Designing Urban Sanctuaries: Bringing Nature into City Homes
In dense city plots, we don't just build walls. We carve out spaces for light and greenery. Our approach focuses on creating private courtyards and terraces that breathe, even in the heart of Delhi and Gurugram.
A rendering of a residence where we carved out open spaces to bring in light and nature. This view shows a pathway flanked by a sliver of green, leading towards an open-air court that connects different parts of the home.
A detail of the facade for an urban residence, showing how we "scoop out" volumes to create sheltered balconies and terraces. These spaces become small, private gardens, providing residents with a connection to the outdoors.
A sectional drawing of a penthouse project in Gurugram. The design focuses on creating double-height volumes and seamless connections to outdoor terraces, maximizing light, air, and green spaces even high above the city.
About Urban Sanctuaries: Carving Out Nature in the City
Designing for urban density is not just about adding balconies. It is about re-orienting your floor plan to prioritize natural light and airflow. We use physical scale models to test how shadows fall across your courtyard at different times of the day, ensuring that even a small green pocket gets enough sunlight to actually thrive.
When we take on a project in a dense area like Gurugram or South Delhi, the biggest constraint is usually the proximity of neighboring walls. Instead of fighting for space, we look for ways to pull nature inside the envelope. By "scooping" out a central volume, we create a vertical light well that connects the lower floors to the roof. This is not just an aesthetic choice. It is a passive cooling strategy.
We map the sun path during our initial model-making phase, which dictates where we place the green terrace or the skylight. For us, a successful urban home should feel quieter and cooler than the street outside. We use raw materials like exposed concrete and local brick to ground the structure, avoiding the polished, artificial finish that dominates most city developments. Whether it is a penthouse in DLF Magnolias or a standalone villa, the goal is always the same: a home that functions like an ecosystem.
Studio HKAD
I'm Hitesh. My studio is where we constantly question the standard concrete box approach, experimenting with rammed earth and exposed concrete to create homes that truly breathe. We spend months on physical models, not just to show you a design, but to understand how your house will feel, season after season.
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