This Karnataka Home Stacks Courtyards Like A Living Stepwell

Most early mornings, when not preoccupied with everyday chores, this family gathers on the katte, a traditional stone ledge at the threshold, where stories are shared, conversations meander, and the world feels just a little closer. “I think architecture is more about blurring the boundaries between inside and outside,” shares Principal Architect Avinash Ankalge, who is reasonably concerned about the vanishing cultural spaces within Karnataka’s newly gentrified suburbia. When the contextually-driven team at the Bengaluru-based studio A Threshold took on this project for a 70’x40’ corner plot in Tiptur, Tumkur district, Avinash and his Co-Principal Harshith Nayak found themselves in a town nebulously shifting, once rooted in its plantation past, now inching toward a more industrial future. “And I think this project speaks more about the importance of having those in-between transitions,” he adds, explaining how the name ‘In Between Gardens’ came to be. “So we had these secret gardens dispersed at every level, and to connect with nature was what we were looking at from this house.”

“We were looking at these old houses, for context, where you have this verandah in the form of a raised platform. Anyone walking down the street could come sit on its steps,” explains Ar. Avinash Ankalge, Principal Architect at A Threshold.

A Fortress of Intimacy

This 4,200 sq. ft. residence sharpens into focus as a tropical modernist reincarnation of South Karnataka’s indoor-outdoor planning, characterised by overlapping, fluid volumes, and indigenous materials that lend it an intimate, nostalgic feel. Within its core, a ziggurat of undulating, multi-tiered courtyards rises, a thoughtful reclamation of the paddy fields and terraced gardens of the region. ‘In Between Gardens’ encircles the family in what feels like a sacred altar, resisting the Faustian pressures of urbanisation.

Sourced from nearby quarries, a black granite wall traces the boundary of this home with a measured, staccato rhythm. The material palette here has been pared down to a monastic minimum, with a touch of soft Brutalist inspiration. White-washed walls, exposed concrete slabs, and random rubble masonry not only bind the home to its immediate geography but also shape an austere sanctuary within, where an ensemble of breathing courtyards frames the living experience.

This sense of cocooned privacy is subtly broken at the northeast corner, where the arrival sequence unfolds through a garden that leads into the informal living, dining, and kitchen areas. The progression from a rugged enclosure wall to airy, open volumes within signals a tonal shift, one that leaves behind the harried worries of the city and instills a beatific, lingering calm from the very first step.

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The Poetics of the In-Between

At the threshold of the home, lies a sensitive rebirth of the katte. This typology retains the soul of its forebear: a place to pause, perch, and partake in the slow flux of daily life. From here, one naturally saunters into the informal living area, a spacious, light-filled atrium that opens out to both the east and west, flanked by intimate courtyards. These green spillover spaces reveal themselves through wooden louvred doors, creating an almost Japanese-like game of shifting perspectives, where every glance frames a new vignette of nature, structure, and stillness. The east-facing puja room, placed in congruence with Vaastu, offers an interlude between the living and dining spaces.

These gardens, part of an overarching network of verdant interstitials, form the lungs of the house. Wherever one stands; in the kitchen, the daughter’s bedroom, or the east-facing puja, a sliver of green remains within view. The kitchen, in particular, enjoys its own edible garden, extrapolating the ethos of nourishment beyond the stove. These “in-between gardens” are not an ornamental afterthought; instead, they dismantle the binaries between inside and outside, forging a home that is both protected and porous.

An Ascent of Mythic Proportions

Within the dining room, the materiality continues its dignified restraint. A pearly stone-topped table anchors the space, paired with minimalist furniture that feels intentional rather than spartan. Low-slung foldable chairs with polished wooden frames echo the home’s handmade ethos, their silhouettes inviting repose.

Movement through the home plays out like a ballad of surrender, with each level yielding to the next. Rather than abrupt staircases or isolated landings, the design leans on a series of intermittent platforms that double as both seating and circulation. These staggered thresholds lend a spatial cadence to the ascent, making the experience of moving through the house feel unhurried.

The daughter’s bedroom fans out into a double-height green court. This secluded pocket of landscape evokes the feel of a terraced courtyard, and its spatial generosity creates an unbroken visual and emotional connection between private and communal areas. Dappled light and roiling breezes wash over the space, making it a deeply personal refuge for rest, self-care, or harmless daydreaming.

Strategically placed skylights and slender clerestory windows, including a 1.5-foot slit running along the top of the boundary wall, invite bevelled light to stream in at an angle, scattering dust motes into a golden reverie. While the children’s room feels like a bohemian retreat, the journey through the home continues upward.

A Theatre of Light and Levels

Further enriching this vertical narrative, the ascent from the first floor to the terrace is choreographed through a narrow, steeply proportioned staircase, discreetly tucked into the layout and daubed in egg yolk yellow. Though compact, it punctuates the upward movement with a burst of irreverent energy, transforming a utilitarian passage into a moment of playful drama.

The guest bedroom is purposefully elevated, reached by a modest six-foot ascent from the formal living area, blessed with views of the cascading courtyards and lush interstitial gardens. The interplay of levels reaches a kind of crescendo here, as the space appears to float omnisciently. With this bird’s eye view, the guest bedroom is limned into a contemplative alcove; a place where shadows lengthen, and the diurnal rituals of the house carry on below.

A Continuum of Vernacular Wisdom

“There is a sense of belonging and connection when one walks through the older streets of Tiptur,” Avinash observes. From its origins as a daivasthana hosting a constellation of village deities, to its evolution into a makeshift dais for town hall announcements, and finally as a communal stoop where hawkers sold their wares and neighbours exchanged scraps of news, the katte has long been a fixture of rural life. Today, it is slowly fading from the socio-cultural landscape of Karnataka. In this context, In Between Gardens offers a quiet but persuasive rebuttal.

Rather than severing ties with tradition, the architects at A Threshold have ushered the architectural idioms of the katte, stepped boundary walls, and inward-looking courtyards back into relevance. This endangered vocabulary is what they strive to carry forward, ensuring that the juggernaut of stories, generational wisdom, and material knowledge does not crumble under the weight of sameness or the relentless pursuit of the new.