A place outside of time

In Hosur, Studio XS creates a sustainable home by tracing the past

27 Jun 2025

Did you accidentally enter a time capsule? Fruit trees swaying in the wind, forgotten antiques and sunlit volumes housed beneath Mangalore tiles, this Hosur villa by Studio XS feels like a frame from an old film negative. And it leaves you wondering: do houses like this still exist? And if not, when did we let them slip away?

It’s easy to replicate the aesthetics of sustainability, yet the path to conscious creation is rarely linear. Kaatu Veedu, as the architects call it, sits within a dichotomous landscape — part of a larger master plan that juxtaposes an industrial factory with a bucolic orchard stretching as far as the eye can see. This contextual duality shapes the design, which oscillates between shielding sightlines and embracing daylight, between retreat and openness.

Studio XS — The living and dining space of the home has antique wooden columns from old houses in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, the flooring is from Anthagudi tiles and the French colonial dining table was brought from South Africa; Photography by Vivek Eadara

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Does material hold memory? Here, the walls are made from earth blocks, crafted using soil from the site itself. They act as both a protective barrier from the nearby factory and a vessel of quietude. The double-layered Mangalore tile roof provides thermal insulation, regulating the home’s internal conditions. “Watching the house rise from the earth was like listening to jazz,” say Sucheth Palat and Shivani Kumar of Studio XS. “The sun playing its licks to perfection. Each experience is both familiar and ever-changing, always perfect yet never the same.”

The structure’s form responds directly to the linear pattern of fruit trees on site, giving rise to elongated walls that extend from a defined grid. This sensitive intervention preserved the original flora, allowing the house to emerge organically from the terrain. The living area, flanked by courtyards on either side, opens completely to dissolve the boundary between indoors and out as an evocative nod to traditional homes.

SUSTAINING HERITAGE

Studio XS conceives the architectural volumes to facilitate the free movement of light and air. Verandas serve as liminal thresholds, softening the sun’s intensity. The commitment to material memory comes forward in the use of reclaimed timber from old homes, recontextualised here to honour craftsmanship and continuity. Verandahs rest on restored wooden columns from Karaikudi, while Chettinad doors and pillars harken back to their Pondicherry lineage.

Double-height ceilings cool the living spaces naturally, while in areas with lower ceilings, flat roofs embedded with terracotta pots provide a vernacular cooling strategy, reducing both ambient temperature and the volume of concrete used in construction.

LIGHT AND ANTIQUES

“Light becomes an artistic element, filtering through the entire space, transforming it into a warm, ever-changing canvas throughout the year,” note the architects at Studio XS. A dappled, golden luminosity suffuses the interiors. Eschewing the conventionality of paint, the home favours exposed surfaces and lime plaster, embracing raw textures and material nuance.

The interiors host a richly eclectic collection of antiques, from a French Colonial dining table sourced in South Africa to Moroccan luminaires and a planter’s desk worn by time. These storied pieces are not ornamental but intrinsic to the architectural language. Anchored in vernacular traditions and attuned to natural rhythms, the design strikes a poised equilibrium between the inherited and the contemporary.

And yet, this home lingers in your thoughts: why did we stop building with memory in mind? When did we fall out of step with the land? Perhaps the answer lies not in escape but in reclamation. A conscious return to our origins, not as sentimental nostalgia, but as a deliberate action for an informed future.