“The architects home design serves as an inquiry into the atemporality of architecture. Here, space is not a static container but a participant in human life. It posits that true space-making is an iterative process—a continuous ‘give and take’ between the dweller and the dwelling. Over time, this reciprocity forges an interwoven bond so profound that the user and the environment become a single, inseparable entity. The architecture acts as a bridge. It ensures that the memories embedded in the soil are not buried. But they are instead woven into the new spatial configurations. This creates a state of infinite interdependence, where the building evolves alongside the spirit of those who inhabit it.”

SARU / Studio for Architecture and Regional Urbanism 

The Challenge

I was presented with the most meaningful commission of my career. To design a home for my family on the very land of my childhood. This was the place I was born and raised until the age of ten. This was before relocations took us to various new places.

The site for our new architects home is located in vibrant town of Mettupalayam. It is right at the foothills of the majestic Nilgiri’s mountains in Tamil Nadu, India. The site context is shaped by water. A small, natural stream of water threads its way through the landscape. It is a tributary that eventually feeds into the larger Bhavani River.

The 3,800-square-foot plot forms half of a larger family property. Fifteen years ago, this very land was the heart of a large, bustling household. A home to more than twenty family members. This included my father’s brother, who now owns the adjacent half after the property division.

At that time, our land had no permanent structures. Instead, it served as a generous, open space for outdoor activities and communal gatherings. We connected to the main residence on the other half. Today, the land carries with it a deep sense of shared memory and connection. A living reminder of family, community, and the passage of time.

The Tales

The final design of the architects home is an architectural translation of a deeply personal journey with the land. We articulated the 3,200-square-foot built realised structure not by a style, but by the site’s own history. We realized it through four discrete chapters of memory. Each chapter directly informs a unique spatial volume. We ensured the home is fully embedded with the spirit of the land and the shared family past.

The Tale of Joyous Landscape

We architecturally translated an uninterrupted loop of ecstasy containing the garden (a fragrant maze where only dappled light reached the ground), the Thinnai (a low boundary structure central to our chase game), and the trail of head-high grass culminating at the flowing stream into a Linear Courtyard.

High, solid walls flanking layered planting instantly create narrowness and height, simulating the enveloping feeling of the grass trail and allowing only the soft, dappled illumination of the past. The

We punctuated every space only by elevated, built forms resembling the Thinnai. We ensured the “container of memory” feels all seasonal changes through the skin and helps regulate the microclimate of the architects home. All living spaces open onto this void to facilitate cross-ventilation, ensuring users remain both physically and emotionally connected to the heart of the home.

The Tale of Magnetic Hearth

A guava tree and the concrete water tank beneath it ruled our childhood. It was a secret summer oasis big enough for two, watched by others queuing on branches. The irresistible aroma from my mother’s kitchen always drew us to a halt from the chaos of our games.

The true heart of the hearth was that magnetic scent, instantly halting games and drawing us in with the defining question: “Amma, what’s for lunch?” The tree’s loss demanded a multisensory recreation of that magnetic atmosphere, centring the design on the kitchen’s magnetic pull, where the irresistible aroma of my mother’s delicious dishes permeated the space, drawing the family out of their activities and back towards the feast.

The old tank is reborn as a partially shaded dip pool with the delicate shadow of a coconut palm; an elevated seater recreates the anticipation of waiting on the branches.

We placed the dip pool to facilitate evaporative cooling. As the air chills, it permeates the spaces with the same effortless diffusion as the aroma of the cuisine.

The Tale of Garden Pavilion

My father originally conceived the old structure as a pragmatic refuge. He deliberately raised a space for meditation and yoga to foster a psychological feeling of being isolated and on top of the garden. Due to spatial limitations, they reinterpreted the original psychological elevation by physically pushing the pavilion to an upper floor.

To achieve a feeling of vastness, we borrowed a sweeping 180-degree vista of the coconut palm canopy. This creates the illusion of infinite space, along with a modest roof garden and lotus pond blurring boundaries, rooting the pavilion even as it floats above.

Inside, a deliberate six-foot height yoga space creates a cocooning, silent retreat, while the interconnected spaces allow fluid transition from a quiet sanctuary for one to an energetic entertainment zone for the family.

The Tale of Jewel in the Sky

As the sun sets, hide-and-seek began. We found a perfect, secret refuge: a low box between the roof and a ledge, forcing us to crawl. From this tiny spot, we saw the majestic Nilgiris. Moving car headlights circling the hill looked like a magical, golden star that appeared for a second. Lost in fantasy, we named stars and called our shared, secret moment:

“The Jewel in the Sky.” Due to the ground-plus-one height restriction, we engineered a compact solution to secure this crucial view. Exclusively nested within our two private bedrooms, we thrust this box toward the landscape, focusing the gaze precisely on “The Jewel in the Sky.”

This elevated design acts as a wind catcher, funneling fresh breezes into the room and allowing warm air to escape easily. This ingenious passivesystem maintains a cool, temperate effect year-round, eliminating the need for mechanical cooling.

Color, Material, and Texture

The sheer delight of playing in the garden after a downpour, leaving a ruddy stain on my feet, had to define the open spaces. We achieved this earthy warmth using deformed boundary wall brick and site soil within a lime plaster—a breathable, permeable material that actively helps regulate internal temperature.

For openings, we used reclaimed high-quality Burmese teak purlins and beams from nearby dismantled century-old potato warehouses, saving cost and treatment. A cherished childhood ritual involved drawing a line along the old boundary wall using the naturally dark blue ink seeds of the Malabar Spinach plant and waiting till it turns black. To immortalize this simple art, we used black oxide and Malabar Spinach seeds as pigments to plaster as ornamentation.

Conclusion

All these tales were architecturally translated and spatially connected to relive those childhood spaces once again while fulfilling current needs and making it climatically livable, preventing the architects home from feeling alienated and making one feel it was always meant to be there—a timeless space that freezes memory, yet continues indefinitely.

Fact File

Designed by: SARU / Studio for Architecture and Regional Urbanism 

Project Type: Residential Architecture Design

Project Name: Tales of Saru

Location: Mettupalayam, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Year Built: 2025

Duration of the project: 2023 -2025

Project Size: 3200 Sq.ft

Principal Architect: Ar. Saru Kumar Kannan

Photograph Courtesy: saru_arud

Products / Materials / Vendors:  Finishes – SARU / Doors and Partitions –Teak Wood / Sanitaryware – Jaquar / Windows – Wooden / Furniture – Wooden / Flooring – Vitrified Tiles – Johnson / Kitchen – Granite

Firm’s Instagram Link: SARU / Studio for Architecture and Regional Urbanism 

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