Safdarjung Residence
The brief was to create a modern residential facade for a 450 sq.yd. plot sitting on a busy main road. Since the house has a 50 feet frontage, and its proportion to its height was not desirable, the idea was to introduce different elements which brought in emphasis to its verticality.
Location : New Delhi, India
Area : 450 sq.yd.
Status : Ongoing
Also, being a west facing plot, all necessary precaution to reduce direct sunlight exposure and heating up was a priority. The boundary wall is designed with planters and a guard room to the left, a pedestrian entry gate in the center and the vehicular access from the 3 gates in the right.
The material palatte chosen is minimal, an off-white and a grey Italian marble cladding fused with metal, glass and wooden elements. The doors and windows are sound proof, insulated UPVC systems with wooden frames and dark grey panels.
The right side of the facade hosts the service balcony which had to be hidden and therefore a shading element with wooden fins and marble louvers framed with MS is created and replicated on each floor. The rotatable MS frames with perforated wooden screen placed at all levels helps to alter the amount of desired sunlight entry into the house as per the season. Privacy of ground floor specifically had to be addressed and hence the balcony parapet walls are mostly solid and other vertical elements like fins and perforated screens made of wood and MS were introduced. The balcony is cut at each level to provide a sense of volume where required also enhancing the verticality of the facade. The roof is split in two levels and treated with different materials to break a very long monotonous projection.
