The studio
A small practice, building slowly.
Citysky was started in Kochi in 2016 by an architect and a contractor who kept finding themselves on the same sites. Ten years on, it is still a practice of a dozen people that designs, builds and furnishes a handful of homes at a time.
Since 2016
We began at Nettoor with fourteen homes around a courtyard, and learned most of what we still believe by building it.
That first project taught us that the site knows more than the brief, that Kerala’s climate is a collaborator rather than a problem, and that the gap between a good drawing and a good home is closed on site, one decision at a time.
Six projects have followed: two homes near Salafi, fourteen apartments at Perumbavoor, four homes at 1008, and the villas now going up along Mirzad Road. We have never had a sales team. Most of our buyers were introduced by people who already live in one of our houses, which is the only kind of growth we are interested in.
We later brought interiors in-house, so the person who draws a room can also decide what goes in it. Most of our homes are now handed over fully furnished. The rooms make a better argument than we can.
We would rather build ten houses well than a hundred quickly.
Arjun Menon, founder
What we hold to
Three things we do not negotiate.
Restraint
Few materials, used honestly. A house should be easy to read from the street and easy to live in from the inside. Decoration is what is left when the plan is right.
Climate
Kochi has four months of rain and eight of heat. Deep overhangs, cross-ventilation and shade on the west come before glass and gloss.
Continuity
The team that draws the house furnishes it and hands it over. There is no moment where responsibility passes to someone who was not in the room.
A house is finished when someone forgets to notice it, and simply lives there.
Lakshmi Nair, interiors
Get in touch
Come and see how we work.
The studio is in Vaduthala, a short walk from the Salafi houses. Visitors are welcome by appointment, most weekdays.