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An open house

Akshat Bhatt
Principal Architect Architecture Discipline, Delhi www.architecturediscipline.com
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

For the love of wood
