This holiday chalet by Bangalore firm Biome Environmental Solutions has walls of stone and mud brick, and nestles into a hillside overlooking a tea and coffee plantation in southern India .
Hornbill Residence shelters below a tree in the grounds of the O’land plantation in Nilgiri, a district of Tamil Nadu. The foundations of the small homestay are laid on the plantation’s old drying yard between a rocky waterfall and a forest.
Relevant story: Mass Research adds 3 pavilions to Korean tea museum
It is one particular of 9 vacation cottages commissioned from the Bangalore firm that will dot the grounds of the 135-acre estate for quick-phrase lets.
“The estate is an finish-of-the-street house, bordering forest lands and commanding spectacular views,” explained the architects.
“The house opens onto the views of a waterfall, a valley with a backdrop of layers of mountains in various hues of blue of the sky, and green of the tea gardens, thereby integrating every single of these views strategically from a different direction from inside of the home.”
The walls of Hornbill Home are clad in stone to match the rocky terrain, even though inside earth brick walls are paired with rustic timber furniture and richly coloured textiles to supply a more homely environment.
An arrow-shaped roof gives the structure an aerodynamic appearance and shelters a modest terrace in front of the master bedroom.
“The striking roof of the villa invokes a sense of flight that one feels while gazing at the views of the valley and hills from within the developing,” mentioned the crew.
From its elevated place on the hillside, the terrace takes in views of the surrounding mountains and the leafy plantation, and provides occupants a possibility to see passing bison and monkeys.
A additional bedroom and open-plan residing locations set on the ground floor have access to terraces.
All nine chalets are planned for similarly secluded locations of the estate, picked out to lessen the effect of a big hotel on the site.
Associated content: see much more holiday properties
Existing trails will dictate the location of each home, which will be set at a distance from each other to provide privacy and diverse settings for return guests.
“In subsequent discussions with the client, we advised that these bungalows be situated more than the expanse of the house rather than a near-knit growth,” explained the architects.
Across the Palk Strait from Tamil Nadu is this holiday home in Sri Lanka, which is raised on stilts above a rubber plantation. Like Hornbill Home, it attributes a viewing platform over the tree canopy and is created for holidaymakers looking for a rural retreat.
Photography is by Vivek Muthuramalingam.
Undertaking credits:
Architects: Biome Environmental Options
Style team: Chitra Vishwanath, Anurag Tamhankar, Sharath Nayak
Structural engineer: Shashidar KS
Contractor: Narayan MC
Ground floor plan 
First floor plan 
Segment a single 
Area two Dezeen
