Nirula Handicraft Bazaar, 1930s
Location : Doctor’s Lane, Gole Market
Patron : Birlas
This Handicraft Bazaar building can be found in a neighbourhood in the heart of Delhi - Gole Market, the main traffic roundabout was built by Edwin Lutyens in 1921. Hearsay suggests, Birlas who commissioned the Birla Mandir had gotten the complex built which was later sold off to Nirulas who have a handicraft bazaar shop at the corner. The building also has a residential complex where one of the oldest occupants of the building resides.
As in a typical Streamline Moderne setting, the profile curves at the corner, which also marks an emphasis on the entrance to the building, having a cantilevered porch over it. Flutes run from the porch till the roof projection of the tower, turning around it like brackets into the roof. Additionally, each staircase core indicates entrances to the flats and repeats a combination of a flat projecting roof with a swan motif porthole window at the mumty level. Bandings and reeding can be seen especially around entrances.
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Image Copyrights : Protyasha Pandey x Deco In Delhi Rishi Kochhar (Images 4-6)
Circular Tower
A tower, rounded or completely circular, situated at the central axis or jutting out of the edge of the building to create a visual emphasis on the facade, a common feature seen in buildings inspired from Streamline Moderne
Porthole Windows
Circular windows evoked from nautical themes, signifying buildings as ocean liners. These windows may further possess a motif to form a ventilator.
Vertical Fluting
Flutes are shallow bands curving outwards running as vertical bands on building facades, sometimes wrapping along the flat roofs of the Art Deco structures
Circular Flat Roofs
A circular flat roof projection over the highest part of the building, e.g. mumpties or the central tower. They add emphasis to the towering part and an ornamental visual feature
Vertical Reeding
Reeds are shallow inward divisions running as vertical bands along the building facade, generating a feeling of an upward motion on the central towers / main entrances of the buildings.