The Aerie

The Aerie sits on a steep hillside at Pooppara in Idukki. The main block stands at the top of the slope like a lookout. From the forecourt it reads as three storeys of glass, timber and stone, but two more levels are set into the hill below the entrance, so the building drops nearly eighteen metres from its roof to its lowest floor. Down the slope, nine A-frame cabins sit on grassed terraces, each with its own view, and below them lies a long pool with a timber pergola at its edge.

The main block keeps to deep flat roofs with warm timber soffits, full-height black-framed glazing, and walls of stone and charcoal cladding. The entrance level holds the lobby, reception and lounge, with two bedrooms above and a penthouse lounge on the roof. A level down, the dining room is a glass box canted out over the slope on slender columns, with the kitchen and pantry behind it. The lowest level, cut into the hill, holds the staff quarters, a manager’s room, the laundry and a lounge, and a lift links all five floors.

The main block stands at the top of the slope like a lookout, and nine cabins step down the hill below it.

The cabins are different in character: steep pitched roofs, glazed gable ends facing down the hill, and a small timber deck in front of each. Seven share one plan. Their fronts stand on four slender steel columns on concrete pedestals, each set to that cabin’s ground, while the back edge rests on the terrace behind, in keeping with the plan’s aim of as little cut and fill as possible. Inside, glulam rafters and timber boards line the roof. Three of the seven have a kids’ loft over the bedroom, with an oak deck, a rope-net guard and an oak ladder with brass rungs.

The other two cabins stand on bearing walls that step down with the ground, and open to the south through a diagonal glazed wall. The renders here show the scheme as it stood in September 2026. Since then the cabins, interiors and landscape have been refined in the model: reworked stilts, the kids’ lofts, rain chains and French drains to carry monsoon rain off the roofs and terraces, and a pool terrace with a sunken lounge round a fire bowl. The resort is now under construction.