In 2022, a clutch of young architects took over an abandoned colonial-era building in Fort Kochi and filled it with life. There were stalls selling upcycled homeware, workshops on climate change, conversations about waste, and music drifting through crumbling walls.
For two days, the old house was transformed into a free market for ideas. That was the launch of ‘Maatam’, a collective dedicated to sustainability. It was spearheaded by a group of friends fresh out of college, with a stubborn sense of possibility.
“We were 22 then, full of energy,” recalls co-founder Visakha G Raj. “We just wanted to reach people with sustainability.”
The seed for Maatam, however, had been sown much earlier. In 2019, Visakha spent six months interning in Bali. Tourism had brought about the single-use plastic menace there.
“We could see how quickly such a beautiful place could be ruined. It was something we had already gone through in Kerala,” she says.
The trip was a catalyst. Back home, she and her friends — all students of the College of Architecture in Thiruvananthapuram — began experimenting with recycling.
Their first venture, SopStore, looked at ways to turn plastic waste into furniture and decor. Backed by the Kerala Startup Mission, the research continues even today. But the young architects quickly realised that their biggest challenge was not technical, but cultural.
The need for a platform to spark conversations thus became clear. Maatam, which means change, seeks to become one.
It is at once a festival, a collective, and an evolving tribe of about 20 collaborators with a common aim: to connect sustainable vendors with customers, to raise awareness about climate change, and to reuse existing resources, including buildings left to rot.
Lila Art Cafe experiment
For its first fest, the group zeroed in on a locked colonial house right in the heart of Fort Kochi’s heritage zone. The owner, they learned, had nearly given up on it.
“She had an emotional connection to the place and didn’t want to open it again after an earlier event failed,” Visakha remembers. “We explained our idea about curating an exhibition with sustainable vendors, and finally, she agreed.”
Over 35 vendors signed up. Workshops, talks, and music filled the programme. The venue itself, cleaned and lightly restored by the team, became central to the storytelling.
Visitors walked through the space, encountering everything from recycled trophies to sustainable gifting options. The building’s true potential was out there for everyone to see and experience. Not long after this exhibition, it was transformed into what is now the Lila Art Cafe.
From flea market to hub
Currently, Maatam is planning its next fest for early 2026, likely at the old GCD building on Marine Drive Road, a site which Visakha describes as “a really great space, architecture-wise, but forgotten”.
“Using forgotten spaces reinforces the idea of reusing existing resources, and not building something new for the sake of it,” she says.
Maatam is also preparing to anchor itself in a permanent community centre. The idea is to create a hub where sustainability becomes an everyday practice, not an occasional festival theme.
“Say, for example, you bring a bag of clothes,” Visakha explains. “We will guide you on ways in which it can be repurposed. There will be a multidisciplinary team: architects, environmentalists, and designers. Even for things like setting up a garden, you will find help here.”
Such a hub, she hopes, can connect dots between government, institutions, companies and the public.