Estate House

The site is a steep slope of coffee under tall shade trees, four hours from Bengaluru. The clients wanted a house for long weekends and, eventually, retirement, that would not need a generator or a caretaker to survive the monsoon. Kodagu gets close to three metres of rain a year, so the roof came first and everything else followed.

A single deep pitched roof covers living, kitchen and a long verandah in one gesture, with bedrooms tucked under its lower edge. Walls are compressed stabilised earth blocks made on site; floors are terracotta; the frame, ceilings and all the joinery are silver oak that had come down in the previous year's storms and was milled on the estate.

There is no air-conditioning and no need for it. Rainwater from the roof feeds a tank that gravity-serves the house; solar covers the lights and the pump. The verandah is the main room. Most days end on it, watching the mist come up the valley.