Nettoor Residences

Nettoor sits on the quieter edge of Kochi, where the road narrows and the coconut palms begin to outnumber the buildings. The site was a former paddy holding, long and low, with the backwater a few hundred metres west. It was the first piece of land we bought, and the first time we had to answer the question of what a Citysky building should actually be.

The answer was a courtyard. Seven villas along one edge, an apartment block of seven along the other, and a planted green between them that every living room opens onto. Villas took a sloped clay-tile roof with an overhang deep enough to leave a window open through a downpour; the apartments took deep balconies for the same reason. Because the water table here is high, everything sits on a laterite plinth a little above the lane, so the verandas look over the courtyard rather than into it.

All fourteen homes were handed over in 2016 and the courtyard has been theirs ever since — two of the owners started a vegetable bed in the drainage swale we planted, which was not on any drawing. The project is complete and sold out.