This home surprises with the unexpected spaces that emerge when a 70 year old colonial home is re-imagined for contemporary living. A warren of disconnected, badly lit spaces is transformed into a light- filled energised abode by stripping away inessentials and revealing the beauty and volumes of the old structure.
The addition of a more transparent ‘skin’ that projects into the landscaped garden creates a permeable transition to the outdoors and lush treescape. It serves as an example of a home that deftly fuses the past and future in a contemporary language that is respectful of history.
The site is located in one section of a sprawling one acre home in Civil Lines in Delhi. As typical of old homes and multi-generational families, the private family domain was a cluttered badly-lit set of four rooms shared by a family of three.
The clients had additional functional, storage and privacy requirements. An additional bay was added by projecting into the garden which accommodated a piano room, master bath and study. The existing ceilings were stripped away to reveal brick vaulted ceilings and create a mezzanine floor playroom as well as a double height living and sleeping spaces. This interior radically transforms a 60 years old home into a cutting-edge contemporary space which expresses simplicity and frugality.
The innovative interlocking of double height volumes create multiple overlapping spaces that flow seamlessly into each other visually, expanding and connecting.
These can be separated functionally through sliding screens and wooden louvered blinds. The ‘transparent box’ that connects to the garden is a composition of lines that visualizes the geometry of the older structure. The addition of a reflecting pool, water cascade and pergola alongside a striated composition of stone screen walls, Delhi quartzite wall and metal columns complete the garden and create outdoor living spaces.
The material palette of brick tiles, cork flooring, stone and walnut wood respects the homes’ colonial past while being of today.
A very detailed approach to storage accommodates all requirements while retaining an airy lightness to the interior. The family delightedly acknowledges the transformation in their lives through their reinvented home: striations across time!
Swanzal kak Kapoor
Co-Founder, Saka Studio, Gurgaon
Swanzal Kak Kapoor is the design principal and co- founder at Saka studio, based in Gurgaon. She has 19 years of experience of working in a diversity of contexts and scales and believes in an architecture of resonance and a culture of social responsibility. She won the Shared Runner Up Award in the Excellence- Residential upto 3000 sq ft Interior category in WADE ASIA 2019.
*Winning Project-Most Sustainable Design
Project Details
Name: Home in Civil Lines
Location: Delhi
Area: 1 acre