Earth’s Embrace is envisioned as an eco-retreat amidst a tea plantation where architecture grows from the land itself rather than being imposed upon it. Designed by Raving Dots Studio, the project is guided by two principles: organic form and ecological responsibility.
This Eco Retreat Amidst A Tea Plantation Is Organic In Form And Ecologically Responsible | Raving Dots Studio
Designers conceived the cabin as a sculptural ferrocement shell, shaped through parametric modeling to optimize material use and align with the site’s natural contours. The design embraces the terrain, weaving into the tea plantation slopes without disturbance. Builders finished the shell with breathable mud plaster and shaded it with a locally sourced thatch roof, allowing the architecture to weather and evolve with its environment.
This philosophy reflects a belief that sustainability must be embedded in the design process itself, not treated as an afterthought. With an integrated Earth-Air Tunnel system for passive cooling, minimized cut-and-fill, preserved tea plantation vegetation, and a measured embodied energy of 4.19 GJ per m², Earth’s Embrace demonstrates how computational tools, vernacular knowledge, and ecological sensitivity can converge into an architecture that is both parametric in method and vernacular in spirit.
The retreat is located within a 4-acre hillside plantation in Wayanad, Kerala, a setting rich in biodiversity and dramatic topography. The building nestles into the natural slope, with minimal excavation and preserved vegetation shaping the overall siting.
The structure is oriented westward, opening up to panoramic views of the valley and sunsets, while circulation paths meander organically through the plantation to connect architecture with landscape.
The form emerged through parametric modeling, producing a ferrocement shell that is both thin and robust. This approach reduced surface area and optimized embodied energy, achieving 4.19 GJ/m², significantly more efficient than conventional tropical retreats. The breathable mud plaster regulates thermal comfort, while the thatch roof provides shade and integrates naturally with the plantation backdrop.
Inside, the retreat offers a continuous spatial experience shaped by organic curves. Circular windows frame landscape moments, while carved niches double as built-in seating. Material tactility — mud plaster, wood, and natural fibers — strengthens the immersive quality of the interior, grounding the space in its context. Light filters through strategically placed apertures, transforming the atmosphere across the day.
An Earth-Air Tunnel passive cooling system reduces reliance on mechanical conditioning, achieving comfort through natural airflow and heat exchange. Native planting is preserved and extended, turning the project into a living ecological participant rather than an isolated object.
Earth’s Embrace is less a cabin and more an experience, a place of pause, reflection, and reconnection. It enables users to feel the rhythm of wind, light, and landscape as inseparable from the architecture itself.
The project draws inspiration from vernacular tropical building traditions, where climate and context shaped form long before mechanical systems existed. At the same time, it is informed by the possibilities of computational design, where parametric tools enable performance-driven geometries. The retreat takes cues from Earthship architecture in its passive environmental strategies, but reinterprets them in a contemporary, organic vocabulary suited to the Kerala hillside.
Fact File
Designed by: Raving Dots Studio
Project Type: Residential Architecture Design ( Eco Retreat Cabin )
Project Name: Earth’s Embrace
Location: Kalpetta, Wayanad, Kerala
Year Built: 2025
Duration of the project: 1 Year
Project Size: 1149.47 Sq.ft
Project Cost: 60 Lakhs
Principal Architect: Ar. Rohit B Anandan
Team Design Credits: Aparna K, Prathyush Sathyan & Keerthi LakshmiPhotograph Courtesy: Ar. Akshay Babu
MEP & HVAC Consultants: PassiveFlow LLP
Products / Materials / Vendors: Wallcovering / Cladding – Birla Opus Waterproof Paint / Construction Materials – Ferrocement shells / Lighting – Changi Lighting / Doors and Partitions – Steel and wood composite / Sanitaryware -Jaquat / Windows -GI / Furniture –3d Printed furniture – Konface Pvt Ltd Flooring – Exposed Concrete Finish – Kwalkrete Pvt Ltd / Paint –Birla Opus / Artefacts – 3d Printed at Raving Dots Studio
Firm’s Website Link: Raving Dots Studio
Firm’s Instagram Link: Raving Dots Studio
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