Project 51 A(h) Reshapes a Three-Generation Family Home in Kerala Around a Courtyard, a Lattice and a Generous Section

Most houses for growing families answer one question: how many more square feet? Pamoja House, completed in 2024 in Muhamma, Kerala, by the Kottayam practice Project 51 A(h), starts from a different premise. The architects, led by Nandagopal B and Shrilakshmi K, observed that the family had outgrown its previous home in more than area. The old house no longer fit how three generations actually lived together. So the brief became a question of relationships: who sees whom, where people gather, and where each of them can withdraw.

At 2,888 ft², the result is not a large house, and that matters. Instead of spreading the footprint, the design invests in section, threshold and filtered light. A courtyard, a perforated brick screen and a vaulted upper room do the work that extra floor area usually does. What we find most interesting is how deliberately the house links generations without forcing them into one open room. It offers continuity with places to step away.

A Red Envelope That Reads as One Gesture

From the street, the house is a single sculpted mass in deep red render. A rounded corner turns the wall rather than breaking it, and an arched upper volume caps the composition. The small arched entrance and stepped openings above it keep the scale domestic. The house never reads as a monument, even though its silhouette is unmistakable.

The color is a smart choice in this landscape. Against coconut palms and heavy green growth, the red reads clearly. It also takes leaf shadows well, so the facade changes through the afternoon. A flat white wall would bleach out under Kerala sun; this one gains depth from it.

The Brick Lattice as Climate Device and Social Filter

The tall perforated brick screen is the project's key element. Outside, it gives the facade a textured second layer. Inside, it lines the stair landing and upper corridor, letting air and dappled light into circulation spaces that would otherwise be dim. A red timber shutter beneath a skylight shows that residents can open and close the house by hand as conditions change.

The lattice also works socially. It lets someone on the landing see the palms and sense the street without being on display. For a multigenerational household, where privacy is negotiated daily, this partial visibility makes sense. The recessed maroon window cabinets set into the screen turn the wall into somewhere to lean, look out and linger.

Courtyard, Corridor and the Art of the Threshold

The sitting room opens onto a planted light well, with a low bench, clay pots and black flooring that keeps the space cool and grounded. This is where the house pauses. It is neither fully inside nor outside, and it is the kind of room grandparents and children can share without anyone organizing it.

The narrow maroon corridor shows the same idea at a smaller scale. Black stone steps lead to a window seat facing tropical green, so a passage ends in a place to sit. Small moves like this make the house feel larger than its area suggests, because circulation doubles as inhabitable space.

A Stair That Pulls Light Down Through the House

The open-tread steel staircase is light both visually and physically. It rises toward a skylight, so daylight falls into the heart of the plan instead of reaching only the edges. Next to it, a round white column and a curved timber counter echo the softened corners of the exterior. The curve carries from the facade into the kitchen.

Framed through a white plastered opening, the stair becomes a vertical connector you can see from below. That visibility supports the brief: movement between floors is part of family life, not something hidden in a stairwell.

Kitchen and Dining as the Household Commons

The kitchen and dining area is where the house stops being polite and starts working. A timber dining table sits beside black-framed glass doors, and the curved counter, open shelving and slatted stair screen make the kitchen part of the circulation instead of a back room. Someone cooking stays connected to whoever is passing, eating or climbing the stairs.

The U-shaped timber kitchen keeps its practical layout, with a strip window framing foliage at counter height. It is an ordinary detail done well. Cooking is a daily ritual, and the architects have given it a view.

Private Rooms Built Around Furniture

Upstairs, the tone shifts toward retreat. Bedrooms keep the palette restrained, with white walls, low beds and built-in maroon and white cabinetry, and they open to balconies among the palms. A built-in desk beside a shuttered window and a timber shelving wall full of books, a speaker and a basketball show rooms designed for real belongings and different ages.

This is where the privacy half of the brief becomes concrete. Joinery replaces loose furniture, keeping floors clear and rooms calm, and every bedroom gets its own direct link to the outdoors. Each resident has a world of their own, one landing away from the shared rooms below.

Plans and Drawings

The ground floor plan explains the household's choreography. Bedrooms, dining, kitchen, verandahs and a courtyard are arranged along a central corridor, with the courtyard as the shared hinge. The first floor holds two bedrooms with dressing areas and balconies, plus large open terraces. These terraces are outdoor rooms that add usable space without adding enclosed area.

The section is the most revealing drawing. It shows the vaulted upper room behind the arched facade, the perforated screen wall rising the full height, and a small courtyard tree with seated figures around it. Here the sectional generosity the architects describe becomes visible: changes in height and level separate zones that a flat plan would merge.

Why This Project Matters

Multigenerational living is the norm across much of India, yet many new houses treat it as a matter of room count. Pamoja House argues that the real problem is spatial, and that section, thresholds and filtered edges can resolve the tension between togetherness and privacy better than more square footage. That lesson applies well beyond Kerala, wherever extended families share one roof.

For a practice founded only in 2020, it is also a confident statement. Project 51 A(h) uses a limited set of elements, including red render, brick lattice, timber joinery and a steel stair, and stays disciplined about where each one belongs. The house is expressive without being showy, and its most memorable moments, a window seat at the end of a corridor or light through a lattice on the stair, are the ones a family will use every day.

Pamoja House by Project 51 A(h) (lead architects Nandagopal B and Shrilakshmi K), Muhamma, Kerala, India. Area: 2,888 ft². Completed: 2024. Photography by Prasoon Suresh.

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