Professional  Case  Study  

 

 

Kalpak  Deshmukh  

Fifth  Year,  Semester  ,  2011/12  

Vidyavardhan,  Institute  of  Design  Environment  and  Architecture  

 

 

 

 

Professional  Case  Study:  

Dilli  Haat,  INA,  New  Delhi  

 

Part  I:  

The  Dilli  Haat  project  started  with  Delhi  Tourism  Development  Corporation  

initiating  a  market  place  for  craftspersons  with  intention  of  attracting  tourists  and  

locals  alike.  The  project  was  completed  in  December  1993.  The  brief  given  to  the  

designers  was  very  loose.  The  brief  developed  by  the  designers  was  as  follows:  

1. Entrance  and  ticketing  area  

2. 60  permanent  shops  of  9  to  15  sqm  

3. 25  food  stalls  of  9  to  21  sqm  

4. 62  Exhibition  stalls  of  3  sqm  

5. Open  seating  area  

6. Administrative  section  

7. Conference  hall  32  sqm  

8. Amphitheatre  

9. International  dinning  hall  

10. Electrical  substation  

11. Toilets  

12. Parking  for  70  cars  and  100  two  wheelers  

13. Hydropneumatic  Station  

14. Services  

 

The  total  built  up  area  added  up  to  3190  sqm.  

In  2005,  after  12  years  of  completion  there  refurbishments  were  according  to  

the  new  requirements.  The  number  of  visitors  increased  considerably  through  the  

years.  The  data  from  the  Delhi  Tourism  Development  Corporation  gives  numbers  of    

Visitors  per  Year  

   Period   Number  of  Visitors  

94-­‐95   4,62,000  

95-­‐96   6,47,000  

96-­‐97   9,00,000  

97-­‐98   10,78,000  

98-­‐99   11,62,000  

99-­‐00   15,87,000  

00-­‐01   18,00,000  

01-­‐02   16,00,000  

02-­‐03   15,00,000  

03-­‐04   16,25,000  

04-­‐05   16,00,000  

05-­‐06   17,00,000  

06-­‐07   18,05,000  

07-­‐08   19,40,000  

08-­‐09   20,00,000  

09-­‐10   -­‐  

10-­‐11   -­‐  

 

The  additions  of  23  new  permanent  shops  were  done  in  2005.  Allotments  for  

semi  permanent  shop  were  done.  Administration  block  went  through  up-­‐gradation.  

Refurbishment  to  the  existing  services  was  done  to  handle  increase  in  the  numbers.  

The  brief  developed  by  the  designers  in  the  beginning  has  been  modified  to  the  

current  requirements.  Delhi  Tourism  proposed  further  refurbishments  from  the  

recommendations  from  the  architects  in  2011.  The  newer  developments  are  

currently  under  construction.  

 

Economics:  

 

The  total  construction  cost  of  the  project  in  1992  was  Rs.  2.88  crores.  

The  break  down  of  the  different  component  as  follow:  

Component Cost Rs.

Earth Filling 10 Lakhs

Boundary Wall 9 Lakhs

Buildings 1.31 Crores

External Services (including

pumps, gensets, external

lighting, underground tanks,

tubewells, etc)

60 Lakhs

Interiors and Graphics 10 Lakhs

Paving/ Landscaping, parking

plazas and open air stalls 64 Lakhs

Street Furniture 4 Lakhs

The  end  project  cost  was  as  estimated  before  beginning  of  the  construction.  

 

Design  Team:  

The  initial  design  team  at  Pradeep  Sachdeva  Design  Associates  consisted  of  

Pradeep  Sachdeava,  Neela  Joshi  Puri,  Nityanand  Sharma,  Saby  Sen,  Tanya  

Sengupta,  Carina  Simons,  Suzanna  Tharian,  PV  Kennedy.  

The  initial  consultants  for  the  project  were:  Arvind  Gupta  (structural),  

Electrical  Consulting  Engineers  (electrical),  Sanelac  Pvt  Ltd  (plumbing/  

sanitary),  Deepak  Hiranandani  (landscaping  advisor),  QS  Consultants  (quantity  

surveyors),  Ranmal  Singh  Jha  (graphics)  

It  deserves  that  the  architect  highly  appreciates  QS  Consultants,  his  quantity  

surveying  consultants,  their  exceptional  competence  kept  the  project  on  track.  

Also  the  DTPC  engineers  deserve  recognition  for  doing  the  job  well  and  

efficiently.    

