HabitArt Architecture Studio Builds a Brick and Clay-Tile House Beneath a Tamil Nadu Mango Orchard

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This article covers topics related to Residential Building, Architecture, Vernacular Architecture, Traditional Architecture, Natural Architecture, Building Design, Residential Design. In Chembarasanapalli, a 2,700 sq ft family home lets mature mango trees set the plan, the shade and the light, with brick, timber and terracotta jali.

In Chembarasanapalli, a 2,700 sq ft family home lets mature mango trees set the plan, the shade and the light, with brick, timber and terracotta jali.

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UNI Editorial published Blog under Residential Building, Architecture on Oct 11, 2026

Most rural houses in India are still drawn on a cleared plot. The trees come later, if at all. The Saffron Verandah House by Bangalore-based HabitArt Architecture Studio reverses that order. The site in Chembarasanapalli, a quiet hamlet in the Shoolagiri mango belt of northern Tamil Nadu, already held nearly three-quarters of an acre of mature mango trees. Lead architect Aditya Venkat, with Rochana Ramakrishna and Yogita Kamath, treated that orchard as the brief. The result is a 2,700 sq ft house of exposed brick, clay tile, timber and steel, completed in 2025.

What interests us is not the material palette, which will feel familiar to anyone following South Indian vernacular revival work. It is how much the house gives up to the trees. The orchard canopy creates a microclimate noticeably cooler than the surrounding fields. Instead of fighting the southern sun with heavy walls or mechanical cooling, the design borrows that shade wholesale and arranges rooms, roofs and openings to sit inside it. The house is built around the orchard rather than in place of it.

Starting from the Orchard, Not the Drawing

Brick house with terracotta tile roofs behind a stepping-stone path, framed by mango and frangipani trees in warm afternoon light

Brick house with a tiled roof and timber veranda seen through a tree trunk, a woman seated on the step in afternoon sun

You do not see the house first; you see the trees. The approach runs along a stepping-stone path under mango and frangipani, and the brick volumes come into view only in pieces, framed by trunks and low branches. The photographs return to this framing again and again, and it is not just a stylistic tic. It describes how the house sits on the land: low, partial and secondary to the canopy.

This is a disciplined move. Cutting a few trees for an easier footprint would have been tempting. Keeping them means the building has to negotiate with root zones, branch heights and fall lines of leaves and fruit. The irregular, slightly broken massing reads as the direct result of that negotiation.

Brick, Tile and the Gable

Gabled terracotta tile roof and exposed brick wall rising above dense foliage and a banana plant under a hazy blue sky

Brick gable end with a tiled roof and a balcony where a woman in a red sari stands behind leafy branches

Brick facade with a pitched clay-tile roof and a perforated stone seat, seen across a flagstone courtyard with a woman in a red sari

The external language is plain: exposed brick walls, steep terracotta tile roofs and gable ends that rise just above the foliage. A small balcony punches into one gable, and a perforated stone seat sits against the facade facing a flagstone courtyard. Nothing is clad or rendered to hide how it was made.

The pitched clay roofs do the climatic work you would expect in this region, shedding monsoon rain and venting heat. More interesting is their scale. Kept to the height of the surrounding canopy, they let the house disappear into the tree line from a distance instead of standing above it as a rural landmark.

The Verandah as a Room of Its Own

Covered veranda with timber posts and tiled roof, dappled sunlight on the floor and a woman seated on a curved bench

Timber-ceilinged veranda with carved columns and stone steps, a seated woman in red beneath a spreading tree canopy

The name promises a verandah, and the house delivers one that works as a full room, not a porch. Timber posts, a timber ceiling, carved columns and stone steps define a deep, shaded edge where the floor is patterned by light falling through the leaves. A curved bench turns it into somewhere to stay rather than pass through.

This is where the orchard microclimate is most legible. The verandah sits between the tiled roof and the tree canopy, layering two kinds of shade. On a hot Shoolagiri afternoon, this transitional zone is likely the most comfortable place on the property, which makes it the true centre of domestic life.

A Double-Height Hall Under Woven Light

Double-height living space with brick walls, a steel and timber balcony, woven pendant lamps and a man reading by the window

Double-height living space with a steel and timber mezzanine, woven pendant lamps and a glazed door opening to a shaded garden

Double-height living space with open timber stair, brick pier and wicker pendants, a person standing at the open glass door to the garden

Inside, the plan opens into a double-height living space crossed by a steel and timber mezzanine. Brick walls and a brick pier carry the room's weight visually, while woven wicker pendants bring the scale down to something domestic. An open timber stair rises along one side.

The glazed doors are the point. They open directly onto the shaded garden, so the living room reads as a tall, cool extension of the orchard rather than a sealed interior. The vertical volume also helps warm air rise and leave through the roof, a simple passive strategy that suits the tall hipped roof shown in the drawings.

