The Defence Colony residence derives its material and tectonic vocabulary from tombs and palaces – fragments of 15th century Islamic medieval architecture – that anchor the landscape of Delhi. Built with load-bearing masonry walls, and designed to withstand the exigencies of a Zone 4 seismic location, the residence creates its sense of architectural and urban identity by adhering to one primary material – moulded red brick. The mass of the bricks is expressed both in the thickness of the walls, as well as in the surface articulation, keeping the house thermally temperate, and endowing it with a rich earthen hue.
This is simply a hand-crafted, modern house, seeking to restore the relationship of inhabitants to their fundamental material context.

Link al proyecto completo en Vir Mueller Architects
Ficha del Proyecto
Project:
Defence Colony Residence, New Delhi, India
Client:
Saran and Puneet Dhupia
Total covered area:
11,000 sq.ft.
Design:
2009
Construction:
2009 – 2011
Vir Mueller Architects:
Christine Mueller, Pankaj Vir Gupta, Sarah Gill, Harsh Vardhan Jain, Saurabh Jain, Kai Pedersen, Hillary Collins, Helena Westerlind, Everett Hollander
Structural Engineer:
Himanshu Parikh
Contractor:
Macro Constructions (Mr Subhash Chakravarty)
Photographs:
Andre J. Fanthome