The  contributions  of  structural  consultant  Arvind  Gupta  were  particularly  

important  as  the  Dilli  Haat  was  located  over  a  covered  nallah  and  load  

distribution  was  critical  as  the  slab  was  not  designed  to  take  the  loads.  

 

The  design  team  in  2005  for  the  refurbishment  of  the  Dilli  Haat  at  Pradeep  

Sachdeva  Design  Associates  was:  Pradeep  Sachdeva,  SK  Singh,  Madhushankar  

Iyyer,  Rameez  Raza,  Nivedita  Tyagi,  Siddharth  Kumar.  

 

The  consultants  for  refurbishment  in  2005  were:  

Arvind  Gupta  (structural),  Abid  Hussain  Consultants  (air  conditioning),  Reiz  

Electrocontrols  Pvt.  Ltd.  (lighting),  KRIM  Engineering  Services  Pvt.  Ltd.  

(plumbing  and  electrification)    

 

Design  Development:    

It  all  started  with  a  small  market  for  craftspersons  outside  the  Hanuman  

Mandir  on  Bara  Khamba  Road  that  the  firm  Prdeep  Sachdeva  Design  Associates  had  

worked  on  in  1987.  Delhi  tourism  invited  the  firm  to  design  a  small  crafts-­‐bazaar  

opposite  the  Bhairon  Temple  behind  the  Purana  Quila.  This  was  meant  to  be  a  much  

smaller  complex  than  the  present  Haat.  A  fairly  detailed  design  was  worked  out,  but  

the  project  did  not  materialize  as  the  firm  did  not  get  permission  to  build  so  close  to  

the  historic  Quila.  

A  year  later  a  new  site  had  been  allotted  to  the  Haat  by  the  New  Delhi  

Municiple  Committee.  On  top  of  a  covered  portion  of  the  nallah  across  the  road  from  

the  busy  INA  Market.  It  was  a  wonderful  location  for  the  complex.  The  design  brief  as  

given  to  the  firm  was  very  loose  and  the  firm  worked  a  lot  in  trying  to  develop  it.  Once  

it  was  formulated,  Delhi  Tourism  officials  spent  a  lot  of  time  discussing  the  details.  

Possible  and  representative  users  of  the  legendary  eatery  ‘karims’  were  roped  

in  for  the  brain-­‐storming  sessions  on  the  design  of  food  stalls.  Craftspersons  were  

called  in  to  give  their  comments  on  the  design.  The  Dastakakari  haat  Samiti,  a  

federation  of  craftsman,  also  contributed  a  lot  towards  trying  to  interpret  the  brief  

from  a  users  point  of  view.  

The  site  itself  posed  some  unusual  constraints.  The  nallah,  running  through  the  

entire  length  had  been  covered  with  a  concrete  slab.  After  locating  the  drawings  of  

this  slab,  the  designers  discovered  that  it  was  not  possible  to  build  over  it  as  it  had  

not  been  designed  to  take  such  loads.  This  resulted  in  the  planning  of  the  buildings  

just  outside  the  slab.  Also,  the  two  sides  of  the  nallah  had  been  recently  filled  up  with  

soil,  necessitating  foundations  as  much  as  8m.  

The  designers  wanted  to  anchor  the  attraction  of  the  Haat  in  a  relaxed,  

unpretentious  simplicity  of  ambience,  but  were  definite  about  steering  clear  of  the  

typical  mud  plaster  and  painted  ethnic.  Choosing  the  more  natural  vocabulary  of  

brick  masonry,  the  designers  exploited  its  rich  and  varied  potential  in  terms  of  arches,  

jalis,  floor  patterns  etc.  increasing  interest  by  juxtaposing  more  contemporary  

materials  such  as  concrete,  mild  steel  etc.  

The  entrance  plaza  is  intended  as  a  buffer  between  the  busy  Aurobindo  Road  

and  the  Haat,  lending  it  a  sense  of  place  as  well  as  avoiding  the  spillover  of  activities  

on  to  the  road.  The  axis  around  which  all  the  activities  were  organized  was  

determined  by  the  presence  of  the  nallah  as  well  as  the  linear  site  it  gave  rise  to.    At  

the  same  time  there  was  an  attempt  to  reduce  the  built  mass  so  as  to  provide  for  

more  open  spaces  within  the  complex.  In  addition  the  designers  to  accommodate  as  

much  as  possible,  the  towering  eucalyptus  trees  that  lined  the  site.  Thus,  at  places  the  

shops  are  placed  in  a  row  while  at  others  they  occur  in  the  form  of  clusters.  Further  

the  crafts  shops  have  been  intentionally  placed  right  up  in  front  so  that  the  visitor  

browses  past  them  before  he  enters  realm  of  the  food  stall.  

