Art gallery in New Delhi, India

Anno : 2013

progetto ristrutturazione.

Area: 300 sqm

The project intention was to respect at the best the existing structure of this interesting building made in the 40’s in reinforced concrete. This is the time of brutalism in architecture and of the proudness of the use of concrete. Here it is manifested trough the use of floor slabs protruding in the facade: the structural grid is shown insisting on the horizontality of it. The main gate is the contemporary response of this idea with a brutal material such as iron not painted, the same material that is the reinforcement element used inside the concrete. Same origin ans same antithetical attitude.

The entrance space at ground floor of Shivam house has been simplified, the old bricks are left exposed and simple ceiling lamp,black cylinder with black exposed pipes, are the only intervention on it. At the back of the space, opposite to the entrance and visible from the main gate there is a metal wall, a folded panel used as a screen and to locate plants and candles.

At the first floor the space of the gallery is anticipated by a delicate touch on the stairs landing area:

here a folded metal sheet is painted white and shaped to create a bench-sitting area. Intersecting the bench, just as we arrive from the stairs, we have a view on an industrial terrace, that we see from glass wall and a teak wood framed door . The white layer of epoxy resin covers, as a carpet, the floor and the bench, leaving the outdoor upper part of the walls exposed rough and with old different plaster interventions visible like a random pattern of shadows.

Te interior has been conceived with two separated functional areas, and a main hall for exhibition with natural all along the facade side. The windows frame follow the free space left by the structure and with horizontal pivot leave the view free from impediment. The structural grid of the ceiling slab is left free and exposed in the hall and the lightings fit inside it.

The two functional areas have false ceiling, for the ducts and conditioning of the space. One space right on the left side of the entrance is a deposit area, with in front a room ,open on the main hall, for projection and videos. A big opening on the external wall was made up for the possibility to raise big sculpture on this floor. The other space is at the end of the gallery, that is developed around the central stairs volume. This is on the facade side and locates the office area. Here the neuralgic system of the ducts is exposed and a transparent glass wall and door, divide the space in two. White and mustard color linen curtains screen the view.

The furniture were custom designed and for the collaborator space we have revisited an old furniture of the 50’s with a shocking colored laminate on top. The kitchenette is custom made in lacquered wood and black granite for the basin top. A recessed light increase the depths of the space.

The toilets are simple and the cement and plaster are left exposed, revealed naked to the view.

As a contrast the furniture are white lacquered and the white marble of the bench, give a sense of neat and clean space.