis. There is also a common pool and party lawns for get togethers and private gatherings. Tropical character of its architecture and landscape promises memorable monsoon living.
The Wild Orchid Estates sits on a naturally beautiful, gently sloping terrain of Yercaud. Flanged by coffee estates and forest lands, this property is lush green and blessed with plenty of large trees and variety of plants. Wild Orchid Estates is planned in 75 acres of land. This is planned as a eco-community project with members owning estate acres along with holiday homes. The project is planned with all common facilities for passive and active recreation. Plantation crops of coffee and aromatic plants are preserved and enhanced. Landscape of the campus become the unifying and unique feature of the project, which attempts to exhibit the genius of the eastern ghats. The public areas are treated with such finesse giving an international and yet natural feel.
Luxury & Eco-friendly holiday villas of Wild Orchid were designed with minimum ecological footprint. The design incorporated a seamless blend between indoor and outdoor spaces. The buildings were designed in such a way that none of the trees were cut while setting them, the placement followed the contours. Spaces such as decks, patios, verandas and balconies connected the inside spaces with external courtyards and further with surrounding nature.
Club Orchid is part of the Wild Orchid eco-friendly community project at Yercaud. The large vertical garden and roof garden features merges the club building with the surrounding hill-side landscape. The building is designed with minimum facade and maximum inside volume, an approach opposite to most conemporary concepts. The building’s aesthetics is given least visibility, while the interior spaces seamlessly connects with the valley in front, through large glazed walls, patios and semi-covered spaces.
The club consists of yoga hall, SPA, organic restaurant, home-theater, heritage echo-music room, library, infinity pool etc. Catering to the luxury holiday property of wild orchid, the club is designed with trendy eco-features. Rustic stone walls are built with inside-lit moon-quartz stones. The flooring varies from wood, natural stones, oxide finish etc. A building which is difficult to describe and a pleasure to experience.
A 30 acre Heritage Resort was planned with a rich tropical heritage architecture and landscape approach. The facility will have an active recreational side and a passive, quiet side catering to different seasons and client-tele. Very sensitive site planning approach deals with large tracts of open spaces of different character from dense forest patches to orchards, open gardens, tropical thematic gardens, active recreational gardens and water bodies. The cottages are stringed together by these garden spaces and character zones creating a mosaic within the campus. (Status: Unbuilt)
Eco Resort Yelagiri is designed in the beautiful hill station of Yelagiri in Tamil Nadu. The theme of Architecture is derived from the local vernacular mud and stone architecture of the tribal settlements of Yelagiri. The site is an inward looking wooded estate, with a gently sloping terrain. Thick vegetation and slopes studded with rock boulders and outcrops are features of the site that are preserved while planning this resort.
Ekantha wellness centre is designed as part of the Common Facilities for the upcoming Teakayen Estates eco-friendly community project in Kodaikanal. Idea Design developed the master plan for the luxury holiday project. The central part of the master plan is the Wellness Centre and Wellness Gardens. Every aspect of the design of wellness centre speaks of eco-sensitive and sustainable approach. Each of the eight wings of the lotus carries unique functional element of human wellness. Developed in the setting of one of the largest organic farms of peninsular India, organic Kitchen, yoga hall, meditation centre, naturopathic wellness, ayurvedic wellness and a wellness lecture hall etc become components of this centre. Wellness Gardens give a therapeutic and rejuvenate experience to the visitors.
This heritage Ayurvedic Resort & treatment center was blessed with beautiful traditional structures of the famous Poomully Mana, built in the Kerala Heritage Timber Architecture style. An adaptive resue of the old structures into rooms for accomodation and treatments followed by a simple landscape to highlight the Architectural Beauty of the entire complex, has given rise to the most sought after Ayurvedic Resort of the state. Later more rooms and amenities were added following the traditional architectural style of the locale.
Wild Trails Resort is designed for nature living in the midst of wilderness – rocks, bamboo clubs, tall trees and thick spice plantations in the colonial hill station of Munnar. The natural character of the site’s topography, geology and vegetation is protected and enhanced while developing the design language for the resort. The old world colonial charm reflects through nature’s wilderness.
