India's Most Radical Architect is Getting Even More Radical

Creating poetic structures using local materials is at the core of architect Vinu Daniel's practice. Now, in the busiest, most fertile phase of his career, he asks: Why are we building at all?

- NIDHI GUPTA

Completed in 2020, Pirouette House in Thiruvananthapuram is an ode to the late Laurie Baker, a British Indian architect.

Vinu Daniel does not own a home. Or an office. There's no building featuring a nameplate for his firm Wallmakers, no wall dedicated to displaying the many trophies he's won for his sustainable, cost-effective architecture. Sure, his company website is frequently updated, and his work is accessible to every stranger who encounters his Instagram feed. But to be a buzzy architect and not boast an address in the real world?

"Every place is a base for a vagabond, isn't it?" says Daniel with a smile. This sweltering afternoon, the khaki shirt-clad architect is at Sanctity Ferme, 100 acres of farmland nestled in Shoolagiri, Tamil Nadu, a couple hours from Bengaluru. His makeshift office today is a wooden desk in a community kitchen, a thatch-andbamboo pole structure with a tree piercing through the roof. "So much light," he says, beaming.

“There are 500,000 plants in this place." Daniel says, in awe of his client Baiju C.K.'s vision for this eco-living community. “The first phase has been about building self-sustaining forests-avocado, jackfruit, and others-a goal we will meet in five years. The next phase is to build houses sustainably."

That's where Wallmakers comes in, because sustainable yet stylish buildings are Daniel's calling card. For 16 years, he has designed residences in Kerala where brick, mud, scrap, and waste are moulded into thought-provoking, poetic structures. Sometimes, they appear to defy the laws of physics. Invariably, they are built keeping the site's natural context, and its preservation, in mind.