EGO Design Studio

By Editorial Staff - 3 March 2025

For the architects at EGO Design Studio, architecture is a way of surveying reality while seeking to broaden the conversation around social, ecological, political, and philosophical issues. Two residences, A Home Leftover and A Home Liberated, both in Kerala, the state that stretches along India’s southwestern coast, showcase the studio’s desire to go beyond mere functional considerations and establish a foundation for future research.

The A Home Leftover project in Chathanoor sets out to address a critical issue: is the responsibility for providing affordable housing solely the public sector’s, or do professionals also have a role to play? The house was initially started by a religious organization, which ultimately abandoned the project after laying the foundations. EGO Design Studio’s new proposal incorporates these “leftover” foundations. To keep construction costs down, the client, a carpenter by trade, undertook the carpentry work himself. Moreover, the design incorporates windows salvaged from another building renovated by the studio, alongside scrap materials sourced from various construction sites, and slight-second materials donated by industry partners.

In contrast, the A Home Liberated project, located in Enathu, was inspired by the image of an old farmhouse “liberated” from its original purpose and adapted to a different lifestyle for the two brothers who renovated it with retirement in mind. Largely preserved, the structure’s previously existing elements evoke memories of a bygone era. The removal of cumbersome internal walls and columns through structural modifications opened up the interiors, modernizing them to offer a living experience that bridges both past and present. “Every old damaged architectural object – the architects affirm – is meant to exist as a derivative of the old with a nuanced divergence. This projects, upon the viewer, a semblance forming...