How does one restore a segment of a heritage building in ruins, when there are no photographs that can testify to its former life, no promises to return to it owing to its location and a meagre budget at one’s disposal? Such was the brief for the restoration of the southern wing of the famed Kilimanoor Palace – its Thekkekottaram. Most renowned as the ancestral home of Raja Ravi Varma, the Kilimanoor palace is unusual in its architecture of great simplicity and rustic charm.
This Ancestral Home Is Unusual In Its Architecture Of Simplicity And Rustic Charm | The One architecture studio
While most parts of the palace have withstood the test of time, Thekkekottaram formed one of its most deteriorated segments. As the structure fell into disrepair, what risked being lost was not merely a building but a repository of shared memories. The brief, thus, was not to recreate precisely what existed before, but to breathe new life into the ancestral home while respecting its memory, retaining its character and preserving its spirit.
A segment of a continuous sloping-roofed row-house arranged around the palace’s central naalukettu, the Thekkekottaram forms a self- contained world within the palace grounds, enclosed by a high compound wall.
A unique feature is its twin open-to-sky courtyards separated by an intervening wall that demarcates the ancestral home into its northern and southern wings. The northern wing, a series of narrow rooms flanked by verandahs on both sides, originally housed the bedrooms and living areas and formed spaces that lacked light and ventilation.
The challenge was to make alterations to its load bearing interior walls while keeping the roof rafters intact – a process that involved care, precision and time. The architects replaced some of the internal walls with thinnas or seating platforms to make the rooms feel more open and airy. They repaired its wooden doors, windows and ceiling, reusing wood from within the building to reduce costs.
The architects replaced the old black-oxide floors that were too damaged to be retained with Kadappa stone. They chose it for its earthy texture and dark tone that echoes the original flooring. The southern wing, however, posed a greater challenge, being more dilapidated.
Its roof and crumbling walls required major repair. Once comprising of a granary (ara), a well, and several small rooms, this wing was reimagined as a semi-open communal space. A space that could accommodate the extended family. Terracotta floors and window details evoke the palace’s nadakasala.
A grey-toned lime-based wall finish reinvokes the space’s past life. The architects relocated the granary to the verandah’s end, its aged wooden siding a quiet ode to the home’s antiquity. They reimagined its courtyard as a low-maintenance landscape bridging the two wings. They paved it in stone, interspersed with pockets of greenery around an old tree.
As the family prepares to return every vacation, the Thekkekottaram has reawakened. It is a secret haven tucked away within the palace’s vast grounds.
Fact File
Designed by: The One architecture studio
Project Type: Residential Architecture Design
Project Name: Kilimanoor’s Thekkekottaram: A Palace of memories
Location: Kilimanoor, Kerala, India
Year Built: 2025
Duration of the project: 2 Years
Built-up Area: 2285 Sq.ft
Project Cost: 30 Lakhs
Principal Architect: Ar. Aswathy Ganesh
Design Credits: Ar. Hiba Fathima
Photograph Courtesy: prasanth.mohans
Products / Materials / Vendors: Wallcovering / Cladding – Wall paint; Limocoat lime plaster finish / Construction Materials – Brick, RCC / Doors and Partitions – Repurposed Teak Wood / Sanitaryware –Cera / Windows -Wooden / Furniture -Wooden Flooring – Kadappa stone, terracotta, vitrified Tiles – Nitco / Kitchen – Polished granite / Paint – Jotun Paints / Artefacts – Heirloom
Firm’s Website Link: The One architecture studio
Firm’s Instagram Link: The One architecture studio
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