This Kochi Home Is A Tribute To Family Legacy And Modern Design

For the most part, the ‘House of Recollections’ in the beautiful port city of Kochi in Kerala is a treasure trove of memories. Correspondingly, it is also a modern, modular interpretation of the spatial and experiential characteristics of a historic Indian design typology. Every nook of the 3,000 sq-ft. apartment compels you to pause and reflect on its thoughtful design and consciously reclaimed heirloom furniture, which perfectly straddles the past and present, the old and the new. Conceptualised by Priya Rose and Rahul Mathew of Ernakulam-based multidisciplinary studio Workers of Art (WOA), the three-bedroom home essentially signifies a family’s return to its roots and the cultural heritage of Kerala, while offering a space for them to create new memories.

Also read: At Nikhil Kamath And Abhijeet Pai’s Bangalore Office Cultural Craft Meets Contemporary Design

The house is modelled after a traditional Illam – the Malayalam word for ‘house.’ Illams are heritage residences with an open courtyard space – a signature to the ancestral homes of the Namboothiri Brahmin community in Kerala. While the homeowner’s ancestral illam had been razed, her childhood memories of celebrating festivals and family gatherings in the home remained fresh. The House of Recollections thus evolved as a repository of reminiscences and a thread to link the client and her family with their heritage.

The home incorporates some of the fundamental features of an illam. In its design, it follows the principles of Vedic architecture with an open-plan layout, muted tones, carved wooden furniture and oxidised metals. It also boasts remarkable views of its natural surroundings and the backwaters of Kochi and capitalises on the natural airflow with carefully placed openings for passive cooling throughout the house.

Despite its rich familial and cultural connotations though, the house is surprisingly minimal. The walls are almost bare, the furniture limited, and the aesthetic earthy and almost artistically broody. “The clients wanted a home that would feel deeply personal, where they wouldn’t have to ‘adjust’ every time they returned from overseas. The quiet backdrop also complements the client’s practice as an artist, allowing her future artworks to take centre stage. The design strips away excess, allowing the focus to remain on what truly matters: their experiences, their heirlooms, and their evolving collection of memories,” says Rose.

Also read: From Heritage Murals To Modern Vaults, 5 Ceiling Design Trends You Can’t-Miss

It may not appear so because of the cohesiveness and seeming simplicity of the design, but the material and colour palette called for some careful curation. Dark woods, polished concrete walls, and oxidized metal finishes bring the ‘lived-in’ feel of aged interiors in Kerala homes. To break this monotony, red, green and yellow tones borrowed from ‘Kathakali’ plays and Kerala murals add unexpected strokes of vibrancy, and the strategic placement of light fixtures and apertures soften the intensity of the darker elements and enhance the brightness of the lighter ones. “The palette reflects the idea of nostalgia and grounding. We balanced the colours to lend depth without feeling heavy, to punctuate the space rather than overpower it, and to bring about dynamic shifts of light through the day.”

With the chassis ready, Rose and Mathew went about putting together what can be considered the true highlight of the home – an extraordinary collection of 20 bespoke furniture items, born from the revival of 10 original pieces owned by the client. Designed by WOA Crafted, the design vertical of Workers of Art, along with a group of carpenters from Formave, the pieces were given a new lease of life by reusing old materials and refreshing them with wood treatments, finishes, and joinery techniques to create cherished heirlooms that could be passed down for generations.

“These transformations emphasize sustainability, conscious living, cultural preservation, and the enduring beauty of inherited materials. The pieces journey from traditional Kerala to the contemporary world, carrying with them the weight of history and opportunities for new memories and traditions to flourish,” states Mathew.

Also read: DP Curates: 3 Home Libraries That Celebrate Indian Craftsmanship And Offer Respite From Digital Overload

Handcrafting these furniture pieces was a true test in experimentation and material exploration for WOA. It was vital to not only safeguard the client’s legacy and emotional attachment to the pieces, but also identify modern revival techniques to achieve the right balance of storage, display, and sculptural integrity. The process was intricate but exciting, leading to the unexpected invention of a new material that WOA calls ‘rahasyakootu’ or the secret mix.

“Rahasyakootu developed from the thought of eliminating waste from the redesign of these heirloom pieces. We saved all the remnants and cutoffs and combined them with sawdust, resin and organic binders to create dense wooden terrazzo boards, which were layered over the original mango, teak, and rosewood pieces. At first, we couldn’t anticipate the strength of the material and needed a lot of trials to get it right. But what we have now is an emotionally and practically sustainable material which we’re very proud of,” explains Mathew. This terrazzo then made its way into many of the statement pieces in the home, from the long bookshelf and coffee table in the living room to the chairs in the dining room to the central bar and storage counter.

While the goal of the design team was to create a home that offered a glimpse into the family’s heritage, the House of Recollections has evolved into much more than that. It is a lesson in preserving and adapting materials, a demonstration of using sustainability to enrich lifestyle and legacy, and a reflection of a family’s journey from the past to the future.