- Project: Chuzhi House
- Architects: Wallmakers
- Area : 2122m²
- Year : 2022
- Photographs :Syam Sreesylam
Our ancestors have always built their architecture with materials closest and even unharming to nature. Limestone, sandstone, plaster made of grinded pulses and multani, etc have been utilized by our older generations to create sustainable and everlasting buildings. And bringing us back under the same light of nature, the Tamil Nadu based house, ‘Chuzhi’, by the architect, Vinu Daniel, the founder of Wallmakers, is a step towards the past- a beautifully preserving world.
The firm, Wallmakers, is infamous for using mud and waste into weaving not just eco-friendly spaces, but which are even functional in their purpose and compelling in the aura they exhibit. The architect Vinu Daniel was born in Dubai to South Indian parents, and did his degree in architecture from College of Engineering, Trivandrum. It was in the last year of college, when he was inspired by the Gandhian beliefs of coexisting nature and architecture together, and to incorporate unconventional materials. Letting these two waves flow into his ocean of caliber, he sprinted years ahead and along with Wallmakers, designed the ‘Chuzhi’ house, located at Sanctity Ferme, in Shoolagiri village, Tamil Nadu. ‘Chuzhi’ comes from the Malayalam word, ‘whirlpool’, which sparkles strongly in this house. The area wasn’t suitable for construction- surfaced with rocks, huge trees, heavy vegetation, the modern world would have taken this as a barren land, but Wallmakers took it as a flourishing opportunity.
Basically the house is made up of numerous precast composite beams, that spiral up around the tamarind trees, instead of discarding them, and at the top form a polygonal ceiling. These spiral walls were made with precast poured earth debris composite beams, which inturn are extracted from 4000 plastic bottles. The floor boasts of reclaimed wood, the construction speaks of the primary use of mud and the polygonal roof has a glass backup. The house doesn’t specifically have any floors, but the roof masquerades are a perfect seating area, surrounded with trees and tranquil winds. It was their first subterranean build, and their first one to carry a camouflage construction technique, wherein the home can visually blend into nature, and become a living part of it.
Imagine yourself residing in this house, with geometric and spiraling walls, with brown textures and neutral colors allowing you to sit on nature’s lap, and showering an inner sense of peace. Vinu Daniel has even designed many such innovative houses like Shikhara which had construction walls mixed with cement, soil and waste materials, and the Pirouette House wherein the bricks were arranged vertically, instead of horizontally and reduced the cement and steel consumption to a huge extent. He started Wallmakers in 2007, and was awarded the prestigious, Royal Academy Dorfman Award in 2022, to honor Wallmaker’s constant and creative use of environmental-friendly materials. And bringing us closer to nature, the Chuzhi house, is an epitome of architecture and explains the dire need of the bleak contemporary world.
Also read: Suqarefoot Outdoor Flooring.
