Girls Home for Mallankara Orthodox church at Chathannoor, Kollam

Our earliest memories, and almost always the most fondest memories of a building, are those of our childhood homes. The corridors that we learned to walk on, the windows we craned our necks out to watch the world, the front door that held a myriad possibilities to the curious world outside and all of its wonders. Each home becomes the core memory of the children that live in it. When we build a home for children, then, we are building memories. Memories that future dreams and hopes step and lean on - memories that are the foundation of life itself.

Knowing all that we now know about children, it is a huge responsibility to sculpt spaces for them. This was the thought and the worry that we had when designing the girl’s home at Chathanoor. This was to be a foster home for 35 girl children who didn’t have the security and warmth of parental care or their own homes. This would be where they will grow up, where they will spend the formative years of their lives, where they will turn into young women with dreams and ambitions. It was our duty to make sure their core memories reflected not dingy dorm beds and dark alleys of a large foster care but bright sunny spaces that nourishes the souls and encourage childhood adventures into the realms of possibilties. A space that is shared but that has a space for each of its children, a space that doesn’t sink in gloom by the thought of shared spaces but provide the harmony necessary for an exuberant communal living.

We wanted the inmates of the home to feel “at home”, to not feel plucked from where they come, to feel as free as birds who find their nests in a large peepul tree. And thus we designed it just like a tree - with split levels branching off to house the inmates, without cutting off each level from the others. The exterior of the girls home is a exposed brick masonry work which blends it to the surroundings beautifully, while the interior is kept warm and bright just as we hope the kids’ future lives would be.