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Cuboid House
Cuboid House
New Delhi, India
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Other Projects by Amit Khanna Design Associates
Cuboid House
New Delhi, India
Type
YEAR
2012
SIZE
10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft
The project attempts to demonstrate the possibility of affirming some
‘principles’; some elementary yet precise rules. A series of spatial
sequences are structured around minimal architectural events distributed
throughout the house. These events are meant to be merely the background
for the life of the future occupants and therefore recede into an almost
imperceptible variation of light and shadow.
Developer-driven apartment blocks have completely overtaken the
immediate context and most of urban Delhi. These apartment blocks
typically occupy the complete permissible envelope and then embellish
the peripheral walls with whatever is currently most fashionable. The
resulting urban condition is one dominated by forced facades that are
50ft/15m tall, punctuated only with unusable three feet balconies and
large expanses of inoperable glass with little or no protection from the
climate.
In contrast, the Cuboid House strategically optimises all of the area
permissible by local code, but redistributes it amongst the various floor
levels. The lower service floors are extended to the perimeter to allow
for a larger ground floor and to maximise the parking at the road level.
However instead of stacking upper plans above each other, the building
steps away dramatically as it rises, giving way to a series of decks that
open up to views on the north-east.
This strategy helps bring light deep into what is essentially, a narrow
thin building. To further add to the luminosity of the interior spaces, two
light wells are placed in the main living space. Equipped with operable
windows, they not only bring light, but also draw out air from the floors
and vent from the terrace. The deep recesses for the windows and large
overhangs temper the fierce climate of Delhi and recall sustainable
building traditions, while allowing for views from within. Two local stones,
one grey (cudappah), the other sandy brown (jaisalmer teak), are used to
emphasize the cubic volumes that give this house its name and form its
most distinctive visible element.
‘principles’; some elementary yet precise rules. A series of spatial
sequences are structured around minimal architectural events distributed
throughout the house. These events are meant to be merely the background
for the life of the future occupants and therefore recede into an almost
imperceptible variation of light and shadow.
Developer-driven apartment blocks have completely overtaken the
immediate context and most of urban Delhi. These apartment blocks
typically occupy the complete permissible envelope and then embellish
the peripheral walls with whatever is currently most fashionable. The
resulting urban condition is one dominated by forced facades that are
50ft/15m tall, punctuated only with unusable three feet balconies and
large expanses of inoperable glass with little or no protection from the
climate.
In contrast, the Cuboid House strategically optimises all of the area
permissible by local code, but redistributes it amongst the various floor
levels. The lower service floors are extended to the perimeter to allow
for a larger ground floor and to maximise the parking at the road level.
However instead of stacking upper plans above each other, the building
steps away dramatically as it rises, giving way to a series of decks that
open up to views on the north-east.
This strategy helps bring light deep into what is essentially, a narrow
thin building. To further add to the luminosity of the interior spaces, two
light wells are placed in the main living space. Equipped with operable
windows, they not only bring light, but also draw out air from the floors
and vent from the terrace. The deep recesses for the windows and large
overhangs temper the fierce climate of Delhi and recall sustainable
building traditions, while allowing for views from within. Two local stones,
one grey (cudappah), the other sandy brown (jaisalmer teak), are used to
emphasize the cubic volumes that give this house its name and form its
most distinctive visible element.
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