The 114 acre master planned community will be marketed exclusively to non- resident Indians as a live/work lifestyle destination Since the goal of the project is to attract those who left Kerala years ago for better opportunities abroad, one of the driving principles of the project is to create an environment that highlights the natural beauty and environment that is preserved in the minds of all Keralites living abroad. Another value that the project will promote is that of sustainability and education. The villas are figuratively and actually planned as the heart of the project surrounded by other developmental aspects of the master plan. The idea is to create easy, walkable access to the various commercial areas of the site which will include a retail town center, heritage clubhouse, IT offices.
Site Area : 114 Acres
Builtup Area : 58,00,000 SF
Services : Master Planning,
Programming & Feasibility, Landscape
Design, Architecture Concept
This green township was planned on a 114 acres site stretching north-eastwards from a river bank in the Kochi district of Kerala exclusively for ownership by NRIs and their families. Kerala is home to a large NRI population who went abroad decades ago to explore opportunities but longingly cherish vivid memories of their idyllic homeland. This project aimed to create a comprehensive township for this population to return to, replete with all the modern comforts and amenities to live, work, learn and entertain in the beautiful natural and cultural atmosphere of their native state with their families. After several customary sessions of design charrettes, client and stakeholder collaborations and ideating alternative solutions, the INI team presented this green township design which creates a balance between an expansive open green environment and a compact, self-contained, easily navigable neighborhood rooted in local ethos. The architectural program constitutes residential villas, apartments and town houses, school, college, sports facilities, business center, offices, retail, community hall, club, spa, resort, and IT Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
A water stream meandering through the length of the site to finally end at river in the south, with dense landscape on either sides of it forms the central axis of the master plan, its blue-green spine. A northern main entrance is marked by arrival plazas, community and commercial centers laid along a landscaped high street which lead in to the peripheral road looping around the township to service all its residential, commercial and institutional districts. Parallel roads stretching from this road to the central blue-green spine are lined with villas, apartments and a spa & resort lie on the river-front, while town houses line the north-western edge of the site. The institutional district lies at the deepest northern end, followed by the business center arranged around a pool at the site’s center. The inter-weave of green and road ways through the site makes it easily navigable across its expanse.
The main attraction of this township is the meticulously detailed local flavor that informs each aspect of design. Be it the continuous ghats that step down to the meandering stream’s edge to create an interactive waterfront, or the dense landscaping that shades its banks; be it pools in courtyards or carved wood trimmings at the eaves and brackets in the villas; be it the skyline of coconut palms jostling with tiled sloping roofs or the river front with jetties for boats to harbor – all these invoke the rich cultural and natural endowments of their homeland that these estranged Keralites will closely relate to.
“Creating Evocative Living Ecosystems that Resonate Simultaneously with Heritage & Modernity.”
