Rashtrapati Bhavan

Consisting of four floors and 340 rooms, with a floor area of 200,000 square feet (19,000 m²), it was built using 1 billion bricks and 3,000,000 cu ft (85,000 m³) of stone with little steel.

The design of the building fell into the period of the Edwardian Baroque, a time at which emphasis was placed on the use of heavy classical motifs to emphasise power and imperial authority. The design process of the mansion was long, complicated and politically charged. Lutyens' early designs were all starkly classical and entirely European in style. His disdain for the local building tradition he dismissed as primitive is evident in his numerous sketches with appended scrawls such as 'Moghul tosh' and his short remark that 'they want me to do Hindu – Hindodon't I say!' In the post-Mutiny era, however, it was decided that sensitivity must be shown to the local surroundings to better integrate the building within its political context, and after much political debate, Lutyens conceded to incorporating local Indo-Saracenic motifs, albeit in a rather superficial decoration form on the skin of the building.[8]

Various Indian elements were added to the building. These included several circular stone basins on top of the building, as water features are an important part of Indian architecture. There was also a traditional Indian chujja or chhajja, which occupied the place of a frieze in classical architecture; it was a sharp, thin, protruding element which extended 8 feet (2.4 m) from the building, and created deep shadows. It blocks harsh sunlight from the windows and also shields the windows from heavy rain during the monsoon season. On the roofline were several chuttris, which helped to break up the flatness of the roofline not covered by the dome. Lutyens appropriated some Indian design elements but used them sparingly and effectively throughout the building.[8]

The column has a "distinctly peculiar crown on top, a glass star springing out of bronze lotus blossom".[9]

There were pierced screens in red sandstone, called jalis or jaalis,[10] inspired by Rajasthani designs. The front of the palace, on the east side, has twelve unevenly spaced massive columns with the Delhi Order capitals, a "nonce order" Lutyens invented for this building, with Ashokan details.[11] The capitals have a fusion of acanthus leaves with the four pendant Indian bells. The bells are similar in style to Indian Hindu and Buddhist temples, the idea is inspired by a Jain temple at Moodabidri in Karnataka. One bell is on each corner at the top of the column. As there is an ancient Indian belief that bells signalled the end of a dynasty, it was said that as the bells were silent British rule in India would not end.[11] The front of the building does not have windows, except in the wings at the sides.

Whereas previous British examples of so-called Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture had mostly grafted elements from Mughal architecture onto essentially Western carcasses, Lutyens drew also from the much earlier Buddhist Mauryan art. This can be seen in the Dehli Order, and in the main dome, where the drum below has decoration recalling the railings around early Buddhist stupas such as Sanchi.[12] There is also the presence of Mughal and European colonial architectural elements. Overall the structure is distinctly different from other contemporary British Colonial symbols, although other New Delhi buildings, such as the Secretariat Building, New Delhi, mainly by Herbert Baker, have similarities.

Lutyens added several small personal elements to the house, such as an area in the garden walls and two ventilator windows on the stateroom to look like the glasses which he wore. The Viceregal Lodge was completed largely by 1929, and (along with the rest of New Delhi) inaugurated officially in 1931. Between 1932 and 1933 important decorations were added, especially in the ballroom, and executed by the Italian painter Tommaso Colonnello.[13] The building took seventeen years to complete and eighteen years later India became independent. After Indian independence in 1947, the now ceremonial Governor-General continued to live there, being succeeded by the President in 1950 when India became a republic and the house was renamed "Rashtrapati Bhavan".

Main facade

It has 355 decorated rooms and a floor area of 200,000 square feet (19,000 m²). The structure includes 700 million bricks[14] and 3.5 million cubic feet (85,000 m³) of stone, with only minimal usage of steel. Lutyens established ateliers in Delhi and Lahore to employ local craftsmen. The chief engineer of the project was Sir Teja Singh Malik, and four main contractors included Sir Sobha Singh.[15]

Jaipur Column There were also statues of elephants and fountain sculptures of cobras, as well as the bas-reliefs around the base of the Jaipur Column, made by British sculptor, Charles Sargeant Jagger.[16] from west with north block at Rashtrapati Bhawan

Rashtrapati Bhavan has many halls which are used for state functions and other purposes. Two of them, Durbar Hall and Ashoka Hall, are the most prominent.

Durbar Hall is situated directly under the double-dome of the main building. Known as the "Throne Room" before independence, it had two separate thrones for the Viceroy and Vicereine. Presently, a single high chair for the President is kept here under a Belgian glass chandelier hanging from a height of 33 m.[17] The flooring of the hall is made of chocolate-coloured Italian marble. The columns in Durbar Hall are made in Delhi Order which combines vertical lines with the motif of a bell. The vertical lines from the column were also used in the frieze around the room, which could not have been done with one of the traditional Greek orders of columns. The columns are made from yellow Jaisalmer marble, with a thick line running along the centre.

Durbar Hall has a capacity of 500 people and it is here in this building that Jawaharlal Nehru took the oath of office of Prime Minister from Lord Mountbatten at 8.30 am on 15 August 1947.

Ashoka Hall is a rectangular room of 32×20 m. It was originally built as a state ballroom with wooden flooring. The Persian painting on its ceiling depicts a royal hunting expedition led by King Fateh Ali Shah of Persia. The walls have fresco paintings.

Main gate of Rashtrapati Bhawan with Jaipur Column in background.

The two-state drawing rooms, the state supper room and the state library are each on the four corners of Durbar Hall. There are also other rooms such as many loggias (galleries with open air on one side) that face out into the courtyards, a large dining hall with an extremely long table to seat 104 persons, sitting rooms, billiards rooms and staircases.

The dome, in the middle, reflects both Indian and British styles. In the centre is a tall copper-faced dome, surmounting a very tall drum in several sections, which stands out from the rest of the building. The dome is exactly in the middle of the diagonals between the four corners of the building. It is more than twice the height of the building itself.

Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, Member of Parliament, presenting U.S. President Barack Obama with a scarf during the State Dinner receiving line at Rashtrapati Bhawan, 2015

The height of the dome was increased by Lord Hardinge in the plan of the building in 1913. The dome combines classical and Indian styles. Lutyens said the design evolved from that of the Pantheon in Rome,[18] although externally it has little resemblance to that, either in the curve of the dome or the high drum; both have an oculus in the centre. The exterior of the dome was modelled partly after the early Buddhist stupas, such as that at Sanchi, which it resembles far more in the exterior profile. There is a Buddhist-style "railing" design around the section of the drum below the dome. It is supported by evenly spaced columns which form a porch with an open area between. In the New Delhi summer heat haze, this gives an impression of the dome being afloat. Workers began to form the reinforced concrete shell of the outer dome at the beginning of 1929. The last stone of the dome was laid on 6 April 1929.

• Davies, Philip (1987). Splendours of the Raj: British Architecture in India, 1660–1947. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-009247-9.
• Gradidge, Roderick (February 1982). Edwin Lutyens, Architect Laureate. London: Unwin Hyman. ISBN 978-0047200236.
• Inan, Aseem, "Tensions Manifested: Reading the Viceroy's House in New Delhi", in The Emerging Asian City: Concomitant Urbanities and Urbanisms, ed. Vinayak Bharne, Routledge UK, 2012
• Irving, Robert Grant (May 1981). Indian Summer: Lutyens, Baker, and Imperial Delhi. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-02422-7.
• Nath, Aman; Mehra, Amit (2002). Dome over India: Rashtrapati Bhavan. India Book House. ISBN 978-8175083523.