As  for  the  design  development,  there  were  several  changes  in  the  brief  and  

designs.  The  initial  intended  number  of  shops  and  eateries  changed  several  times  as  

the  site  plan  changed.  Due  to  the  hygiene  purposes  the  food  stalls  were  shifted  at  the  

back  of  the  site  away  from  the  center.  A  larger  restaurant  proposed  earlier  was  

cancelled  due  to  space  constraints.    

As  such  the  Haat  seems  to  provide  the  first  prototype  of  it’s  kind,  where  the  

nallah  has  been  used  to  re-­‐vitalize  a  part  of  the  city,  which  had  remained  stagnant.  

In  2002  Pradeep  Sachdeva  Design  Associates  was  re-­‐commisiioned  to  carry  

out  the  refurbishment  and  redevelopment  work  of  the  Haat.  The  chief  issues  for  the  

redevelopment  being  up  gradation  of  the  existing  services,  construction  of  new  shops,  

construction  of  fine  dine  area,  refurbishment  of  performance  area,  increasing  the  

accessibility  for  the  disabled,  construction  of  an  ATM  etc.  The  refurbishment  was  

proposed  in  two  phases.  Phase  I  was  to  be  completed  in  2007  and  phase  II  was  

proposed  in  2010.  Phase  II  is  currently  under  construction  and  is  proposed  to  be  

finished  by  August  2011.  

 Successful  Aspects  of  the  Project:  

The  Dilli  haat  may  not  be  the  very  first  of  it’s  kind,  but  it  is  definitely  the  most  

visible,  ambitious,  and  well  located.  The  ‘total  design’  appearance  also  adds  to  the  

experience  of  the  users.  The  promoters,  Delhi  Tourism,  have  essentially  provided  a  

walled-­‐in  space  containing  a  sizable  mixture  of  types  of  retail  outlets,  mainly  

designated  for  ethnic  food  and  handcrafts.  Unlike  the  exhibition  grounds,  where  food  

and  crafts  bazaar  functions  as  something  more  serious  under  the  umbrella  of  some  

kind  of  trade  fair  expo,  this  is  more  in  tune  with  likes  of  an  ongoing  mela.  It  is  also  

more  commercially  viable  that  plain  recreation  park.  Due  to  high  cost  of  

infrastructure  and  space  in  the  first  place,  gate  fee  was  proposed.  Therefore  it  

reduced  the  burden  of  rent  on  leasing  shopkeepers.  This  factor  also  made  the  space  

legally  defensible  and  technically  not  fully  public.      

Part  II:    

Critical  Analysis:  

The  project  definitely  points  the  way  towards  creative  use  of  marginal  inner  

city  areas  such  as  drains  and  service  lines  which  can  be  treated  as  a  positive  resource.  

Certainly  the  Indian  Railways,  with  their  development  of  track  air  space,  can  further  

this  process  of  urban  growth.  Several  public  unused  structures  or  the  area  around  

propose  a  definite  potential  in  re-­‐vitalization  options  in  terms  of  financial  viability  as  

well  as  land  use.  In  most  of  the  Indian  cities  today,  we  see  haphazard  development  

and  as  large  amount  of  public  money  goes  in  to  building  of  infrastructure.  The  Dilli  

Haat  provides  a  successful  example  of  financially  viable  project  of  clever  usage  of  the  

‘in  between’  urban  spaces.    Spaces  like  the  Dilli  Haat  provide  much  needed  public  

recreational  quality  urban  space.    

The  quality  of  the  space  is  due  to  careful  planning  as  well  as  great  attention  to  

detail.  These  aspects  are  evident  through  out  the  project  development.  The  brief  was  

developed  by  the  designers  according  to  the  loose  requirements  given  by  the  clients  

and  even  to  this  date  we  see  a  vibrant  urban  space  where  domestic,  foreign  tourist  

and  locals  enjoy  the  benefits.  Making  a  shopping  place  exclusive  for  craftsperson  also  

adds  to  its  credit.  The  brief  developed  by  the  designers  with  numerous  re-­‐designs  has  

resulted  in  a  combination  of  functions  which  fit  perfectly  with  each  other.  The  

movement  patterns  forces  the  users  to  go  through  the  project  with  ease  and  with  

certain  comfort.  With  provisions  for  temporary  exhibitions  and  stalls,  it  gives  the  

space  quality  of  ever  changing  architecture.    Attention  to  the  details  such  as  the  jali  

walls,  materials  used  in  landscaping,  preservation  of  existing  trees  and  plantation  of  

new  ones,  use  of  exposed  brick  with  contemporary  materials  add  to  the  aesthetic  

value.  

