A Critique of my own work

The Delhi Supertel, A critique

Architecture with intentions of uplifting a neighbourhood always finds its key followers in both money minting developers and the architecture fraternity, for their own reasons. Built over the ruins of one of Delhi’s first state owned co-operative store, the Super Bazaar, this projects realizes the social potential of its location in the neighbourhood of Connaught Place and cashes in on the possibilities of commerce that it can generate. Architecture for everyone’s good. This building is a confident stroke of an experiment, boldly seeking attention at the top of its voice, maybe not the usual thing to do for a private building in Delhi.

The main hotel block is neatly stacked up to form a 13 storey background block, seemingly seeking attention on the last leg of the drive on the outer ring road before the real multi-storey lane, the Barakhamba Road.  The hotel block appears to be in hangover of the 1960s high modernist wave of buildings in Delhi, exploring concrete and the forms it can yield. Almost resembling the NDMC building by  PN Mathur, the curve of the front block appears to be getting completed only once you look at the building from the side.  And only then the intention of respect to Connaught Place across the road is suddenly revealed. The colonnade facade of the exhibition block almost ‘looks up’ to across the outer circle Connaught colonnade.

Most of the ground floor is open to public access, with the central focal point being a open to sky courtyard with public functions enclosing it. The range of stepped seating spaces all around it dotted with shaded trees make this place come alive with people every evening. The sequence of buffers from the outer circle, the pavement with subway entries, the row of big trees, the shaded colonnade extending out of the public art gallery and the gallery blocks with a demarcated entrance into the courtyard, all contribute to an effective transition between two open spaces, the interior far more comfortable than the external street. This treatment of the edge, distinct but very very easy, a feature one hardly sees in most public buildings in Delhi.

This is a luxury hotel that takes the city, and serves it on a plate for a guest to feast their eyes on. An inkling of what seems to be the typical Colonial mindset of viewing all the action from a distance, a protected position, the hotel offers to the guest the best opportunity to view the public access ground floor open space and the choice to engage with it at will. However, this connection of the guest and the public courtyard has turned out fairly weak, with only some visual linkage drawn from the more public restaurant, grill and swimming pool areas, while most of the rooms hardly seem to establish any connection.

With all the rooms facing the sprawling Central Park at Connaught Place, west facing however, it clearly is a bargain that the architect makes negotiating with the site’s strengths and weaknesses where every guest can sense his intention, but really wishes for better heat gain and glare mitigation.  The room corridors on the east side have full glazing, giving guests sweeping views of nothing but a drab grey concrete office building, almost compelling them to wonder why buildings just need to have back edges, that have a responsibility to connect their surroundings. Maybe something that seemed to work in plan but never looked at in section.