Ground-Floor Rooms in Stone, Teak and Earth

Living room with exposed brick walls and open teak doors, a woman reading on the stone floor in a shaft of sunlight

Interior view through a brick-walled dining area toward a stone feature wall, timber doors and a woman in a red sari

Corner window seat in a compressed earth block room, with a woman in a red sari and pools of sunlight on the stone floor

The ground floor rooms rely on a short list of materials: exposed brick, stone floors, open teak doors and, in one room, compressed earth block walls. A view through the dining area ends on a stone feature wall, and a corner window seat collects pools of sunlight on the floor.

We like that these rooms are not over-designed. Sunlight is rationed through specific openings rather than flooding in, which keeps the interiors cool and gives each space a clear moment of brightness. The compressed earth block room is a welcome sign that the studio is willing to mix fired and unfired masonry within one house.

Stair, Jali and a Blade of Sun

Timber stair beside a floral terracotta jali screen, with a narrow shaft of sunlight crossing the brick wall

Close-up of the terracotta jali screen above a timber handrail, with a diagonal blade of afternoon light on the brick

Stair landing with a yellow plastered wall and timber rail, a woman in a red sari descending beside brick walls under a tiled roof

The stair is the most crafted part of the house. A floral terracotta jali screen runs beside the timber treads and handrail, filtering light into the stairwell and throwing narrow shafts across the brick. At the landing, a yellow plastered wall breaks the brick palette with a single warm surface, possibly a nod to the saffron of the name.

The jali is a familiar device, but it is used with restraint here. It shapes light and air at the one point in the house where people move vertically and linger briefly, which is exactly where a changing pattern of light rewards attention.

Bridges and Mezzanines Under Steel Trusses

Interior with a steel-framed mezzanine walkway under a pitched tile roof with skylights, a woman in red standing at the railing

Timber-floored bridge leading to a brick gabled room with exposed steel roof trusses, a dancer in a red sari lit by patches of sun

Blurred figure walking past a patterned jali screen toward a dining table, with woven pendant lamps hanging below steel roof framing

Upstairs, the house becomes a series of walkways. A steel-framed mezzanine runs below the pitched tile roof, where skylights bring light into the depth of the plan. A timber-floored bridge leads to a brick gabled room with exposed steel roof trusses.

The steel matters. It allows long, thin spans and slim railings that keep the double-height volume open, and it is left visible rather than boxed in. The pairing of light steel framing with heavy brick and clay tile is the house's clearest structural statement: traditional enclosure, contemporary skeleton.

Upper Rooms Among the Treetops

Upper-level bedroom opening through a sliding timber door to a bridge walkway, with a deep stone window sill in soft daylight

Woman in a red sari seated beside a built-in timber bookshelf, with a woven pendant lamp hanging over the bed

Bedroom window framed in exposed brick with sheer curtains, looking onto green treetops, with a tiled roof visible at left

The upper bedrooms open through sliding timber doors onto the bridge, with deep stone window sills and built-in timber bookshelves. A bedroom window framed in exposed brick looks straight into green treetops, with the tiled roof visible to one side.

Here the orchard changes role. On the ground floor it is a canopy overhead; upstairs it becomes the view, at eye level and close enough to read individual leaves. The house effectively gives its occupants two relationships with the same trees.

Plans and Drawings

Ground floor plan drawing showing the entry deck, double-height living space, bedroom, kitchen and dining, and courtyard, surrounded by tree canopies

First floor plan drawing showing the kids loft, bedroom, balcony and terrace, with the hipped roof over the living space below

Sectional axonometric drawing cutting through a two-storey house, showing bedrooms, stairs, a kitchen, a roof terrace and sloped roofs among silhouetted trees

Exploded axonometric drawing separating clay tile roof, upper floor, ground floor and plinth of a brick house, with birds and contour lines above

The plans confirm what the photographs suggest. Tree canopies are drawn around the entire ground floor, which arranges an entry deck, the double-height living space, a bedroom, kitchen, dining and a courtyard. The first floor holds a kids loft, a bedroom, a balcony and a terrace, with the hipped roof over the living hall in between.

The sectional axonometric shows sloped roofs and a roof terrace set among silhouetted trees, while the exploded axonometric separates the house into four clear layers: clay tile roof, upper floor, ground floor and plinth. That stack is a good summary of the project's logic, a raised masonry base, light floors and a protective roof, all tuned to the orchard around it.

Why This Project Matters

Rural India is changing fast, and many new houses in agricultural regions arrive as generic concrete boxes placed on cleared land. The Saffron Verandah House offers a credible alternative at a modest 2,700 sq ft. It shows that keeping existing trees is not a sentimental gesture but a climate strategy, one that cools the site, shapes the plan and reduces the work the building itself has to do.

It is not a radical house, and it does not try to be. Its value lies in priorities: landscape first, then shade, then rooms. For architects working in similar contexts, the lesson is simple and transferable. Survey what is already growing on the site before you draw anything, and let the building answer to it.

The Saffron Verandah House by HabitArt Architecture Studio (lead architect Aditya Venkat; design team Rochana Ramakrishna and Yogita Kamath), Chembarasanapalli, Shoolagiri, Tamil Nadu, India. Area: 2,700 sq ft. Completed 2025. Photography by Naresh and Nayan.

About the Studio

HabitArt Architecture Studio

Official website of HabitArt Architecture Studio, one of the studios behind this project.

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