In 2014, when architect Gaurav Sharma, founder of architecture firm, Under Mango Tree, was approached by Sir Sobha Singh & Sons,1 little did they know that this would pan out into a regeneration process of its kind over a good four years. SSP and its precincts fall under the heritage complex in the Lutyens Bungalow Zone. “Like all heritage properties it is not without its complexities of mixed ownership, changes and encroachments. Our initial surveys helped us realise that the estate was home to multiple stakeholders and home to hundreds of families. Not only did it have the posh red-bricked principal apartments, there were staff quarters blocks, a primary school, the Ambassador Hotel and numerous small enterprises, including the motor market within the precinct,” says Sharma. He chose to adopt Scottish town planner Patrick Geddes’s strategy of ‘conservative surgery’, where the focus is on small interventions as opposed to sweeping comprehensive changes.

Armed with original drawings, they scanned and documented all they saw — from staircases that were encroached to fire places that were walled up — the team mapped the timeline of changes. “Our approach was not necessarily to put the clock back but to understand why changes had taken place and how to manage them,” he says.

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  • 1. Sir Sobha Singh, well-known builder-contractor, was actively involved in the making of imperial Delhi. When Edwin Lutyens parcelled land for New Delhi, Singh bought land across the new Capital, from Connaught Place to Karol Bagh. Sujan Singh Park (SSP) was one such. George by then had worked with Singh on numerous buildings, including Modern School. Singh named the apartment complex, which was called Delhi’s “drawing room”...