Captured in the coastal city of Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, this series documents Petti Tuti—a tropical dining space that reimagines discarded shipping containers within a landscape shaped by salt pans and container highways. The project transforms these industrial remnants into a climate-responsive architecture where steel shells are wrapped in layers of poured earth, moderating heat while filtering the intense tropical light.

Patterns and repetition became the central photographic language of the series. The perforated earthen grid was often composed diagonally, creating perspectives that emphasize rhythm, depth, and the layered relationship between earth and steel. Light defines the spatial experience: the ground floor opens outward through glass to the surrounding landscape, while the first floor receives filtered daylight through skylights and perforated screens.

I photographed the ground floor during softer morning and evening light, while the first floor revealed its character under the harsh noon sun, where the screens transform direct light into shifting patterns across the interiors.

At night, wax-diffused LED fixtures create a warm, candle-like glow, allowing the photography to explore a quieter atmosphere of shadow, warmth, and intimacy. The architecture feels as though the surrounding containers have been slowly absorbed by the land itself—earth and steel merging into a single landscape.

• Architects: Wallmakers

• Lead Architect: Vinu Daniel

• Design Team: Oshin Mariam Varughese 

• City: Thoothukudi