Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Sunday, March 07, 2010

our loft

this is our personal corner at pR.
it is not a room, a home, but simply a loft where we store our things and sleep at night.

but lets start from the main building.
this is the beautiful Pavilion. the story of its creation is a must read.
it has the look and feel of a ship. built by artisans from auroville, it is a green building to beat all other green building.



this is the entrance. friday morning kolam/rangoli brightening up has happened.


this is the groud floor. an open architecture and the coolest/windiest spot in pR.


if you noticed the ladder in the previous pic, your eyes are working just fine.
here is how we get to the first floor.
the pretty step ladder, trap door system.


the first floor is a beautiful dormitory style living space.
it is a triangular space (as against the classic cubic homes in cities) with a height of 20 feet and base of over 25 feet.
the main load bearer in the truss is eucalyptus wood, and on top of that is the framework made of causarina wood.
the flooring is with the bark of the betelnut tree.

the roofing is on a sturdy diamond trussed framework on which thick layers of thatch are tied down.


here is our lounge space (where i am typing this post from).


the loft is approached from another step ladder (visible is the above photo showing the diamond trussed roof). this is how i get into the loft.

it is around 200 sq ft. it has 2 cots which themselves occupy 50 sq ft. we lose over 50 sq ft. the balance is storage and open space. the 2 trunks represent our entire wardrobe.


we have a nice window and a very good view from them.



do let me know if you want to visit :-)

12 comments:

Preeti Aghalayam aka kbpm said...

looks awesome!

Vanessa said...

Sure does look awesome!
There are guest ranches in Texas. They charge 150$ per person per night, in a wooden cabin with very basic amenities. Does not include meals, horse riding etc.
Just FYI so you can charge the guests. :):)

afoo said...

Me wants to visit... ;-)

sometime over the next year for sure...

What is a good time?

csm said...

all credit for the looks goes to DV. his design of the pavilion is quite exquisite.
v - charging guests may very well happen. but not like a resort, but when we conduct courses.

afoo - most welcome (tauji just came last weekend) and most times are good. when does net year commence? april 2010 or jan 2011?

afoo said...

next year is starting from now... :-)

I was looking at June July... Guess you dont have rain in that part then... Would it be too hot?

dreamy_writer said...

this is real good!! :) all the best with the first crop :)

csm said...

afoo chakkar - sounds good. may do a mumbai trip sometime in june. will fix end of this month.

marginal rains in july.
hoping that it does rainn ormal here so that we can plant our summer-end crops :-)

anvita - welcome. this is sriram, of karpagam and sriram fame :-)

Shubhangi said...

your loft is beautiful and I am looking forward to meeting you and to all the pr stories.
All the best, bhaiya.

siddharth said...

wow! what an inspiring place...will love to visit someday.

Mr.Ish . . . said...

i liked to visit and stay ...... shall i ....

Subhashree said...

Wow. Love your place and what you do. Best wishes.

Steph said...

Hi!
Great Blog, thanks for putting up pictures and explaining all your farming progress, its amazing!

I am currently part of an independent research on natural farming in South India. We want to document whats happening within farmers' movements and farmers' initiatives.

Please contact me at wang.stephaniekp@gmail.com
We are REALLY curious to know more about do-nothing farming!

Thanks!!