Indian architectural firm LIJO RENY architects has designed the Running Wall Residence. Completed in 2012, this contemporary home features a winding laterite stone wall which begins at the entrance of the property and continues into the house itself. It is located in Thalassery, India. The form is a combination of plastered walls and exposed laterite wall. Laterite stone, once commonly used in Kerala architecture, has a direct visual appeal and a connection to the immediate surroundings, because of its earthy colour and tecture. The usage of this familiar stone in a new language, without losing its inane nature, would immediately root the design, at the same time, acknowledge the presence of a change, bridging this huge gap that has come about in the contemporary architectural practice that prevails in the state now.
The exposed laterite stone wall starts from the compound wall and winds through the landscaped yard into the building. More than as a wall or as an enclosure, it is like a flowing sculpture through the landscape. The monotony of the huge walls is broken by the various voids given at random on the laterite wall. The laterite stone was sourced from two different quarries for the two distinct colours that from a pattern throughout the wall .The vertical joints between the laterite stones were filled with a paste of white cement and powdered laterite stone, thus visibly accentuating the horizontal lines. The continuous horizontal lines give more fluidity/direction to the meandering wall.
