Reviving the historic tile patterns!

We often look at beautiful architectural magazines and think, wow that's really neat! Theoretically we were crystal clear with our vision that we had to provide a contemporary dwelling within a historic building but how were we going to achieve this practically. I trained to be a conservation professional in Scotland, it most definitely broadened my perspective to the levels of interventions that could be done in historic buildings. But I'd say conservation in the European context is a far less challenging when you can go to a special store and buy everything off the shelf whether it is lime plaster, heritage tiles, or types of limewash. This project made us go back to the drawing board multiple times to understand what the source of most things was, first year architecture and building construction was resonating with us which not only made the project interesting but also thoroughly challenging. Here I had at my hand a Grade II listed haveli, yet it had to be converted to a comfortable dwelling unit for 2010, air-conditioning provided for, concealed cabling for electrical and plumbing. One such concern was the introduction of contemporary bathroom in the historic building.

While at one hand, we were able to solve the spatial, plumbing and electrical concern, the second most important concern was the choice of finishes and fittings! Someone once told me when you do an interior project, the most important job is the selection of the tiles, once that is done the project is half done. Now most people say we are lucky to be in the heart of Delhi, where every thing is easily available off the shelf and we have lots of skilled craftsmen. But finding those shops and craftsmen is like looking for a pin in a haystack. Our Client is more that eager to source everything from his "friends and relatives" who import things from China. Words like local and sustainable were too distant and meaningless for him, marble inlay, gold leafing, Italian tiles and Chinese replicas of Versace tiles fascinated him more. NITCO was inferior, stone too old fashioned and the brief the bathroom has to be "royal".

The job of the conservation architect is a tough one, especially in a project like this when one has to begin socialising the client with design ideologies materials and finishes that are in keeping with the character and significance of the historic structure that he calls home. Our decision to use only home made lime mortar made it easier to reject a lot of the fancy material like vitrified tiles as they weren't compatible to our mortar. Our research had yielded that in buildings of a similar age in the walled city, the walls were generally clad with a dado of 4" X 4" what were then known as "Italian tiles".

4"X 4" Italian tiles used for dado in one of the grandest havelis of old Delhi, The Chunamal Haveli is used as a design reference.

The original Victorian tiles used in Chunamal Haveli, Chandni Chowk Delhi

We finally narrowed down on these 4" X 4" handmade ceramic tiles, were what we wanted to use. Now no shop in Delhi was selling them off the shelf since they were out of "fashion". Someone told us that there was this one shop in Sundernagar Market, which would probably stock these however when we visited them, the shop didn't exist anymore. We then heard that Raja Tiles in Noida, one of the largest manufacturer of handmade tiles in Delhi had a factory in Sector 16 and we went there to ask him if he was ready to custom make a design for us. However he declined and then someone suggested we look at Jaipur, so we spoke to some manufacturers of Jaipur Pottery. The big manufacturers were ofcourse not interested in our minuscule order and said we had to chose from their portfolio of designs only. Finally through just dial we found a small time manufacturer, Rachit in a place called khurja a 100kms from Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, who was just starting out and was willing to experiment with us.

We researched  patterns of tiles in the early 20th Century and came up with some typical designs. We were able to trace these out on a 1:1 scale to explain to Rachit what we wanted! So we set off for Khurja with our designs to see his unit and order our final tiles. A treacherous 3 hr road trip on a   dusty and bumpy road  in 45 degrees heat led us to Rachits manufacturing unit on the banks of a canal in the small town of Khurja, as we entered through the gates, what we saw amazed us. That's when we knew the effort was worth it. We showed Rachit what we wanted and he like it and wanted to try his hand at something new so together in that small unit we began to develop a product that has left us both extremely proud!

Detailed 1:1 scaled drawings were prepared for developing the designs for the tiles.

Small scale industry in Khurja, UP where hand made ceramic tiles are still made, an enthusiastic entrepreneur agreed to made our designs

Hand made and embossed tiled being prepared at the unit for export purposes

It took some experimentation both on our part as well as on Rachits part to reach the final product. Twice the total batch was spoilt, due to over baking. Although there were delays but it was a blessing in disguise as it gave our lime plaster all the more time to dry out.

