The Aqua Villa located in the heart of Lutyens Delhi has been designed as a sensitive building, sitting in harmony with its surroundings. The design is an outcome of overlap and interaction of the design parameters of movement patterns, solar studies, soft-subtle transition zones, interaction of built and landscape and of the old and the new.

“Aqua Villa” is located in the “humid subtropical” and “semi-arid” weather of Delhi. To create new, it’s very important to know the past. Traditional building typologies of this region were studied and as a result a water body was introduced in the design interlocking with the form to create evaporative cooling.

The design form emerges and flows out of the existing building. The lines of the first floor bridge connection to the existing house emanate and disperse on the site. The villa is designed in a way that it continues from the existing building and then starts to respond to the program of the new building, allowing a connection for the grandparents to visit their grandkids.

The relationship of the built to landscape was very important in the design. The interior spaces flow out onto the landscape and on the upper floors deep luxurious sit out areas overlook the pool. The space allocation has been done in a way that there is gradation from public to private. The ground floor has been designed as semi private while the first floor is completely private. In an event of a gathering the spaces on the ground floor open up and work in coherence with each other to create one grand experiential space.

Solar studies have been an integral part of the design process to achieve ambient light and shadow condition on the sundeck and inside the villa. Balcony cantilever depth depending on summer sun angle to shade direct sun light and to let the winter sun in during the cold winter season.