This New Delhi home hugs you with a feeling of comfort

Design Doodle Studio attains balance and harmony through materiality and colour.

Curated by: Rupali Sebastian
Photographs: Studio Recall; courtesy Design Doodle Studio

The site

The project is an apartment situated in a residential neighbourhood of Dwarka in New Delhi. Located on the fifth floor of a quaint housing society with an old world charm, the apartment offers serene views of the forest towards one side, which is a visual relief from the usual concrete cityscape of Dwarka. “We were commissioned by a lovely young couple to do the interiors for their dream home. Ironically, the condition in which they had bought the apartment was far from a dream. It was 1,500 sq ft of neglect and was in complete shambles as it had been unoccupied for a very long time,” reveal architects Vijay K Kaundal and Maha K of Design Doodle Studio.

The design intent

The architects’ initial vision for the project aligned beautifully with the clients’: a minimalistic, breathable home that would be soothing to the eyes and an escape from the bustling city. “We are strong believers of a Hygge lifestyle and it reflects in our design approach as well,” says the duo. “We wanted this home to evoke a feeling within anyone who walks in, a feeling of warmth and contentment. We achieved that by creating an uncluttered minimal design using soft colours and natural textures. We also took hints from our client’s personalities, who are a delightful couple with very kind hearts, and we wanted their home to be a reflection of those qualities as well.”

The intervention

The apartment’s layout initially was not very well planned, the spaces were very cramped with a lot of internal divisions and awkwardly located structural elements. The aim was to open up the spaces as much as possible to optimise the functionality of the spaces and maximise natural light and ventilation throughout. Emphasis was to declutter and reorganise the spaces to make perfect sense for the users.

The material and colour palettes

Since the objective was a minimal aesthetic, the architects’ primary focus was to attain balance and harmony through materiality and colour. Thus the hints of soft peaches, that act like a breath of fresh air in an otherwise neutral palette of butter white. Playful compositions using colour-blocked arched forms make an appearance in almost every corner of the home through different materials, colours and textures. “Every element in this home was designed with a simplistic and straightforward approach to make it a home that’s easy to maintain and hence effortless to live in,” elucidates Maha. The use of materials like natural wood, textured fabrics, indoor plants, bamboo and jute accents, all contribute towards a calm and cosy feeling in the space.

The challenges

The challenge lay in dealing with the existing site conditions as it was an old construction with faulty plumbing lines and flimsy extensions in the structure. “We had to reinforce the structure in some areas to make it structurally sound and redo the complete services,” explains Maha. “Another unusual challenge was to keep the pigeons out! They had been living there for far too long!”

The highlights

“The highlight of the project is the multiple arches that adorn the apartment in various forms and sizes,” says Vijay. “The arches came into being during the planning stage when we wanted to carve out an entrance lounge. This space was created by strategically designing this permeable division through a continuous archway that wrapped around the entrance lobby and seamlessly concealed the oddly located column and beams which were a hindrance in the layout earlier. This solution to conceal a site flaw ended up being the very soul of our design,” he smiles. “Everything else fell into place organically.”