Special dyes were prepared based on our design for the skirting tiles

After several failures finally Rachit got the top rail perfect exact as per our drawing

The final product arrives, perfect in specification to our designs

Variation of the same design to be of the dado

September 2014 The bathroom under construction

November 2014 The tiles finally installed on the courtyard wall

Making it happen: A Contemporary Kitchen made in lime mortar!

Designing a house for a marwari joint family, one of the biggest challenges was the need for incorporating a large kitchen and wash, a kitchen that was to be used by the ladies of the house as well as their helpers. It had to be modern, contemporary state of the art, like most of their relatives living  in the posh south Delhi colonies was the brief given to us.

There were two adjacent rooms, one was now being used as a store and office, while the inner room was almost cordoned off as it was in a severe state of structural distress with a large crack and risen floor as well as several cracks on the walls. We set out on the task of joining up these rooms to make the kitchen and wash area, there was a lot of work required beginning with firstly structurally strengthening the structure, relaying the lime concrete flooring, repairing the cracks and then retrofitting it with modern amenities. The most difficult part was agreeing on the design, which changed at least 7 times as the owner and his wife didnt seem to agree on how they wanted the kitchen to function, finally we put our foot down and decided it for them.

October 2010, Room No 1 was used as a store cum office

October 2010 Room No 2 was ridden with structural problems like risen floors, rising damp and distress

October 2010 Distress in jack arches and walls was evident

October 2010 Rising damp upto 4 feet was common across both the rooms

October 2013 Cement Plaster was carefully pealed back to reveal the original masonry

October 2013 The variations and previous repairs in the masonry were now recorded on the drawings

Nov 2013, The Distressed Lime Concrete Floor was carefully taken down, the sub floor was completely damp

Nov 2013 The ground was cleared and levelled and compacted and the masonry was consolidated

Dec 2013 The floor compacted with old bricks, old lime plaster and thoroughly compacted 

Dec 2013 Almost 5 inches of lime concrete was required to be laid

Dec 2013 Coarse Aggregate and Lime Mortar is mixed with hand into a smooth consistency

Dec 2013 Finally a smooth layer of the floor was laid

Dec 2013 Slowly the floor begins to dry simultaneously the electrical conduits have been put in

January 2014 The Lime Concrete Floor begins to gain strength over 3 weeks of curing 

February 2014 Room No 1: The first coat  of lime plaster on the kitchen walls

February 2014 Room No 2: The first coat of lime plaster on kitchen walls 

May 2014 After the second coat of plaster, the kitchen begins to take shape after the counter and partitions are erected. All the work in this kitchen has been undertaken in lime mortar

July 2014 Especially hand crafted replicas of historic tiles were made locally at Khurja to complement the vocabulary of the classical kitchen in a historic building. All tiles have been fixed with "home made" lime mortar and the use of cement has been completely avoided.

July 2014 Merging the contemporary needs of modular kitchens with the historic ambience was challenging, the choice of material was hugely critical

July 2014 A closer look at our hand made tiles sourced locally

August 2014: Work in progress, lime as a material requires a lot of patience so we need for it to dry and gain its strength while the modular kitchen guy is manufacturing the stainless steel trolleys

September 2014 the woodwork in the kitchen taking shape

September 2014 The marble flooring is now laid as per the design and ready to be polished

Oct 2014 The Kitchen taking shape, the modular kitchen emerges with modern fittings and woodwork

Oct 2014 Built in ovens incorporated within the design of the kicthen

October 2014 Contemporary switches which are compatible with the historic ambience of the kitchen

November 2014 The woodwork is slowly taking shape

November 2014 The floor is now ready and polishing begins

December 2014 Another colossal task of polishing the wood begins

December 2014 Its a mess as all the pull out drawers and shutters are stacked to dry in the damp weather

December 2014 we choose from an array of options what should be our perfect handle

January 2015 We inch closer to completion, the handles are fixed, shutters polished

January 2015 We are almost there, the glass is fixed

January 2015 Locally made textured glass adorns the windows

January 2015 The lights are up, the kitchen is now ready to be officially inaugurated on an auspicious day

May 2015: 5 years later we have a fully functional modern kitchen in a Grade II listed building

May 2015: The spatial relationships enhanced by the choice of finished

May 2015: Finally in use!

May 2015: Finally in use!