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Located in the prestigious Chhatarpur Farms area of New Delhi, the residence called for an architectural language that was highly detailed, traditional and luxurious while incorporating contemporary engineering standards.
Art-N-Glass was entrusted with creating three bespoke stained-glass skylights that would become architectural features in their own right.
The brief was not simply to introduce natural light into the residence.
The skylights had to combine ornamentation, craftsmanship, structural performance and weather protection, with every visible detail executed to a very high level of precision.
A skylight has one fundamental responsibility:
Unlike a conventional vertical window, a skylight is constantly exposed to rainwater, wind-driven rain, thermal movement and drainage challenges. Any imperfection in the geometry, joints, seals or installation can eventually become a source of water ingress.
But this project demanded much more than a technically sound skylight.
The architect wanted the ceiling itself to become a work of art.
The chosen design was a dense, monochromatic stained-glass composition inspired by the intricate decorative language traditionally associated with architectural stained glass.
The challenge was to place this delicate craftsmanship inside a modern, weather-resistant skylight and then take the design one step further by making the perimeter glass curved.
The finished installation therefore had to satisfy two very different requirements simultaneously: it had to perform as a highly engineered architectural skylight while retaining the delicacy, intricacy and visual richness of a handcrafted stained-glass artwork.
The perimeter of the skylights consisted largely of C-curved glass.
However, the eight corner panels were substantially more complex.
These corner pieces required a compound, double-axis bend, meaning that the glass had to conform to curvature changing across more than one axis.
And the challenge did not stop at bending the glass.
Each pane also incorporated an intricate stained-glass composition.
This created several simultaneous requirements:
A conventional stained-glass panel and a conventional curved skylight are individually challenging.
The solution required traditional stained-glass craftsmanship and contemporary architectural-glass engineering to be developed as one integrated process.
The first stage was understanding and accurately reproducing the actual geometry of the skylight.
Because the perimeter was curved and every section could not simply be replicated, Art-N-Glass worked with the carpenter to develop full-scale physical templates.
Every template was created with technical inputs from the Art-N-Glass team to ensure that the final glass geometry could actually be manufactured.
These physical templates established the relationship between the architectural opening, the curved glass and the artwork that would eventually be incorporated into each panel.
The process began with the actual skylight geometry.
Since the perimeter incorporated curved sections and the individual pieces could not simply be reproduced from one standard shape, full-scale physical templates were developed for the required panels.
Art-N-Glass worked closely with the carpenter during this stage, providing the technical inputs needed to ensure that the templates represented geometries that could subsequently be translated into glass.
This was particularly important around the perimeter and at the corner conditions, where the geometry became substantially more complex.
The templates provided a physical reference for each piece and formed the basis for both the glass fabrication and the intricate stained-glass artwork that would eventually sit within it.
Once the physical geometries had been established, the templates were transferred into full-scale paper layouts.
These layouts became the foundation for the stained-glass artwork.
The stained-glass composition could not be treated as a decorative pattern that was simply placed over the finished skylight.
It had to be designed in direct relationship with the shape and dimensions of each individual architectural glass panel.
The full-scale layouts allowed the intricate monochromatic pattern to be developed, divided and aligned accurately across the skylight.
Every decorative element therefore had to respond to the geometry of the glass surrounding it.
Stained glass is one of the oldest forms of architectural glass art.
For centuries, artisans have created large architectural compositions by cutting individual pieces of coloured or specially treated glass and assembling them into intricate patterns.
Traditionally, pieces were joined using lead came, while later techniques such as copper-foil construction enabled finer and more delicate detailing.
The difficulty lies in the fact that stained glass is not simply a printed image.
Each piece has to be:
For this project, the complexity was multiplied because the completed artwork had to fit precisely within individually shaped architectural glass panels.
The design itself was highly intricate and monochromatic, meaning that consistency in detailing and colour had to be maintained across the complete composition.
Art-N-Glass has been working with stained glass for more than four decades, combining traditional craftsmanship with contemporary glass-processing technology.
That experience was critical in translating such a detailed artistic composition into a skylight engineered for a modern residence.
While the stained-glass artwork was being developed, the architectural glass had to reproduce the three-dimensional geometry of the skylight.
Much of the perimeter consisted of C-curved glass, requiring the individual pieces to be heated and formed to the required curvature.
