This Thrissur, Kerala bungalow has green pockets that function as its lungs
It’s often said that distance makes the heart grow fonder—but when the distance in question is between a new home and old, it tends to make the heart a touch more inventive too. This theory, or theorem, as architect Manuraj CR insists it is, held true for one NRI couple, who put their inventiveness to good use when designing a holiday home in their childhood town of Thrissur, Kerala. The home, as they imagined it, was shaped by memory—unfiltered and familiar, and layered with the textures they grew up with. In other words, a space that was, somewhat paradoxically, more Keralan than many of its Keralan neighbours. Their rationale was simple: if they were coming back to Kerala, to Kerala they would come. “It had to register as a homecoming in every sense,” explains Manuraj, founder of Thrissur practice i2a Architects Studio, who was assisted on the project by associate architect Sanjukta Chakraborty. “A homecoming, with the ease—and comfort—of a hotel.”