However,  despite  all  accomplishments  of  the  project,  there  is  something  more  

such  projects  could  do  in  the  future.  Right  now  it  is  a  fairly  artificial  trading  ground  

for  some  genuine  and  not-­‐so-­‐genuine  articles.  One  would  consider  it  well  crafted,  

innovative  but  not  really  visionary.  In  fact,  it  is  a  long  way  off  from  evolving  a  more  

comprehensive  habitat  based  crafts  project,  where  the  retailer  or  his  community  

would  have  crafted  goods,  and  where,  looking  even  further  ahead,  the  maker  of  the  

artefacts  might  also  live,  learn  and  practice.  For  despite  the  support  that  such  events  

and  projects  are  provided  towards  the  resurgence  of  Indian  crafts,  there  still  remains  

a  great  lack  of  recognition  for  the  craftsman  himself.  This  recognition  may  be  viewed  

in  monetary  or  infrastructure  apsects.  Only  if  these  issues  are  also  brought  into  the  

process  of  conceptualization  of  such  projects  would  they  be  able  to  claim  continuity,  a  

vision  obtained  from  the  great  ancient  tradition  of  India.  Otherwise  it  shall  remain  

modeled  on  the  mela  or  the  mall.  Essentially  such  projects  must  do  more  that  provide  

just  a  delightful  experience  and  go  into  realms  of  initiator  of  a  change.  

I  worked  on  the  second  phase  refurbishment  of  the  Dilli  Haat.  I  was  involved  in  

the  design  as  well  as  execution  of  some  of  the  works  being  done  on  the  site.  The  

shortcomings  while  working  on  the  project  were  of  aesthetic  sensibilities.  The  whole  

project  was  designed  with  a  uniform  pattern  in  the  aesthetic  characters.  It  was  

imperative  for  me  to  acquire  the  signature  aesthetic  sensibilities  pre-­‐existing  in  the  

office  for  doing  a  satisfactory  effort.  As  most  of  the  architects  draw  their  inspiration  

from  the  influences  and  imagery  around  them,  it  was  necessary  to  in  tune  with  the  

judgment  of  appeal  of  the  architecture  conceived  in  the  office.  Also  the  working  

systems  of  the  environment  and  high  standards  of  professionalism  were  very  

different  from  a  college  work  environment.    

As  the  project  was  a  done  for  a  government  body,  it  involved  extensive  paper  

work.  The  correspondence  with  the  consultants,  clients  and  the  contractors  required  

disciple  in  the  filing  systems.  It  was  made  evident  to  me  about  the  documentation  side  

of  the  architectural  practice.        

My  notions  of  sustainable  architecture  were  expanded  while  working  at  

Pradeep  Sachdeva  Design  Associates.  The  kind  architecture  practice  in  progress  

clearly  blends  sustainability  with  pleasing  architecture.  Apart  from  the  refurbishment  

of  the  Dilli  Haat,  I  worked  on  number  of  other  projects  revolving  around  key  principle  

of  sustainable  architecture.  

While  doing  the  professional  case  study,  it  was  interesting  to  investigate  the  

conceptual  stage  of  a  project  and  the  end  result.  In  this  case  it  was  unexpected  for  the  

architects  to  see  the  project  become  so  successful.  Also  as  the  refurbishment  work  

was  ongoing,  it  was  interesting  to  see  the  continuity  in  the  design  principles  even  

though  different  designers  have  worked  at  different  stages  of  the  initial  design  and  

the  current  works.  But  the  completion  of  the  drawing  for  the  project  was  on  low  

priority  as  the  scope  of  work  was  on  the  level  of  small  details  and  was  time  

consuming.  Phase  I  and  II  of  the  refurbishments  lagged  behind  schedule  as  the  

response  from  the  authorities  was  lukewarm.  Also  it  was  because  of  number  of  the  

agencies  and  government  bodies  involved.  Unlike  during  the  time  of  initial  

construction,  the  refurbishments  over  ran  in  costs.    

If  the  Dilli  Haat  was  to  be  re-­‐done  today,  I  would  keep  the  brief  of  the  project  

as  it  is.  Only  problem  I  see  is  in  the  quality  of  the  construction.  Also  according  to  the  

user  feed  back/  personal  observations,  the  project  is  unusable  during  the  monsoon  

period.  As  we  see  an  increase  in  rainfall  in  Delhi,  I  would  recommend  to  more  

efficient  use  of  the  verandahs  and  installation  of  more  number  canopies  and  pavilions.