South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre, New Delhi

Completed: July 2005

Location: New Delhi, India

Site area: 50 sqm ; Covered area: 172 sqm.

SAHRDC’s office is located in a tight plotted site in south Delhi. With only 50 sqm. plot area, the brief was to generate maximum usable area within a limited budget. The porous and playful external facade is designed to provide a degree of acoustic and visual privacy from the street activity while intimately engaging the street corner. Simultaneously it ensures that the bugger bay is well ventilated and yet shaded so as to reduce the amount of heat transmitted to the workspace. A 6-brick module laid in staggered courses created twirling vertical stacks and an undulating surface. The construction of the screen wall was a result of a 5-week process of innovating masonry techniques on site. From verification of plumbness to the structural bonding of the brick courses, methods of brick laying were devised through a deep on-site collaboration between the masons and the architects.