News: A single-storey modernist bungalow in Hauz Khas that has resisted redevelopment for five decades-20-04-2026

In a city of over 22 million people, a single-storey, two-bedroom bungalow in prime south Delhi is rare. Casa Pia in Hauz Khas has kept its original Chandigarh-inspired Delhi Modernist form. Its architect, Indur Mirchandani, bought the plot and began building in 1972. A civil engineer, he had worked in Himachal Pradesh and with the Chandigarh team of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, and later spent over 10 years building IIT Delhi.

For his own home he drew on the design ideas of Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew and Le Corbusier, stressing modernist functionalism, tropical adaptation and social utility, with cost-effective housing and ergonomic furniture. He combined “Garden City” ideas with recessed facades that cast shadow and keep interiors cool. The outdoor ironwork came from Nahan Foundry.

The author, writing in the first person, says modernism became real to her only after staying at Maison Pierre Jeanneret in Chandigarh, where she saw how simple bricks, breezeblocks, gardens and furniture worked together. Chandigarh was conceived in the 1950s under Jawaharlal Nehru as “a symbol of the nation’s faith in the future”. Mirchandani, caught between Chandigarh and Delhi, wanted a home in the capital.

South Delhi was then different. Hauz Khas and Mayfair Gardens were largely farmland, with a small colony of just over a hundred houses planned around the Sabzwari Makhdum Tomb, where migrating Sindhis were starting to build. Arun Mirchandani, who still lives in the house, recalls the land as a cabbage patch belonging to Shahpur Jat village. The family rented the house to tenants for over a decade while Arun lived above the garage; that room still holds a young engineer’s books and notes.

The red brick house has a front garden and backyard, and its design ensures ventilation. It was built before coolers and air conditioners, and its windows filter light, making it energy efficient. The drawing room has a fireplace with tiles by Satish Gujral. The bedrooms have lofts and 1960s plywood furniture, and each opens to the backyard, the back lane and the garage room.

The family has lived there for about 50 years, changing only light furnishings and shelving, and maintains it before every monsoon. The author finds it remarkable that it remains a two-bedroom, single-storey home when south Delhi property rivals New York and London in price and real estate is a main income source for many families. She argues that it works better than amenity-loaded modern houses, and that such a house needs more care for its legacy to survive.

The article is a column by Anica Mann, who works on archaeology and contemporary art in Delhi, and the views are personal.