Conservation by Translocation: Old Kerala House Reborn in Gurugram

A 300 hundred year old ‘tharavad’ or ancestral home (images 1 - 4) of Ar. Pradeep Sachdeva’s fraternal friend in Mepral village of Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district near Kottayam was facing imminent demolition on account of the impossibility of renovating it on its wet river-side site into which it was gradually sinking, and the family’s disinterest in occupying it. ‘Meda’, as this house was called, was a two storey house of 2000 sq. ft. with a ground floor of stone masonry construction supporting a first floor of finely evolved timber construction involving joinery details sans nails.

As the story goes, it took Sachdeva only a brief look at a few photographs of the building to realise its phenomenal value, to fall in love with it and to fall for the proposition to buy it. Once the question of ownership was put to rest, the manner of the architect’s tackling of the issue of reviving its utility value made breaking news.   

Translocating entire structures to far way sites by a method of dissembling and re-assembling them is known practice, with the Japanese pioneering and perfecting it to defeat the vagaries of their country’s disaster-prone landscape. Having a sound experience in restoration projects, Sachdeva intrepidly explored the possibility of applying the technique to resolve the issue of his ‘Meda’ in Kerala to move it to his Gurugram farm. He scouted for traditional workers skilled at the technique of building structures like this ‘tharavad’ and set up a team of them (image 7) to work on translocating ‘Meda’.   

Taking a full year to dismantle the house piece by precious piece (images 5,6), the team worked diligently and finally got the parts transported to Sachdeva’s farm 2,600 km. away at Sadhrana village of Gurugram (image 8). Here the team set about rebuilding the house (images 9 - 11) with a brick masonry ground floor structure replacing the original stone one. The upper timber structure was completely replicated as the original with the expertise of these traditionally skilled carpenters, whose comfortable working conditions were painstakingly ensured by Sachdeva, even getting one of their wives to the site to cook them authentic Kerala meals.

A change of site obviously involves a change in the structure’s climatic environment as well, and its impact cannot be discounted. But, in more than six years that ‘Meda’ has stood in Gurugram, the timber members well-tempered through years in their original wet Kottayam environs have shown no sign of yielding to the changes imposed on them.

Thus, the ancestral Kerala ‘tharavad’ now lives its new life, reborn at a Delhi architect’s farm, added electricity and washrooms contributing to its modernisation and liveability (images 12 - 15). The charming interiors designed by Pradeep Sachdeva render it a cosy weekend getaway for him, his family and curious friends and visitors. What’s more, the architect intends to move in permanently once he retires from active professional practice!