DEMURO DAS

TUCKED AWAY AMONG THE MAJESTIC TREES OF DELHI'S JOR BAGH, DESIGNED WITH THEIR SIGNATURE FLAIR FOR MATERIAL AND FORM, A SHARP NEW YORK AESTHETIC YET INDIAN IN ITS BONES, PLUS A DASH OF WIT AND CHARM - AD100 DUO PURU DAS AND BRIAN DEMURO'S HOME IS A PERFECT COCKTAIL OF THEIR PRACTICE AND THEIR LIVES TOGETHER.

- ARSHIA DHAR

On a sweltering April morning in New Delhi, as the mercury grazed temperatures never recorded before, I step into a home built in the '50s, tucked away under a canopy of green in a quiet corner of Jor Bagh. It barely betrays the heatwave sweeping through the lanes, as the house leads into a well-lit, yet serene second floor that embraces the sun's warmth, but not its heat. "It's a classic Jor Bagh villa," says Puru Das-one half of the AD100 design firm DeMuro Das-of the building that houses the apartment he shares with Brian DeMuro, which they decided to renovate right after the second wave of the pandemic.

The ageing bones of this 2,700-square-foot home are nestled under a palimpsest of contemporary interiors marked with DeMuro Das's signature spare, sculptural forms, comforting play of material and colours, and a laid-back energy that is kindred with their aim to transform their house into an all-accommodating space. It's always a work in progress, they tell me, as the definition of "home" underwent a paradigm shift during the pandemic, because of which the outside world now often collided with the worlds inside. "The idea was to make this top floor more expansive as we not only had to work from home more extensively, but we were also entertaining friends and family more often," DeMuro says.