AN OPEN HOUSE
Breaking down walls so that one room seamlessly moves into the other, defines this colourful and creative third floor apartment in south Delhi’s New Friends Colony
Set in New Friends Colony in New Delhi, A 39 is a contemporary dwelling, reflecting on the family’s legacy. The 5,000 sq ft third-floor apartment is renovated, extended and punctured to connect with a timber cabin on the rooftop. This is flanked by a formal garden on one side and a water body with a fountain on the other. The client belongs to an old Rajasthani family with a lot of ancestral heirlooms such as art, artefacts, silverware and glassware. The brief was to take the overall theme of a typical builder apartment, where materials that feel expensive and rich are heightened and exaggerated. An Aramula mirror, the traditional mirror from Kerala used by south Indian dancers, adorns one wall. A vaulted brass ceiling and extensive use of timber furniture hark back to older times. Classic materials such as brass and timber are turned into their exaggerated versions to fit in the modern context. The space is impeccably executed with eclectic coloured elements.
DECONSTRUCTING THE LAYOUT
The apartment has been deconstructed to form an open plan space, where the living, dining and formal living space merge into one entity, but, with enough separation to have a distinct identity. The central lobby configures the linear plan into a private area and guest space. The dining acts as a neutral space, with the bedrooms beyond it. The dining has a vaulted brass ceiling and solid rosewood dining table. The table with brass acts as a giant sculpture, which anchors the space visually. The dining space is the central core that ties everything together and overlooks the family living space. The house also has an inseparable relationship with the landscape, opening out to a formal garden on one side and an informal garden with a giant water body on the other. The water body is not a traditional swimming pool but a massive metal tub like the hull of a ship with a squiggly industrial fountain.
SHARING BEDROOM SECRETS
The master bedroom has a sophisticated, monastery-like aesthetic in timber with a sinuous sloping roof. On the oth-
er hand, the children’s rooms ( children aged eight and 12) are more playful and have a young and innocent vibe to them. They are designed to evoke creativity and a sense of exploration. The daughter’s room has a blackboard that slides through, celebrating the activity of writing or learning. The room has a Minnie Mouse animated bed and a triangular paper folded false ceiling with hidden lights treated with printed and coloured strands of wool. The son’s room is layered with inventive perforated cardboard that can be used as a tag board or to put art or a thought noodle, making it a remarkable dynamic element in the room.
FOR THE LOVE OF WOOD
An animated timber and metal spiral staircase was designed to create a statement while connecting to the timber hut on the terrace. Three kinds of timber, that is, maple, teak and rosewood, contrasting in colour, character and texture are used to construct the hut on top. The comfortable abode terminates on the terrace with a giant hut which showcases great attention to detail. The cabin also has a skylight that allows the light to filter in but it also deconstructs the house, reminding one of the form of the hut. Colour and material fill the visual palette, mostly monochromatic, stemming from the nature of materials themselves, such as natural teakwood on the inside of the monolithic hut with a herringbone pattern timber floor. The house is a very special, done as a tasteful assemblage of various themes. The idea of timber, the garden, water bodies and art and artefacts narrates a story in at this unique home.