While the discipline of architecture is touted for giving brick-and-mortar meaning, the people who dwell within its walls give it a sense of belonging. Due to its scenic coordinates along Kanathur Beach’s coastline, Villa Del Sol’s history has witnessed many a transition. A coveted set location in Madras, the villa posed as a morphing mise-en-scène for television and cinema productions, a realm of art Tamil Nadu zealously cherishes.

Editor’s Note: Villa del Sol, designed by Synergy Architecture and Interiors, follows a minimal design approach. A paved pathway leads to the villa, creating a cinematic sense of arrival. Soft ecru walls contrast with the rich red tones of terracotta, while large columns give the house a strong presence. During the redesign, the architects were mindful of preserving elements that were still in good condition.

Reimagining Home: Elegance Unfolded on 1 Acre Land | Synergy architecture and Interiors

Vision and Rejuvenation

Serendipity etched a long-awaited rejuvenation of its identity and ownership into the land’s destiny, and Nanditha later fulfilled it on her drawing board. Sited on a verdant 1 acre land parcel, an earshot from the ocean’s lull, the residence is now Nanditha’s family getaway home, whisking them away to the quiet serenity of the context. The Architect collaborated closely with S.H. Vikram on the civil iterations of the villa and its surrounding master plan. Their partnership extended beyond the professional realm, as the two are also life partners.

“The dubbed name in Spanish translates to ‘House of the Sun’. This name is an ode to Madras’s eternal summer, our balmy days, and the home’s disposition. Down a quiet avenue, this world of our own flickers to life. She reminisces that it peels away just enough from the city to feel like a retreat.

A Canvas for Transformation

They acquired the residence in a dated state because of its former utility, with its finishes masking and layering precariously over one another, almost untethered from its origins. Its stopgap usage and overwhelming footfall only aggravated its neglect, leaving Nanditha a canvas that demanded an extrinsic and intrinsic rehaul.

The structure had good bones that had stood the test of time. Nanditha’s arsenal of design manoeuvres had to be minimal and meaningful, sensitive to the building’s age, and inventive in lending it a new lease of life.

Site Preparation and Flood Mitigation

“Given the city’s history of severe flooding, we first supplied the site with fresh soil, reworked slope gradients to facilitate meticulous drainage, and introduced landscape where needed.” The structure had these beautiful, aged Mangalore tiles we wanted to retain.

Upon close survey, we learned that years of paint had only rendered all the solid teak wood construction invisible. We began stripping back the home to meet it at its oldest, most earnest self,” Nanditha recollects.

A Cinematic Arrival

A walk down the paved path culminating in the villa resembles a cinematic montage. Soaring Date Palms and clustered Bamboo gently sway in the sea breeze, burgundy Copperleaf shrubs emerge along one’s journey homeward, while birdsong emanates from the gardens that seem to sprawl endlessly.

In the distance stands the residence, its construction unassuming yet stoic. Its ecru walls meet the fiery red of terracotta, and its vast opening poses as lungs, drawing in air and light into the home. The colossal columns are tall sentinels and keepers of the building’s storied past.

‘The Eye’ and Outdoor Experience

The land around the house deftly turns the pages of time in response to the home’s rejuvenation.Russet strokes etch the path to the pool, with bricks laid into a circuitous trajectory that meets the waterbody’s azure. ‘The Eye,’ a node in the masterplan imagined in paver bricks and Sadarahalli stone, precedes the colonnaded pavilion, inviting one to intentionally savour their outdoor sojourn.

Dancing Light and Shadow

The sun’s nimble presence morphs across the day, its shadows casting strobes of shadows through the arcade of columns. Marking the edge of the lawns, a meandering pond implanted with lilies creates a whimsical escape, with a gurgling fountain and garden bridge inviting exploration. The pickleball court is a recent addition to the property grounds, making for the perfect family outdoor activity.

Verandah and Breezy Communal Spaces

An ochre-hued pathway funnels one into the porch, the villa’s relocated access point. An archetypal verandah laces the periphery of the communal spaces, drawing in the ocean breeze. The duo of columns framing the entryway are reminiscent of Thinnais, a shaded platform traditionally built flanking the home’s façade.

