Tuticorin, a port city, has been the center of maritime trade for the last 2000 years. The sheer number of shipping containers discarded in the city made us combine two materials that are usually not combined: steel and mud.
The site in Tuticorin, for building a 200 people capacity restaurant was a very narrow and linear plot of land. We wanted to utilise one of the most abandoned marine wastes: shipping containers and also explore modular construction. Each container was set vertically, as we wanted better room heights.
Being situated in an open site in a region that was hot throughout the year, we added a layer of poured earth on the external surface of the containers to reduce the heat gain and provide insulation.
The layout was planned in a way that it allowed each group of guests to have their own private niche, even within such a narrow plot. Each seating space is naturally lit during the day with a skylight and by a chandelier in the evenings,which has been custom designed with old wax and pipes.