{"id":501038,"date":"2026-02-26T15:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501038\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:14:13","slug":"mars-designs-thatched-serenity-retreat-as-a-quiet-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501038\/","title":{"rendered":"Ma+rs designs thatched Serenity retreat as “a quiet observer”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indian studio Ma+rs has completed Serenity, a wildlife retreat in Tamil Nadu<\/a> crowned by a cluster of thatched<\/a> roofs intended to blend in with the distant Anamalai mountain range.<\/p>\n

Nestled within a 1.6-hectare forested plot near the village of Sethumadai, the building is part of a wider project to transform the area into a wildlife corridor, giving over half of the site for elephants, leopards and bison to roam freely.<\/p>\n

Ma+rs reused the stone plinth of a former building on the site to support the new steel-framed structure, which is designed to have as minimal an impact on the landscape as possible.<\/p>\n

\"SerenityMa+rs has created a wildlife retreat in India<\/p>\n

“Our core concept for the design was to create a built space that was a quiet observer \u2013 a\u00a0building that did not impose itself on the landscape,” principal architects Anisha Menon and Sabyasachi Routray told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“Rather, it honoured all that existed and created a permeable boundary where architecture and the wildlife corridor coexist peacefully without any conflict,” they added.<\/p>\n

The layout of Serenity comprises a two-storey L-shaped block of bedrooms to the south and a large, open terrace to the north, which is flanked by a courtyard and a small swimming pool.<\/p>\n

\"WildlifeIt has a steel frame and a thatched roof<\/p>\n

Its steel framework is contrasted with the exposed stonework of the plinth below and the 25-centimetre-thick thatch of the roof above, which is formed of six individual pitched volumes topped by ventilation ducts.<\/p>\n

Designed to mimic the distant Anamalai mountain range, this roof structure creates high ceilings for Serenity’s terrace, while its large eaves shelter the bedroom balconies and a dedicated viewing platform on the first floor oriented towards the forest.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Ukrainian<\/p>\n

Nine buildings heralding a thatched-roof renaissance\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

For the bedroom block, the steel frame has been infilled with brickwork coated in a yellowy shade of breathable lime plaster, polished to give it what Menon and Routray described as a “luminous sheen”.<\/p>\n

“Because of the 10-inch (25-centimetre) thatch and the way we’ve massed the structure, the roofline camouflages perfectly with the silhouettes of the Anamalai range,” Menon and Routray said.<\/p>\n

“This realisation, that the building recedes into the mountains rather than standing out against them was the ultimate validation of our original intent.”<\/p>\n

\"TerraceIt is designed as a “quiet observer” of its surroundings<\/p>\n

To the east of the site, a smaller, pavilion-like structure acts as an entrance pavilion, alongside a pizza oven and dedicated dining area.<\/p>\n

Nearby, the site’s wildlife area has been supported by the creation of two ponds, formed by channelling the site’s water runoff.<\/p>\n

\"EntranceThere is a matching entrance pavilion<\/p>\n

Another wildlife retreat recently featured on Dezeen is Suyian Lodge in Kenya, designed by Michaelis Boyd, Nicholas Plewman Architects and Fox Browne Creative<\/a> to feel “deeply integrated” with its site.<\/p>\n

Other contemporary thatched-roof buildings<\/a> include the Thread cultural centre in Senegal by Toshiko Mori<\/a> and the Hata-Mazanka guesthouses in Ukraine by YOD Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Studio f\/8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Project credits:<\/p>\n

Architect: Ma+rs
Design team: Indulekha Paul, Sabyasachi Routray, Anisha Menon
Project direction: Regen Space
Landscape and ecological solutions: Oikos Ecological solutions
Material consultant: Wabi Plus
Furniture and lighting design: Studio Abelha<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indian studio Ma+rs has completed Serenity, a wildlife retreat in Tamil Nadu crowned by a cluster of thatched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75,63660,1799,1242,49626,49627,185048,101312],"class_list":{"0":"post-501038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-holiday-homes","16":"tag-india","17":"tag-residential-architecture-and-interiors","18":"tag-sectionall","19":"tag-sectionarchitecture","20":"tag-sectionexclusives","21":"tag-thatch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}