Anagram Architects

Outré House

Outré House
© André J Fanthome

OUTRÉ HOUSE

Anagram Architects

DESIGN TEAM
Vaibhav Dimri, Madhav Raman, Ayush Prakash

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
Bmsf Design Consultants Pvt. Ltd

MODEL MAKER
Inhouse

OTHER CONSULTANTS
Electrical Squaretech Engineers

CLIENT
Satish Garg

MANUFACTURERS
Ardex, Saint-gobain

SITE SUPERVISION
Anagram Architects

PLUMBING
Dsr Engineering Services

CIVIL CONTRACTORS
Adhunik Infrastructure

PHOTOGRAPHS
Andre J Fanthome

AREA
1356 m²

YEAR
2014

LOCATION
New Delhi, India

CATEGORY
Houses

Text description provided by architect.

Large urban residences are registries as well as articulations of filial, financial and aspirational value. 

Catering as much to their inhabitants’ needs as to their whims, they are, simultaneously, spaces of private indulgence as also objects of a more socially motivated aesthetic expression. Little wonder then that the luxurious and the exotic are sought in various ways from their design.

Outré House
© André J Fanthome
Outré House
© André J Fanthome
Outré House
© André J Fanthome

As processes of globalised supply and demand, impact construction, fabrication and procurement logistics, greater value seems to be drawn from the extrinsic or exotic in terms of materiality and the machined in terms of form and technology.

Systems of architectural production also appear to have cleaved apart the relationships between making and material while form seems to rely heavily on geometries that ease the application of industrially produced and pre­engineered surface renders.

Outré House
© André J Fanthome
Outré House
© André J Fanthome

Ironically, the search for the unusual in contemporary urban architecture seems akin to a walk in a “walled garden” of ubiquitous aesthetics. OUTRÉ HOUSE attempts a rediscovery of the singular and distinctive, specifically, in the working of humble materials; on site and by hand. It attempts to do so by re­centring the umbilical bond between making and material.

From bespoke concrete formwork and poured flooring to curved joinery and rhythmically notched masonry, the design releases its handmade construction from the shackles of the straight line, giving it flight.

Outré House
© André J Fanthome
Outré House
© André J Fanthome

It, thus, allows crafted details to overlay each other and to swarm all over the design rather than be restricted merely to points of material intersection.

Induced by the city grid and its volumetric controls, the urban residential form most commonly, and perhaps most simplistically, resolves into rectilinearity.

Outré House
© André J Fanthome
Outré House
© André J Fanthome

This box­form resolution of the program unavoidably results in spatial compartmentalisation, on top of which real estate imperatives encourage apartment stacks of clunkily laid out cookie­cutter floor plates.

The curvilinearity of the building creates more fluid spatial formations and helps create smoothly transitioning spaces for social convivialities between the members of the resident family.

Outré House
© André J Fanthome
Outré House
© André J Fanthome

OUTRÉ HOUSE also rekindles the relationship between the crafted and the natural. The warp of the handmade and weft of the verdant further position this design away from the industrial.

The interweaving of precisely turned wooden louvres and vertically installed planters allows the vegetal to enmesh with the structural, coalescing into internal and rooftop gardens. This coupling of craft and foliage also underlines the bespoke floral chandelier designed by Mann Singh for the lounge.

Outré House
© André J Fanthome


Outré House
Basement Plan
Outré House
Ground & Second Floor Plan
Outré House
Floor Paln
Outré House
Floor Plan
Outré House
Floor Plan
Outré House
Section


Outré House
Elevation
Outré House
Elevation

Anagram Architects
T +91 11 46019103
Anagram Architects
K-110, Basement, Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi, Delhi 110016, India