Poolathur is a small village in Tamil Nadu—so small that state transport buses rarely make more than two daily halts here and the nearest railway line is 10 kilometres away. If the place were to name-drop, it would speak of its proximity to Kodaikanal—that old high priestess among hill retreats. Tucked away in the ascent to Kodai is Poolathur and cloaked among these hills is the Rudrapada Estate, a 20-acre plantation that is entirely run on regenerative, organic farming practices.
“The most unique feature of the estate house on this plantation is that it overlooks an unspoilt valley with not a single settlement in sight,” says architect Niels Schoenfelder of Mancini Enterprises who worked on the house from scratch to finish for over three years. The area is so remote that building materials were unloaded by trucks in the lower reaches of the mountains and then brought over to the site in small jeeps that were the only vehicles compact enough to negotiate the narrow uphill path. As the region is prone to heavy rainfall, Schoenfelder and his team of local masons and carpenters were compelled to pause whenever nimbus clouds loomed overhead. It required patience, but also understanding how to fall in line and appreciate nature’s sweet whims.
This story is from the May - June 2021 edition of AD Architectural Digest India.
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This story is from the May - June 2021 edition of AD Architectural Digest India.
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