- Area: 1233 m²
- Year: 2016
-
Photographs:Randhir Singh
-
Manufacturers: Häcker, Mitsubishi Electric
-
Lead Architect: Kapil Shokeen
Text description provided by the architects. The Apartment and Trees residences are designed as a unit of multi-family dwellings for diplomatic missions in New Delhi.
Each of the two duplex apartments offer opportunities for private family functions to be separated sectionally from the more public spaces in each residence. The building is envisioned as a pavilion in a garden oriented to views of the surrounding trees, with limestone floors polished to reflect the soft natural light. A series of balconies and terraces on the periphery of the apartment, nestled in the branches of the old Neem trees, provide space for private contemplation and act as a thermal buffer against the heat.
The interior spaces echo variations in the quality of light, and the color of the surrounding foliage - the only urban link to a fast disappearing landscape in New Delhi. The simple volumes reference the early modernist projects built in the sixties in New Delhi, when a frugal use of material and heightened awareness of climatic considerations were an architectural norm.
In making the inhabitants aware of a sense of the elemental, the spatial composition expresses an architecture that reflects a sensitive response to the local climate.
The choice of grit finish (a composition of crushed Indian White marble, Kota stone and Jaisalmer stone) on the facade enables us to collaborate with local craftsmen to create an economical and resilient skin for the architecture.
