ARCHITECTURE + INTERIORS
COMPLETED 2022
New Delhi
23,681 sq ft on a 2,000 sq m plot in the Delhi countryside. Named for the gilded central axis that draws the entire plan together.
LOCATION
Gadaipur, New Delhi
BUILT AREA
23,681 sq ft
PLOT
2,000 sq m
COMPLETED
2022
PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio credit
01 / THE BRIEF
A farmhouse near Delhi, not a farmhouse of Delhi.
The clients owned a 2,000 sq m plot in Gadaipur — an area on the southern edge of Delhi that has, over the last decade, filled with farmhouses that mostly look like each other. The brief to AND Studio was explicit: design a residence that sits in this context without participating in it. No gilded gates, no grand imported chandeliers, no theatrical water features. What they wanted was a working home for a family of five that could host extended family at scale without ever feeling like a function hall.
Across early conversations, a single spatial idea kept returning: a single long axis, running the length of the house, connecting every principal room. Over iterations it became the project's signature — and its name. Stecca Dorata, in Italian, means "golden stick": a thin, burnished spine.
02 / THE CHALLENGE
Scale without spectacle.
A 23,681 sq ft residence is, by any measure, a large house. The design challenge was to resist the visual tropes that houses of this scale tend to default to — double-height columns, grand entries, statement materials — and produce instead a building that felt intimate as you moved through it, even though it was large.
Delhi's climate added a second layer. The site is exposed on three sides, with summer temperatures routinely over 45°C and winter mornings dropping below 5°C. A glass-heavy modernist response would have been comfortable in neither season.
03 / THE RESPONSE
A single spine, six rooms, one garden.
Stecca Dorata is arranged along a 38-metre central axis — the "golden stick" that gives the house its name. Clad in gilded brass panels and lit softly from clerestory slots above, this spine reads as a single continuous architectural move from the entry through to the terrace at the rear. Every principal room opens off it.
On either side of the spine, rooms step down in scale: the dining room (seats 14) on the east, the informal family lounge on the west, the formal sitting room nearest the entrance, the kitchen and pantry at the heart, and the library at the rear. Each room has its own garden aspect — so even at full occupancy, the house never feels dense.
The upper floor holds five bedroom suites, each with its own terrace. The master occupies the southern wing with a private plunge pool; the other four bedrooms share a family corridor that returns, at one end, to a cantilevered study overlooking the spine below.
— LOVE CHOUDHARY, FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL
04 / Key features
The details that define it.
38m
Golden spine length
5
Bedroom suites
14
Dining seats
3
Garden-facing wings
Supporting features include a hand-cast brass-clad central axis with recessed art niches, a cantilevered first-floor study, six private gardens distributed across the ground floor, a 14-metre rear reflecting pool, and a dedicated basement entertainment wing with a bar, home theatre, and guest suite.
05 / Program
Entry foyer
Opens to the golden spine · double-height.
Formal sitting
South-facing · seats 12 · walk-out terrace.
Dining room
East wing · seats 14 · garden view.
Family lounge
West wing · informal · adjacent to kitchen.
Kitchen & pantry
Central · double-island · separate wet kitchen.
Library
Rear · overlooks reflecting pool.
Master suite
Upper floor · south wing · private plunge pool.
Four bedroom suites
Each with en-suite + terrace.
Basement
Entertainment wing · bar · theatre · guest suite.
06 / MATERIALS & CRAFT
Stecca Dorata's palette centres on two materials that carry the project — hand-cast brass for the spine and hardware, and locally quarried Indian stone for floors, walls, and landscape. Wood is used sparingly for joinery and doors. Textiles and art are allowed to do the work of colour and softness — the architecture is resolutely quiet.
Hand-cast brass (spine, hardware) Moradabad · 160 km Jaisalmer yellow sandstone Jaisalmer · 790 km
Italian marble (master bath) Imported · Carrara Reclaimed Burma teak Salvage · Delhi NCR
Hand-troweled lime plaster Local · Delhi Natural kota stone (utility) Kota · 620 km
07 / PRESS & RECOGNITION
Where Stecca Dorata has been covered.
The Decor Journal — "The Golden Stick"
Architect + Interiors India — Feature
Platform Magazine — "Material as Memory"
AND Studio works on 8–12 private residences a year. We’d love to hear about yours.