Zen House is a vacation home in Palakkad, Kerala, designed on the client’s ancestral land. The project started with the idea of creating a vacation home, a place away from the noise and chaos of everyday life. The design is inspired by Japanese Zen philosophies of simplicity, naturalness, emptiness, balance, and harmony. More than a house, it was imagined as a space where the family could come back to a slower way of living.

The site is more than half an acre, with many fully grown trees and thick canopies. We did not want the architecture to dominate this setting. Instead, the trees became the starting point of the design. The house was planned around them, almost wrapping itself around the landscape and turning the focus inward. A large mango tree near the entrance became the centre of the foyer and formal living area, forming an internal courtyard. On the other side of the site, a cluster of trees helped us place the bedrooms and private areas in a quieter zone. This allowed the house to have different levels of openness and privacy, while still staying connected to nature throughout.

The house is around 15,000 sq. ft. and includes five bedrooms, living spaces, dining, kitchen, indoor pool, and a meditation room. But the project was not only shaped by these functions. A lot of importance was given to empty spaces, pauses, and transitional areas. Many parts of the house were intentionally left unassigned. These spaces do not have a fixed use, but they help the house breathe. They create calmness, movement, and a sense of openness.

The idea was not to make the house minimal for the sake of minimalism. It was more about essentialism. We wanted the space to have only what was needed, and allow light, trees, material, and volume to create the experience. Natural light plays a major role in the interiors. As it passes through the trees, the light keeps changing through the day, bringing in a quiet play of shadow and movement.

The material palette was kept simple and restrained. Exposed concrete, smooth concrete flooring, grey tones, and warm wood were used to create a calm atmosphere. We did not want the materials to become decorative or loud. They were chosen to support the architecture and allow the volumes, voids, and spatial experience to be felt more clearly.

During one of the early design discussions, the client shared an art sculpture from his collection, Block VIII by French artist Delphine Brabant. The play of voids and projections in the sculpture became an interesting reference for the way we looked at the house.

On the first floor, a jackfruit tree branch entering the building was turned into a water feature beside the gathering space. In this way, the trees were not treated as background elements, but became active parts of the architecture.

The project was never about creating a bold shell and filling it later, instead it was developed from the inside out. It came from the interior volumes, courtyards, movement, and the way the spaces open to trees and light. From the beginning, the interiors were not imagined as small, enclosed rooms. We wanted them to feel voluminous, open, and quiet, with enough height and emptiness for the space to breathe. That sense of scale became the starting point. This experience inside shaped the form outside. But the balance was important for us. So even where the volumes are large, the material, light, proportions, and openings were controlled carefully to make the spaces feel calm rather than overwhelming.

One of our favorite space is the entrance of the house. After seeing the exterior, the entry brings the scale down with a lower ceiling. It makes the experience more grounded and intimate. That moment changes the scale of the experience. It slows you down and brings the body closer to the space. From there, the house slowly opens into larger and more voluminous spaces. This transition from massiveness to intimacy, and then to openness, became one of the key experiences of the project.

Zen House is a retreat shaped by memory, nature, emptiness, and stillness. It is a weekend home, but also a space that allows the occupants to pause, clear their mind, and reconnect.