Nostalgia as an emotion is one of the most profoundly felt sentiments humankind can experience. With its transportive demeanour, it harnesses the ability to tug at the strings of the proscenium of the mind. This puts into motion a montage of memories, a tactile collage of the past and the present that impact the phenomenon of the future. This very emotional response dons the cape of the design catalyst at the House of Nostalgia.

An untended family-owned farmhouse in the fringes of Chattarpur – New Delhi witnesses a sumptuous facelift wherein the quiet grandeur of the decennial of the 70s and the 80s permeate the essence of the home. The residence is immersed in inspiration from this golden era that also takes cues from the cinematic universe the world over at that point in time; unabashed, awe-inspiring, and stirring with its every weave.

The abode is tucked away from the cacophony of the urban capital, created with the sole intention of concocting a milieu that allows the inhabitant family to host and unwind in the embrace of a getaway home; versatile in its mien, morphing, and bearing its canvas open to the myriad needs of its end-user.

At the House of Nostalgia, a conventional Indian-souled residence is garbed by an intentional tapestry of colour, materiality, and curated living, breathing new life into the nucleus of the communal segments of the home. There is an incontestable celebration of the patina of time meshed in with an overarching neoteric DNA — a chronicle that retells the story of its roots while expressing the uncorked aspirations the space bears.

Scale and bespoke elements are confederates within the residence; they swathe the blueprint with a homogeneous and coherent narrative while tradition is interpreted indoors in a new-fangled light. The House of Nostalgia has been conceived with spatial interpretations being in a state of suspension, envisaging how the space would be envisioned if a virtuoso like Rohe was to piece it together. As an adage to less is more, the home has been designed by stripping it down to its skin and bones with essentialism dousing itself in the elixir of Indianized accents. The home sheds austerity for an invigorating alter ego to create a scheme of spaces that are welcoming and pieces of craft in their own right. The interiors of the residence take on a sculpturesque aura but never forsaking the convivial warmth of a home that makes it habitable.

There is a dalliance amidst modern materials, proportions, geometry, and a penchant for details.  A gradient of greens has been juxtaposed against the umber backdrop of wood tones, an homage of sorts to the verdant outdoors of the site’s context. An interplay of monochromes peppers the homochromatic space suavely as spaces coalesce and meld into each other.

The ensemble of ombre glass luminaires traverse the colossal volume of the space and glisten to life as levitating asteroids when the sun peers into the dwelling through the mammoth fenestrations scaling heights of 20 feet and more. The structural additions in the space like that of the ebony staircase also assumes a statuesque presence; its monolithic form in unison with its sleek silhouette ascending into the volume, transcending with poise while beckoning one intriguingly. An heirloom stallion hailing from the desert lands of Jodhpur stands stoically under the staircase, iterating how heritage has been immaculately woven into the fabric of the House of Nostalgia.

There is a dichotomous yet harmonious conversation between the past and the present within the walls of this dwelling — a tryst between preservation and dabbling in the uncharted. Curved and linear silhouettes conspire to create an experimental symphony of forms that usher in a spectrum of design vocabularies deftly. The sun and the sights of the home become the only chosen embellishments indoors while every element bows in submission to a presiding note of minimalism.

The ancestral interface bears its arms open to the contemporary accents while subliminally conversing with the past — a spatial experience that comes into being in the residual moment that is created between the inevitable collision of the yesteryears and the present day.

This piece was curated for the design studio’s portfolio on their website.