The physical templates established earlier in the process served as the reference for achieving the required shapes.
Unlike standard flat glazing, the curved pieces had to correspond precisely with the skylight geometry so that the completed assembly could align correctly and ultimately contribute to the weather-tightness of the installation.
Accuracy at this stage was therefore important not only for appearance but also for the performance of the completed skylight.
The eight corner panels became the most technically demanding glass components of the project.
Unlike the predominantly C-curved perimeter pieces, these panels required double-axis forming.
The glass had to be heated and formed against precisely engineered moulds so that it could take the required three-dimensional geometry.
Compound bending requires considerably tighter process control than a simple cylindrical bend.
The complete sequence of:
had to be carefully managed because even small deviations could affect the final fit.
The challenge was further intensified by the fact that these curved glass panels were not visually empty.
They also had to carry the intricate stained-glass composition within them.
The geometry of the architectural glass and the geometry of the artwork therefore had to work together.
The corner panels became a convergence point between compound glass bending, decorative craftsmanship and dimensional precision.
Once the stained-glass artwork had been completed and the corresponding architectural glass components had been formed, the artwork was encapsulated between protective glass layers.
The stained-glass composition was positioned between glass panes and laminated to create a protected composite assembly.
This served two important purposes.
In the event of accidental breakage, the laminated construction helps retain the broken glass rather than allowing fragments to fall freely through the skylight.
This is particularly important in an overhead architectural application.
The delicate stained-glass artwork is protected within the glass assembly rather than being directly exposed to the interior environment.
The traditional artwork therefore becomes part of a contemporary laminated glazing construction.
The result is a modern architectural glass assembly that preserves the visual character of traditional stained glass while giving it the protection required for a contemporary building application.
The artistic complexity of the project could never compromise the skylight's most fundamental responsibility.
The curved geometry, individual panel junctions and compound corner conditions all had to come together as part of a weather-resistant skylight assembly.
Rainwater, wind-driven rain, thermal movement and drainage all had to be considered within the finished construction.
This meant that dimensional accuracy during templating and glass forming was directly related to the weather performance of the final installation.
The joints, interfaces and finished assembly had to be executed carefully so that the complex decorative composition could perform as a reliable architectural skylight rather than simply as an overhead artwork.
The project therefore required weatherproofing and water management to be treated with the same level of attention as the glass fabrication and stained-glass craftsmanship.
The skylight was designed to remain visually active even after sunset.
The finished stained-glass assembly was enclosed within a secondary glass box incorporating artificial lighting.
During the day, natural light passes through the skylight and illuminates the intricate monochromatic artwork from above.
After dark, the relationship changes.
Integrated artificial illumination activates the stained glass from within the architectural assembly, allowing the skylight to become a luminous feature inside the residence.
The result is a piece that does not disappear when daylight does.
Instead, its visual character changes between day and night while the artwork remains an active part of the interior architecture.
The project required the convergence of several disciplines that are rarely demanded within a single glass installation:
Three completely bespoke skylights were delivered in approximately two months.
Every piece was individually developed, fabricated and integrated into the final assembly.
There was no standard panel to order.
There was no standard curve to repeat.
There was no off-the-shelf stained-glass solution.
Every element was created specifically for the architecture.
The project demanded the ability to move between two very different worlds: the hand-crafted precision of traditional stained glass and the controlled engineering required for contemporary curved architectural glazing.
Art-N-Glass's experience across both disciplines made it possible to treat them not as separate systems, but as components of one complete architectural solution.
The finished skylights transform what could have been a conventional overhead glass opening into a piece of architectural art.
The monochromatic stained-glass pattern creates an intricate visual texture, while the curved perimeter gives the skylight a sculptural three-dimensional quality.
The detailing remains visually rich without overwhelming the surrounding architecture, and the composition takes on a different character as lighting conditions change throughout the day.
During daylight hours, natural light passes through the stained-glass composition and brings the intricacy of the pattern into focus.
After sunset, the integrated artificial lighting allows the skylight to continue functioning as a luminous architectural feature within the residence.
From below, the construction appears almost effortless.
Above the ceiling, however, it represents an intricate combination of traditional craftsmanship, curved-glass fabrication, compound bending, lamination, weatherproofing and modern architectural engineering.
This project demonstrates something fundamental about Art-N-Glass:
