Hermitage
Chevayur,Calicut

Good Earth Hermitage is located just off mavoor road, at Chevayoor, a premium
residential suburb of Calicut city. The site is originally an elevated land surrounded
by lush greens; an ideal setting for a peaceful living , conveniently away from the
hassels of crowded city .

 

The design is largely an introvert style, basically a square with a central courtyard and four blocks looking into this space. Approach to this court is below one of the blocks which serves as the main entry arcade and common area.Above this arcaded entry is a four bedroom duplex unit. Each of the four blocks houses a duplex unit of varying areas. There are 10+2 typical 2 bedroom with study units.

As one enters this space, one sees a common carom room, which overlooks the common entry space.The effort is to create a development alternative, which is sensitive to nature and sustainable for the community.

 

The centre courtyard become the rendezvous for children and grownup alike, making an ideal place for interaction. Moreover, it ensures excellent cross ventilation and plenty of natural light inside the dwelling units. Internally, spaces follow from one to other, finely merging within and the surrounds. As one traverses this space ,one arrives at the childrens play space and the common area for the inmates, moving out of the central court one sees the office space.

 

The external walls are constructed with terracotta hollow blocks with an outer surface
and country bricks inside ,exposed hollow blocks allow thermal insulation and low maintenance. It is a multi – dwelling unit , with four duplex units and twelve dual bedroom units with study creating multiple options for the end user . There are pockets of covered landscaped courts from the central court area, which further ensure privacy between units. The court spaces flow from one to other merging with the greens to create multiple option for the end user.

With respect to the given site profile ,the car parking has been tucked in the lower level.
Hence vehicular traffic is restrained to the lower level. The site extent is about 37cents ( about one third of an acre) The F A R is 1.68 , coverage 56.99 %.

 

The project won the award for Excellence in Architecture (Public buildings category) instituted by Indian Institute of Architecture (Kerala Chapter) in 2007