{"id":14899,"date":"2022-01-12T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.biltrax.com\/?p=14899"},"modified":"2022-03-08T15:50:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T10:20:10","slug":"safdarjang-house-an-architectural-language-of-geometric-voids-and-dramatic-forms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sh040.global.temp.domains\/~vitamind\/biltrax.mediacontent\/safdarjang-house-an-architectural-language-of-geometric-voids-and-dramatic-forms\/","title":{"rendered":"Safdarjang House: An architectural language of geometric voids and dramatic forms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An ode to Kahn, the Safdarjang House seeks attention with a circular aperture inside a square brick screen. Designed by AKDA<\/a>, this 800 sq.m. apartment building is built by a family for private use in a quiet residential street of New Delhi in 2020. The facade is a portrayal of the idea of architecture as imagined by Brutalist Architect Louis Kahn and his take on the architecture of the Indian subcontinent.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Paul Goldberger famously surmised Kahn\u2019s work, \u201cKahn\u2019s architecture does not cuddle you. It is not soft, and it is not whimsical. He designed somber, poetic buildings of stone and steel and wood and glass, and the best of them are brooding and deep, like a Rothko painting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working within a post-colonial fabric, ended by Le Corbusier\u2019s flexibility and regional modernism, Louis Kahn\u2019s output may be relatively minute, but it had a disproportionate impact on the practice of architecture. His sombre, monolithic forms as seen in IIM Ahmedabad and the Bangladesh Assembly at Dhaka, combined the robust strength of local materials to evoke a mystical yet calm outlook. The act of puncturing seemingly vast brick and concrete walls with soaring geometric voids and creating dramatic shadows was crucial to his form-making. These voids were often circular; vast arches pure in their conceptualization and perfect in their execution, a testament of Indian craftsmanship. Safdarjang House, thus is an essence of his architectural intent about the meaning of architecture as conveyed through form. <\/p>\n\n\n\n