Inside the Chandigarh home of architect Noor Dasmesh Singh
Brass detailing, Indian Kota stone, eclectic furniture and personal objects make up the vibrant palette of this earthy-toned home in India
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

Architects’ houses have long been a topic of intrigue, and architect Noor Dasmesh Singh’s house on the periphery of the modernist urban plan of Chandigarh is no different. The founder and principal of NOOR Architects Consultants has created a personal haven tailored to his lifestyle, his zeal for crafted details, and the furniture he has collected over his lifetime.
Dasmesh Singh bought the utilitarian row house, dating back to the 1980s and built of wire cut exposed bricks in 2017 and the project has been a labour of love ever since. Yet however utilitarian in form, the architect has brought a warm richness to his restoration, which is layered with new materials, custom detailing and his own designs.
Despite its sensible appearance, maintaining the original architectural form was in fact integral to his plan – all of the exterior openings were preserved to maintain the gratifying exposed brickwork jamb of the house.
Subtle edits were made to the interior plan to adapt it to Dasmesh Singh’s way of life. A studio space on the first floor, a meeting space for discussions on the ground floor and a long and thick outdoor table make of south Indian granite slab were each designed with Dasmesh Singh’s working habits in mind.
The removal of a few inner walls, allowed the space to become more open plan. There is a sense of flow from entrance hall, to living room then dining room flow, and subtle interior additions such as a fluted glass and metal screen, or a moon pendant hung between the ceiling vaults, work to delineate the space.
RELATED STORY
An experimental home near New Delhi offers a new template for Indian housing (opens in new tab)
The architect’s aesthetic for the house was formed through a ‘a confluence of styles, personal impressions and influences,’ he explains. While his material palette combines refined hints of ‘vernacular’ held together loosely within an ‘overall modernist framework’.
Abstraction meets traditional Indian design in the entrance hall where a blown glass light installation hangs above a geometric grey-green Indian Kota stone floor, combined with white marble and Jaisalmer yellow stone. Elsewhere hand-crafted bone inlay furniture inspired by Punjabi interiors, Sikh miniatures and white marble Makarana lamps are combined with iconic furniture pieces such as the Anacleto Spazzapan chair, a Nagashima console against a Corten back panel and restored art deco chairs.
An earthy-coloured layering of materials acts as a backdrop to all of these accents, including Burma teak, Corten, exposed brick, fishbone wooden floors and dusk-grey walls. These softly-toned surfaces allow Damesh Sinh’s custom-designed details, such as the handcrafted ironmongery, solid wooden knobs, and the fine brass mesh drape, to become highlights of the house.
INFORMATION
noorarchitects.com (opens in new tab)
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
S94 Design makes the most of its uptown location to blur the lines of art and design
S94 Design brings displays from Kwangho Lee, Donald Judd, Max Lamb and more to its Rafael Viñoly-designed location
By Julie Baumgardner • Published
-
Oasi Cashmere is taking Zegna back to its roots in the Italian Alps
Oasi Cashmere – an environmentally-conscious, all-embracing cashmere collection – is inspired by the Oasi Zegna nature park in the lush Biella Alps
By Jack Moss • Published
-
Lynda Benglis’ seductive hall of mirrors and juicy neon eggs in London
American artist Lynda Benglis subverts expectations with new bronze sculptures and otherworldly coloured eggs in a new solo show at Thomas Dane Gallery, London
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
This Ahmedabad house blends geometric concrete and verdant trees
This concrete Ahmedabad house, Trees Sliced Through by Matharoo Associates, is designed around its site's existing trees
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore aims to democratise art and culture
MAP, the Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore by Mathew & Ghosh Architects, shines a new light on Indian art and culture
By Vaishnavi Nayel Talawadekar • Published
-
Multigenerational homes for family get-togethers
Multigenerational homes make the perfect setting for extended families to come together – in daily life and for special occasions, such as the recent Lunar New Year
By Shiori Kanazawa • Published
-
Anupama Kundoo on Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi’s legacy
Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi's recent passing shook the global architecture community; here, leading Indian architect Anupama Kundoo looks back at his legacy
By Anupama Kundoo • Published
-
Mumbai apartment by Rajiv Saini is the perfect Malabar Hill bolthole
A Mumbai apartment designed by Rajiv Saini blends indoors and outdoors at the top of a Malabar Hill block
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
In memoriam: Balkrishna V Doshi (1927 – 2023)
Balkrishna V Doshi, one of India’s preeminent architects and the world’s greatest modernists, has died at the age of 95. To honour his memory, we revisit a story from the Wallpaper* archives
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
A Kolkata home’s cavernous interior is dominated by curves
Cavernous is a Kolkata home by Nitin Barchha and Pooja Bihani designed around its curves
By Daven Wu • Published
-
A minimalist Bengaluru home behind a red terracotta screen
House on 46 by Kumar La Noce is a multigenerational Bengaluru home tucked away behind a terracotta screen
By Ellie Stathaki • Published