The vestibule passageway branches into two, each leading into the villa’s public nuclei, the living and dining spaces. An uninterrupted mosaic of tan tiles (original to the home) comes into play, sweeping across the residence’s communal zones. “We retained the tiles, wanting to be mindful about preserving elements that were in sound condition.

Nostalgic Tile Details

These details remind us of the graphically detailed tile varieties from the 90s. On close perusal, a seashell pattern reveals itself. It’s a playful nod to the home’s coastal essence,” muses the Architect. Two latticed, top-hung wood doors veil the dining and living spaces, sectioning off areas while maintaining spatial cohesion. Its gridded form emerges as a leitmotif, echoed in the intricately detailed lintels, reinforcing a recurring design feature.

Sunlit Interiors

The sun perennially lodges at the villa, and it fills the living area with its presence. Glazed openings grace two walls of the space, opening its core to the endless stretches of green beyond. A tropical vignette blooms along the light canary wall, the customised mural immortalising the discourse between the indoors and outdoors. The furniture by Magari borrows its earthy tones and raw materiality from the home’s grounded luxury — rust, brown, and beige, uniting with umber tones within the room.

Dining Along the Home’s Spine

Moving along the home’s spine to its far end, the dining room is where many memorable soirées have unfolded. Glazed doors frame the dining area, their generous openings spilling into the gardens. “We started with exfoliating the paint of the classic teak door and window frames.

We met resilient, honey-hued teak below that only needed thorough polishing. The glass inserts in the windows and door frames resemble picture frames, positioned to bring the greenery into clear view,” Nanditha adds.

A quiet ode to the land and its green bounty is emulated in the dining area’s materiality — deep olive upholstery, Mid-Century Modern-inspired wood chair frames, and a granite tabletop that resembles smooth pebbles in a riverbed.

Bar Counter as a Threshold

A brick-clad bar counter doubles as a threshold between the open kitchen and dining area, its views oriented towards a gallery wall of Mario Miranda art prints. A sienna-hued square tile matrix envelopes the backsplash, meeting leather-finish black granite countertops, the latter flowing into the moss-hued millwork below.

“We can peer into the views of the garden and strike up a conversation with our guests in the dining area all at once. The doors around the dining open into the landscape, making this part of the home the epicentre of movement and conversation,” she points out.

Bearing a cavernous quality, the powder room’s flooring and walls celebrate the versatility of IPS, the cool grey skin flowing across surfaces uninterruptedly. Black pendants and a backlit mirror introduce a suave contrast to the muted shell — its patina developing and appearance refining itself with use.

Ground Floor Guest Bedroom

The reminder to pause and be present pulses with life in the ground floor guest bedroom. Making one’s way through the arched entry, the space is dappled with sunlight, its beams mutating to illuminate the room through the day.

An all-wood study nook looms into view, with thrifted filigree panels crowning the nook — making remote work schedules a welcome change. The room’s internal volume, scaling 12 feet, is accentuated with a four poster bed, echoing the sentiment of a retreat in sunny lands.

Maritime influences express themselves in colour in the ensuite bathroom, a medley of gleaming blue tiles meeting the all-grey IPS membrane and Sadarahalli stone floors.

Stairwell as a Transitional Realm

The journey through the stairwell’s volume is akin to stepping into a realm far from the clutches of the present. “Our intent here was simple — we worked our way to the stairwell’s original character, one layer at a time. Obsolete vinyl sheets wrapped the stairs when we first encountered the villa.

Little did we know that solid wood breathed under, waiting to be unveiled,” Nanditha recalls. The volume is endowed with a crisp layer of ivory paint, and clear glass supplants the erstwhile stained glass. The treads hold sculpted balusters, their braided form a testament to painstaking artisanship.

Master Suite: A Sanctuary of Restraint

The master suite exemplifies elegant restraint — a sanctuary where stillness finds minimalist expression. The bedroom’s experience is helmed by abundant eastern sunlight, sieving through the balcony. An interplay of sage green, warm blues, and vermillion takes centre stage, featuring in the upholstery, soft furnishings, and nature-centric art.

