Lime House
An apartment for two readers: eleven metres of shelving, lime-rendered walls and almost nothing else.
Project information
- Location
- Kochi, Kerala
- Year
- 2023
- Type
- City apartment
- Area
- 3,100 sq ft
- Scope
- Interior architecture, joinery, library, styling
- Status
- Completed
Design concept
A library that happens to have rooms in it
The clients own about four thousand books. Rather than distributing them politely around the apartment, we made the shelving the organising element — eleven continuous metres of it, running through three rooms at exactly the same height and depth.
Everything else was reduced to let that read. Walls are lime render in a single warm white, floors are one continuous board, and the joinery has no visible hardware at all.
Kerala light is bright and very white. Deep reveals and a natural cotton curtain layer take the hardness out of it before it reaches the books.
Material palette
What the room is made of
Lime render
One warm white through every room, unsealed.
Rattan
Cabinet fronts and headboard, ventilated against humidity.
Cotton canvas
Curtains in three weights, unlined.
Architecture
Decisions in plan and section
Shelving
11 continuous metres at 2.4m height and 320mm depth, structural where it crosses the openings.
Reveals
Window reveals deepened to 400mm to cut glare without reducing the opening.
Floor
One board direction throughout, running toward the western light.
Interior
Decisions you can touch
Reading
Four dedicated reading positions, each with its own lamp and a different chair.
Humidity
All closed joinery ventilated top and bottom; no MDF anywhere in the apartment.
Colour
The books are the colour. Everything else sits within two tones of the render.
Gallery
Lime House in sequence
Project facts
Project facts
11 months
Duration
11 metres continuous
Shelving
~4,000
Books
4
Reading seats
Demo project — client and figures are sample content