Teakayen is an Eco Farm Community at Kodai Hills. The club house is set at an attractive location by the side of a large man made reservoir, looking into the outstanding mountainous landscapes. The club house is designed with minimalistic and modern approach of steel and glass, that absorb the view of the beautiful public gardens and reservoir along with faraway misty mountains in the backdrop.
This design for a proposed club and luxury resort is done by the beautiful riverside in Kanhangad. The stunning waterfront character is preserved by reducing the footprint of the project and having an extensive riverside garden which is expressly landscaped with large lawns, swimming pool, pond, cabanas, gazebos, walkways and jetties. The rooms block is laid in such a way that all rooms enjoy the spectacular view of the garden and the river. The building acts as a threshold between the urban highway-side and the quiet and serene river-side.
Sembra Valley is an eco-sensitive development in the rare folds of the true nature of Kodai Hills far away from human habitation. A place is created, submerged and surrounded by nature, where an ecological garden becomes the canvas and eco-sensitive architecture plays out as eco-lodges, eco-topos and eco-forums. An organic vegetable farm becomes part of the planned facility, which promises ultimate naturopathic experience.
Atisaya retreat is a project envisaged around a century old British Bungalow in Yercaud. Compact and modern lifestyle cottages are planned around green patches of gardens. Seamless connect between interior and exterior spaces through patios, verandas and gardens make it a haven for inmates.
The theme for the resort is based on wellness and healthy living. The layout has an Ayurvedic Spa and Kitchen which serves organic food. Jogging tracks, passive and active recreation facilities, spaces for yoga, meditation etc. aims at holistic wellness.
Living earth is a nature living project in the Cardamom Hills of western ghats. An eco-sensitive approach to carve out living spaces in the canvas of tall and wild trees, spice plantations and breathtaking surroundings. Trails are made without disturbing a single tree, paved with stabilized mud-paths. Drainage swales are made of reused terracotta tiles. Cottages use dry-rubble masonry for retaining walls and foundations. Stabilized and rammed earth walls for super-structure and mountain grass for roofs. Rustic interiors, oxide floors and robust wooden furniture. Zero use of concrete is maintained throughout the project. Climate allows for a low energy footprint.
This resort is planned in one of the virgin valleys of Kodaikanal in the Palani Hills on the Western Ghats. All one could see from the location is stunning views of mountains and valleys wrapped with stone boulders and green meadows. Taking cues from the location’s natural beauty, an architectural language is derived, where the resort itself looks as a blend of granite stones and green meadows.
An eco-friendly approach involving organic farming, use of alternative energy, water harvesting and biological treatment and reuse of all wastes is adopted. The site planning is developed with minimal disturbance to the natural terrain of the site. A detailed site analysis preceded the planning exercises enabling conservation of soil, vegetation and storm water channels of the site. Innovative modern techniques are developed for creating living roofs. Selection of the indigenous palette of meadows makes it easy to maintain.
This resort at Munnar on the old Munnar Road is a luxury holiday destination. Located in a steeply sloping terrain overlooking a beautiful valley and blue mountains in the horizon, the rooms have splendid view and utmost privacy. Expressly landscaped premises will feature indigenous landscape’s true spirit. Flowing streams, waterbodies and large, perching rock boulders immerse the visitor in the landscape.
Tucked away in the natural slopes of the Eastern Ghats in Yercaud, this resort planning takes an eco-sensitive approach of minimum disturbance to topography, soil, vegetation and natural drainage. The structures and cottages are planned in such a way as to preserve the outstanding beauty of nature.
An eco friendly resort conceived in the western ghats with the naturally beautiful site full of tall trees and large rocks creating a forest atmosphere. The site has a long water frontage of about 400m of the Kallar River, which continuously makes the humming sound of flowing water where the river bed is full of rocks. The entire theme is worked out for an eco friendly site planning and development, which will make least disturbance to the land, trees, rocks, streams and so on. This land of 12 acres have many caves within it which almost connects from one end to the other end of the site. The architecture is to follow the traditional style of the tribal huts with a bamboo theme, with tree cottages becoming a specialty.
Architects, Landscape Architects, Urban Designers – Cochin, Kerala, India
