Artistic Residency Farm8 by Studio Array in New Delhi, India

Project: Artistic Residency Farm8
Architects: Studio Array
Location: New Delhi, India
Area: 2023
Year: 6,458 sq ft
Photography: Edmund Somers

Artistic Residency Farm8 by Studio Array

Welcome to Farm 8, an artist's sanctuary located right in the heart of New Delhi's urban environment. What began as an art studio has evolved into an oasis of sustainable agriculture and permaculture practices that foster creativity within nature's embrace. Studio Array flawlessly blends the existing structure with innovative design, honoring the past while embracing the future. The harmonious combination of steel, glass, bamboo, and wooden elements dances with the old site framework, embodying an organic intertwining of interior and exterior. With sloped roofs and semi-transparent spaces, Farm 8 offers a sanctuary where artists connect with nature's rhythms, blurring the boundaries between private and public. Here, architectural innovations become a tranquil melody to the green landscape, inviting visitors to experience creativity in harmony with the surrounding greenery.

Located in Arjan Garh, New Delhi, the artistic residency Farm 8 sits within a green oasis among densely built urban villages. Nearly ten years ago, clients Ranbir and Rasmi Kaleka intended to use the plot as an art studio for themselves. Therefore, the foundation and columns were laid at that time; unfortunately, construction on site was halted due to unforeseen reasons. In 2020, with changing needs and lifestyle, the artistic clients began using the five-acre farm for sustainable agriculture and experimental permaculture practices as part of an artistic collective named Farm 8. The collective includes artists Ranbir and Rasmi Kaleka, late Vivan Sundaram, Bharti Khurana, Subodh Gupta, Jagan Nath and Pranati Panda, Joginder Chatterjee, Shambavi Singh, Mera Meneses, Radhiv Bhargava, Anil Chandra, Manoj Arora, Ega Shaw and late Sanjiv Sinha.

Studio Array was brought in with a new purpose to create a sanctuary that allows visiting artists to connect with the natural environment while stepping away from their busy and demanding urban lives. Rather than starting from scratch, the architects deliberately chose to continue working on the existing columns and foundation already in place. Continuing the client's ideology around permaculture, architects aimed to minimize waste and preserve and wrap around infrastructure already built on-site years ago. Thus, the artistic residency "covers" and "wraps" the old structure, creating a constructive contrast through a light steel, glass, bamboo and wooden dry wall construction. The residency plans to host artists both from India and abroad.

The interplay of old and new, exterior and interior, public and private became the central idea for the architects. Mimicking the experience of sitting under a tree, semi-transparent spaces were carved out from the existing column grid to provide a sense of protection without creating enclosed rooms. The wraparound around the old columns is a light steel structure with insulated roofs, sloping in unique directions to meet functional and contextual requirements. Modular sloped roofs were deliberately maneuvered to create multiple spatial scales, "dematerializing" the built mass. The roofs form a modest and passive shell that easily harmonizes with surrounding greenery. Departing from the classical sloped roof, architects use the roof as structural stiffness, continuously lifting and drawing attention to the green landscape beyond the built form.

Different volumes and scales were explored within organically planned modular blocks to further blur the boundaries between interior and exterior, creating a strong functional narrative. Two-level semi-transparent verandas were woven in as extensions of private spaces. These verandas offer volumetric and experiential interest, allowing users to smoothly transition between private and public spheres both spatially and psychologically. Large continuous openings in living spaces were privatized through a layer of handwoven bamboo mesh, contextualizing natural materials found on the farm. The bamboo meshes will age and change color over time, as a poetic reference to the relentless aging process, imitating and inviting nature to take hold for many years. The brick finish without cement mortar used in the semi-transparent pavilions is also designed to age and fade over time, allowing grass, weeds, and the landscape to seep into the constructed space. Similarly, lime plaster dry walls and hand-cast polished IPS cement flooring in living spaces add the necessary softness to private areas when transitioning from exterior to interior. In striving to celebrate their natural environment, Studio Array creates a modest yet modern dwelling gently imitating the greenery it is nestled in.

-Studio Array