Wood’s grain and textural richness continue manifesting in the four-poster bed, sleek nightstands, and floor-length window frames. The theme of verdure trickles into the master bath, where the focal wall is cloaked in Kit Kat-style tiles, injecting the greyscale shell with an animated spirit.

A bijou niche between the bedrooms on the other end of the floor holds a signet of colour and memory. Hues of emerald and fuchsia emerge in a canvas, a framed swatch of Nanditha’s mother’s Tussar silk saree. “It felt like a fitting tribute to the old meets new narrative.

Heirloom as Memory and Milestone

This sentimental piece of heirloom brings our roots to a space that marks a new beginning and personal milestone,” she smiles. The console below is illuminated by the gilded picture light and peppered with curated artefacts discovered over the family’s travel escapades.

The tactility of wood and cane is celebrated anew in the second guest chamber. The rounded edges of the arched headboard and footboard introduce a sense of flow, seamlessly crossing over with the crisp linearity of the bespoke armoire, picture window, and panoramic glazed door frames.

Vintage-esque accents — like the standing mirror and the indigo door wall installation — nod to the villa’s delicate equilibrium between old and new. In the ensuite bathroom, deep teal overrules the palette, its textured, oceanic mien asserting a stimulating presence against the gritty greys.

Third Guest Chamber: Coastal Soul

A shore house’s soul stirs to life in the third guest chamber, daylight casting its gauzy net over everything it touches. The interlaced texture of cane and its pairing with wood speak of timelessness, with hues of muted green and rust warming up the room’s canvas.

Furnishings and Spatiality

The pedestal-style nightstands underpin the room’s spatiality, complementing the bed’s linear silhouettes. A Mario Miranda art print invites colour and an inherent holiday state of mind into being. Whites and greys meld with familiar ease in the bathroom, where glossysubway tiles wrap the shower enclosure, Sadarahalli stone lies underfoot, and IPS ribbons across the shell.

Transformation and Skill

Moulding something new into something better requires immense skill but transforming what’s old and defeated reveals the true depth of one’s grit and hope. “The readaptation of Villa Del Sol holds up a mirror to our journey as a family, one that outranks our journey as a design studio!

From Identity to Essence

From identity to essence, this rehaul has enabled us to clutch a piece of cinematic history close to our hearts while creating a home against which some of our most cherished memories as a family are set to play out. I envision this as the pivotal moment where our narratives merge seamlessly with the dwellings,” Nanditha beams in conclusion.

Fact File

Designed by: Synergy architecture and Interiors

Project Type: Residential Architecture & Interior Design

Project Name: Villa del Sol

Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Year Built: 2025

Duration of the project: 6 Months

Plot Area: 1 Acre

Built-up Area: 6500 Sq.ft

Project Size: 5000 Sq.ft

Project Cost: 1.5 Crore

Principal Architect: Ar. Nanditha Vikram

Team Design Credits: Nanditha, Dharshika & Sharmila

Photograph Courtesy: Phosart Studio

Products / Materials / Vendors: Construction Materials – Concrete Block, Wire cut brick / Lighting – MS Lites, Chennai / Doors and Partitions -Teak Wood / Sanitaryware – Grohe, Duravit / Windows – Teakwood / Furniture – Magari, fabindia / Flooring – Indian Patent stone / Kitchen – Leather finish jet black granite / Paint –Asian Paints / Artefacts – Varee, Jaypore, Trovecraft / Wallpaper – Kapoors furnishings, Chennai / Hardware – Hafele, Closma 

Consultants for the Project:  Civil – Kamal Civil construction, Chennai / Interior Designers –Synergy Architecture and Interiors / Landscape  –Russelia Landscape, Chennai  / MEP & HVAC Consultants – Airtrix Engineers, Chennai / Contractors – Euro Interiors, Chennai / Interior Styling – Synergy Architecture and Interiors

Firm’s Website Link: Synergy architecture and Interiors

Firm’s Instagram Link: Synergy architecture and Interiors 

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