What came first, the coconut grove or En Vilasam? According to its architect, Raj Andagere, the story of this gem-like private villa on the Alamparai coast, began with a sun-dappled gathering of coconut trees. They stood like silent sentinels, on a bed of buffalo grass. When Gomathi Subramanian, an antiques collector from Chennai, chanced upon them, her mind was set. She was eager to get out of the city and this very spot in the little fishing hamlet in Kadapakkam, between Mamallapuram and Puducherry, was the answer.

With her Chettinad roots, armed with a book on the mansions in Karaikudi by renowned architectural historian and author George Michell, and rooms filled with antiques collected over the years, she knew what she wanted. It was then up to Auroville-based Andagere to find a balance between nostalgia and a unique contemporary language. “It was clear to me, what she wanted to build. We wanted to retain the spirit of those mansions and yet evolve,” says the architect who with his brother Ajith specialises in vernacular, craft-based, and eco-friendly design. “We knew that the house had to revolve around those trees and the waterbody,” he explains.