Delhi swings from 45°C in May to near-freezing January nights, and spends part of most winters under air so poor that dusty building work is ordered to stop. A client here usually wants a house with some gravity — a bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi or Golf Links, a farmhouse in Chhatarpur, a tower apartment in Gurugram — with the old craft of a haveli in it without the house becoming a period piece.
NYKS takes projects in Delhi NCR and manages them from the studio in C Scheme, Jaipur, around three and a half hours by road on the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway. Design, craft and procurement stay in Jaipur, close to the artisans. On site, a Delhi contractor and trades are brought together for each project, and our site lead is there for the stages that decide the outcome. Our finished work so far is in Jaipur and Udaipur.
These three, from our built work, are the closest to what Delhi briefs ask for: a formal house that still feels lived in, a room made for winter evenings, and a workplace that does not look like an office.
A search for a heritage interior designer in Delhi usually starts with a picture of a haveli. The haveli works because of its craft — lime walls polished until they are cool to the hand, carved stone that filters light, mirror work that holds a lamp’s glow — not because of its clutter. That craft is what we bring, commissioned from the artisans in Jaipur who practise it. How much a house takes depends on the house.
The rule that shapes a Delhi programme most is the Graded Response Action Plan. The Commission for Air Quality Management invokes it in stages as the AQI worsens, usually from October. At Stage III (AQI 401–450), dust-generating work stops across NCR: demolition, masonry, plastering, stone and tile cutting, painting, polishing and varnishing, with narrow exceptions for minor indoor repairs. Stage IV, above 450, keeps those bans and extends them to public infrastructure works.
So the year is planned around it. Demolition, masonry, plaster, stone and waterproofing are scheduled to finish before the air turns. The winter goes to work that happens off site — joinery, jaali carving, brass and painted cabinetry made in Jaipur — followed by dry installation when the stage allows.
Paperwork follows the building. Under Delhi’s Unified Building Bye-Laws, plastering, re-flooring, painting, false ceilings and internal partitions need no building permit; cutting into a wall, column or beam does. In Gurugram towers, Haryana’s apartment ownership law bars any owner from work that jeopardises the building’s safety or adds material structure without the other owners’ consent, and the RWA or maintenance agency sets hours, deposits and lift access. Farmhouses carry DDA’s own limits on built-up area and height, rewritten more than once, so we check the current policy and the sanctioned plan before drawing a new pavilion.
May can pass 45°C, January nights fall close to freezing, December fog disrupts roads and flights, and pre-monsoon storms carry fine dust through every gap. Materials are chosen for that whole cycle, not for one season.
Nishtha Kandoi leads design and Yashvardhan Singh runs execution, and the about page explains how the studio is organised around them. The distance from Jaipur is short enough to be practical and long enough to demand discipline. A project runs in this order:
Some can. At Stage III, demolition, masonry, plastering, stone cutting, painting and polishing stop, but less dust-generating work may continue under dust controls, as can minor welding for electrical and plumbing services. Stage IV keeps the same limits on private sites and extends them to public works. We keep dusty trades out of the winter where we can, and use those weeks for the joinery and craft being made in Jaipur.
Not for most of it. The bye-laws let you replaster, re-floor, repaint, add a false ceiling or put up internal partitions without a building permit. Taking out or cutting into anything structural — a wall, column or beam — needs one. Societies and RWAs often add their own conditions on top, so we collect those at the first survey.
Yes, if each piece of craft does a job. Jaali to temper a verandah’s light, araish on the walls you touch, a thikri ceiling in one pavilion, painted cabinetry where the family gathers. Hotels go wrong by putting everything everywhere. A farmhouse can carry more craft than a flat, but it still needs quiet rooms for the rich ones to stand against.
Whenever the site reaches a point that cannot easily be undone — before walls close over services, before stone is laid, before joinery is fixed — our site lead is there. Between visits the contractor reports to the studio, and you are welcome in Jaipur to see samples and craft in progress. Jaipur is close enough by expressway that an extra visit, when something needs eyes on it, is straightforward.
Both are possible in India. We take on architectural design as well as interiors — a farmhouse pavilion, a bungalow remodel — and can deliver the job turnkey. What we will not claim is a permanent Delhi team: the site crew is assembled locally for each project, and permit drawings are signed by the Council of Architecture-registered architect on our team.