Verandah designs have been seamlessly blurring boundaries between the indoors and outdoors since centuries—a warm, idyllic space overlooking lush greens outlining the home. With these tranquil verandah designs from the archives of AD India, nature greets you at the door, transforming outdoors spaces into enchanting, open air sanctuaries.
An Ahmedabad Home Flanked By A Show-Stealing Garden
A bamboo plantation corridor flanked by dense foliage leads to a two-storey brick, concrete and glass structure with multiple slim roofs at different levels. The plot measures almost an acre—very large by Ahmedabad standards. The footprint of the home is an irregular one with projections that create pockets, emphasizing the relationship between the built and unbuilt. “This ‘pulling and pushing’, on the periphery of the 15,000-square-foot home has resulted in many outdoor decks. An exposed brick porch has kota stone flooring. A wide curved verandah at the front adds softness to the structure. Glass has been used in all the double height volumes, to connect to nature,” says Hiren Patel of his eponymous design firm. One of the decks appears to be afloat above a water body, its mirror image reflected in the pool below.
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“When the clients didn’t demand a large lawn for parties, I did not question their choice—I was delighted to see it as an opportunity to create forest-like landscaping with a higher ratio of plants,” says Hiren. Like a lush tropical paradise, greenery converges on semi-open spaces in this bungalow, not just enveloping them but almost making tentative feelers into the living spaces. A zen garden has been designed by Anushree Patel; a water body with large ‘stepping stones’ deceptively appears to be untouched by human hands. - Devyani Jayakar
A Minimal Kerala Home Using Light As An Ornament
In Maranchery, a small town in Kerala's Malappuram district, a family home is harnessing light and space to create visual impact. Built for a family of three, the property spread over 5227 sq ft was built on a few interesting guiding principles. The brief for the architect—Fazil Moidunny, lead architect of Architecture.Seed—was straightforward: the client wanted a simple, 2000 sq ft, three-bedroom-home on a limited budget. The charming property is surrounded by vast open fields, with plenty of “kaatum velichavum.” The Malayalam phrase refers to air and light, and the design was created to enhance this elemental feature to build a serene home. Additionally, the structure needed to ensure two things: unobstructed wind flow and a connection to the nature around.
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Moidunny explains that this was achieved by designing two ‘nodes’: “Two nodes—a primary node and a secondary node—were purposefully designed in the form of courtyards along the direction of the wind. The primary node is the internal courtyard and the secondary node is the external veranda with the sit-out courtyard.” The external veranda serves a dual purpose in this home. It is a space to gather for the family and helps channel the wind towards the home’s interior. A lone Bucida tree shades the veranda entrance while the exposed concrete bench along the sit-out corner adds to the rustic charm of the space. Through the external veranda, the wind flows into the internal courtyard that was imagined as the 'lungs' of the house. 'Jalli' screens were added to make the space more 'breathable'. - Shweta Vepa Vyas
A Bengaluru Home Defined By Its Verandahs And Courts
At the end of a winding driveway in Bengaluru, an unassuming grey and brown structure peers out from the surrounding foliage and sets the tone for what lies beyond—a sensitively designed home that factors in the climate and the lifestyle of the homeowners. Deceptively simple in initial appearance, the house is a reflection of the design values of principal architects, Nupur Shah and Saahil Parikh of We Design Studio—a restraint and austerity which does not diminish spatial experiences.
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“Having grown up in colonial homes with central courtyards, the clients requested a house that would take them back to these roots,” shares Parikh. He adds, “We designed this project with a large courtyard and verandah designs along the peripheries, as our post-modern take on a quintessential tropical Indian home”. The main façade of the house is a gentle assemblage of browns and greys, highlighted by a lengthy verandah that wraps around the structure. Charcoal grey slate tiles from Italy have been used for flooring in all the verandahs. Beyond the free-standing live-edge wooden partition is an outdoor dining area. Sheets of polymer wooden cladding wrap around the main structure of the house. The hanging ceiling lights were sourced from a flea market. - Kunal Bhatia
This Rural Home In Kerala Is One With Nature
To build a tranquil retirement paradise–a timeless rural home–for him and his wife, 59-year-old Thrissur native Joshy Ayyathuvalappil turned to the only person he knew he could trust with his vision: his son, architect Arjun Joshy, founder and principal of Thrissur-based Naked Volume Architecture Studio. “As a loco pilot, my father developed a deep appreciation for quietude. His years spent working around locomotive engines instilled in him a sense of discipline, precision, and order, which he sought to reflect in his home's design,” notes Arjun, adding that all of these facets helped influence the layout of the house. Tranquil spaces were carefully integrated throughout the building, allowing for moments of reflection and relaxation. Case in point: the front sit-out area, created as a cosy spot for family gatherings and leisurely afternoons spent enjoying each other's company.
The home is modern, but very much rooted in Kerala—and not just physically. Traditional elements manifest here and there: first in the central courtyard, then in the outer verandah, and later in the pitched terracotta-tiled roof, all of which feature vernacular expressions of wood. Similarly, Athangudi handmade tiles were chosen for the floor to add unique textures and colours. - Vaishnnavi Nayel Talawadekar
This Ahmedabad Home's Sprawling Footprint Merges With The Context
When people want to increase the size of their bungalow, it’s not often that a neighbouring plot serendipitously becomes available—as it did in this case. ‘However, connecting both these plots led to a strangely fan-shaped site which was narrow in the front and broader towards the rear,” says Hiren Patel of Hiren Patel Architects—HPA, as the firm is known. This odd shape dictated Patel’s design of the footprint of the house.
Several gabled roofs of differing sizes are clad with shingles and sit alongside a few flat ones, topping independent structures which interconnect to create this home. The complex geometry is enhanced by the roofs sitting at different heights. No mere door leads to this home. There is an entire “entrance pavilion,” providing gravitas to the sense of arrival. Framing a view of the house which sits at the end of a walkway, it adds drama to the experience. Patel has used the narrower front of the plot for the garden, utilising the rear to house the structure. Most of the rooms appear to have two adjacent walls in glass, successfully dissolving the barrier towards the garden and offering panoramic views. - Devyani Jayakar
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