For Kochi-based architect Vinu Daniel of Wallmakers, the heart of every project lies in the problems we have created amongst us. Rising mountains of construction debris, oceans flooded by waste plastic and a sea of discarded tyres that amount to two per cent of the total global waste find a new purpose as protagonists in his projects. A composite of construction debris and mud forms load-bearing walls of a home, discarded electric metre boxes and washing machine wheels double as feature walls in another, and waste tyres and desert sand sculpt a spatial installation for the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. In a new home built in Vadakara (also known as Vatakara) city of Kerala, the Indian architect has conceived a domestic space as a living museum for the local children's abandoned plastic toys. The Toy Storey, as the name suggests, assimilates a collection of 6200 toys within continuous vertically stacked corbels that grace the entire building façade.

The project responds to the issue of raging plastic toy waste, which as per Wallmakers, “80 per cent of all toys ever made have ended up in landfills, incinerators or the ocean. Plastic has managed to snake its way into almost every aspect of our daily lives, including 90 per cent of the world’s toys, a far cry from the old Indian childhoods of outdoor play and wooden toys,” states the studio. Toy Storey was conceived as a circular home with a continuous verandah where old Mangalore tiles create corbels along vertical niches of the earth wall. On each of these projected tiles rests a toy that unfolds a story of memory and play. The 3843 sqft residence, can be accessed from all sides of the site, through curving stairs and ramps that reach the verandah and the living space, elevated off the ground and the private basement floor where the home’s library and bedroom are kept.

Nestled in a verdant pocket of a residential location and slightly veiled by old coconut trees, Toy Storey appears as an extension of its place. A modest dwelling sheathed in the warm tones of the land it sits on elicits joy through its distinguished simplicity. The encircling toy jaali wall offers a continuous facade of the house, without the sense of a front and a rear end. What influenced the form of the building were three trees in the cardinal direction and the irregular topography of the site.

“The residence,” Wallmakers Studio shares, “is conceived with the idea of a ‘house within a house’ where the large living space will always be frequented by neighbours and members of the community.” The verandah opens into a living space featuring a large polished cement floor space, dotted by a little seating arrangement in one corner and two inbuilt cemented seats affixed on either side across the entrance. Light filters into the space through zig-zag openings in the toy jaali wall and through the two courtyards that separate the living room from the family’s social den inside. 

Creating a sense of permeability between the living area and the private interiors, the earth walls feature Japanese shoji screen partitions that provide the necessary degree of light and visual connectivity. A narrow doorway paves the way to the family’s two bedrooms on either side before spilling into a central space where the dining area and kitchen are designed. Each of these spaces features the peripheral toy jaali wall, creating a sense of homogeneity within the overarching aesthetic. The materiality of the shoji screen is replicated on the furniture, cabinets and bookshelves adding more character and refinement to the scheme.

Facilitating cross ventilation and insulation from the searing heat is the encircling wall that beautifully layers the toy jaali elements and compressed earth blocks made from the site’s soil. Further perforating the structural grid is a radial ferro-cement shell roof which, as per Wallmakers, reduces reinforcement by 33 per cent.

Wallmakers sought cues in the lingering pain of stepping on a Lego brick, an incident that often brings us to assess the strength of this little piece of monster. The days of pain and play almost always culminate in the disappearance of these toys, and this led the studio to wonder ‘How much of it is left in everyone's houses after children discard them?’ Toy Storey was thus, born as a place where their best memories are preserved on its walls forever.

Project Details

Name of Project: Toy Storey
Location: Vadakara, Kerala, India
Gross Built Area: 3843 sq ft
Architect: Wallmakers
Design Team: Vinu Daniel, Oshin Mariam Varughese, Dhawal Dasari, Mrityunjoy Pan, Rosh Saji
Completion Year: 2024