THROUGH THE HALLOWED ARCHES

A soft minimal abode that calms your senses and hugs you with a feeling of comfort, the renovated interiors of this apartment is an exercise in reimagining spaces

 Project: House of 91 Arches, Delhi; Architects: Design Doodle Studio, Delhi 

Located on the fifth floor of a quaint housing society in a residential neighbourhood of Dwarka in Delhi, the House of 91 Arches is an apartment with an old world charm.

It offers serene views of the forest on one side, which is a visual relief from the usual concrete cityscape of Dwarka. The architects were commissioned by a lovely young couple to do the interiors of 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! The apartment was in complete shambles as it had been unoccupied for a very long time, and hence had become home to flocks of pigeons, wasps, spiders etc.

The initial vision for this project came very naturally as the clients' sensibilities were aligned with the architects. What everyone wanted to collectively create was a minimalist, breathable home that could be an escape from the bustling city and soothing to the eyes.

Initially, the apartment's layout was not planned very well; 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 their functionality and maximise natural light and ventilation throughout. The emphasis was to declutter and reorganise the spaces to make perfect sense for the users.