This Delhi home by Satish Gujral was built as a living sculpture

The late painter and sculptor designed the house which is the current residence of the Portuguese Ambassador to India, Carlos Pereira Marques and his wife Susana

The garden behind the home— the juxtaposition of geometrical forms gives the building the appearance of a fortress.

They say a house chooses the people who live in it and this house that Satish Gujral built has the right people living in it: my dear friends, Susana and Carlos Pereira Marques, the Portuguese ambassador to India. It was originally built for Ranjana and Shakhat Singh, who often quotes Satish saying, “This was a gift from an artist to a poet.” The Portuguese residence in India is unlike most of the embassy residences, not in the usual conclaves of the embassy grounds in the hallowed area of Lutyens’s Delhi, but in a grand leafy lane of the exclusive West End Greens, on a large plot in the farm area that we call the green belt of New Delhi. A haven far from the madding crowd.

The New Delhi home of Carlos Pereira Marques, the Portuguese ambassador to India, was designed by the late artist-architect Satish Gujral. This space serves as a connection between the lounge and a small sitting room. The walls of the lounge retain their original raw-brick appearance, contrasted by the greenery of the inner courtyard, which is seen through the large arched window. The window above opens to one of two symmetrical suites on the first floor. The vase lamp is antique Murano glass. Portuguese and Persian carpets add a touch of colour to the room.

To live in a house designed by the late Satish Gujral is not easy, for it is not simply brick and mortar but has indeed been built as a living sculpture, to hold and to have life in all its myriad moods meander through its organic shape.

The entrance lobby—all the walls on the ground floor are in brick, and all the floors in the house are in Jaisalmer stone. The pashmina shawl hung on the upper landing is a 19th-century piece from Kashmir; the cloth hanging below, which depicts the Portuguese coat of arms, was made in India; the Caucasian Shirvan runner is also 19th century.

The anteroom by the main bedroom is decorated with 19th century Portuguese furniture and furnishings—including the bookshelves and side table; the ceiling light, also 19th century, was bought in Goa. The traditional Arraiolos rug is from Portugal. The couch upholstery and cushion are from Sarita Handa. Besides a host of books, the large table also features Surf, a centrepiece bowl by Portuguese contemporary artist Joana Vasconcelos. The terracotta piggy banks on the table, as well as the vase atop the bookshelf, were picked up in Rajasthan.

In his early years as an artist in Mexico, Satish met Frank Lloyd Wright and posed the question as to why Mr. Wright had not used a mural by either David Alfaro Siqueiros or Rufino Tamayo, both eminent Mexican artists and dear friends of the architect, in any of his buildings? Mr. Wright answered that only dead walls demand a mural whereas he never builds any dead walls in his projects. This thought cast a deep impression on a young Satish who, after years of creating many murals on various institutional buildings, found him self creating his own language of living sculpture.

Source: https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/this-delhi-home-by-satish-gujral-was-built-as-a-living-sculpture/

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