Apartment 789

Apartment 789 interior

One enters into a forecourt then walks into the exterior of the house and realizes that the whole house is actively set around an internal courtyard. All the rooms open up into this courtyard and on fine weather the house becomes a continuous veranda. The courtyard is a blinded on one side from voyeurism by wall, part of which is structural and supports the hanging library. The strategic location of the library allows the lady of the house to look over the whole house. The atrium like entry is also the gallery wall to accommodate the art collection of the client. The house is formless-its edges are blurred- it's a continuous interplay of the exterior and the interior. The geometry of the house is a geometry of experience, and the experiences are rich with genetic strains off our past, our culture, and specially the glamorous eventful Mughal heritage. Daily life has become so busy in the city that at the end of the day one can only enjoy his own house. Also one is often asking people over more in the evening than day time. Mughal gardens and pavilions were not only designed for use during day but also to be enjoyed at nights.

The project is inspired from this unique nature of "night time" use of garden and spaces has been designed with a deliberate fragrance map and also illumination map which transform the project at night into a celebration. Different scented flowers are situated at different locations, some to relax, some to enchanted, some to excite.

The illumination map (lighting design) has many layers, to accommodate different scale of events and the way the interior space as well as the landscape is lip, it becomes a continuous and harmonious relationship-spanning from relaxation to celebration. The different water bodies have a sound map creating different kind of sound resulting a different and deliberate ambience. It engages all our senses and becomes more than space and form. It is not only seen but also felt, heard and experienced. It links to history and culture at an extremely transformed level befitting for our times and not only at elemental or pattern level.