ONE FOR ALL

How does an architect go about renovating an old family home? For Sruthi C Reddy, it was a “something new, something old” approach that turned a modest 2bhk in into an expansive getaway, finds Shalini Shah

- Shalini Shah

For a sense of the attention to detail that architect Sruthi C Reddy put into her family beach house, look at the ground beneath your feet—specks of yellow peek through the terrazzo flooring, like sunlight frozen in concrete, consciously introduced in keeping with the light-dappled mood of her weekend house. White but warm, modern but not stark—wide, open doorways lead from one room to the other and ample use of glass allows for a garden view from every corner—this is a house living in harmony with its surroundings. Principal architect and creative director of Ceebros Designworks, 33-year-old Reddy invested eight months into turning her cosy family home off East Coast Road in Chennai into something that would stretch to encompass every member’s needs and demands.

FAMILY AFFAIR

The home is situated on a one-acre property that her father, C Subba Reddy, managing director of Ceebros Property Development and The Raintree Hotels, acquired in 1988. Over the years, the family acquired the adjacent land too (another acre), but the main house remained untouched. For Sruthi, who graduated from the School of Architecture and Planning in Chennai and followed it with a master’s from the Rhode Island School of Design, this was a chance to put her specialisation—Adaptive Reuse—into practice. “For 30 years, this home was where we spent all our holidays. My sister [The Raintree Hotels’s Swetha Reddy] now has two kids, and with all our needs increasing we realised it didn’t suit what we wanted today,” she says, reiterating the challenges of making room for new members in an old family home as time passes.