The Indian Life building in Connaught Place is one of the unheralded glories of modern Indian architecture. It is a majestic triumph of asymmetry, like a huge goalmouth viewed from the right hand side of the penalty area, with a steel pergola as its roof netting. There are four separate upright structures, with huge gaps between them – connected only by the pergola. A central column, plain and solid and white, is flanked by two vast wings whose scale and floor space are modestly underplayed by great darkened reflective sheets of glass. These mirrors give space and grandeur to the rest of CP, and create a legion of virtual trees. On each side, there is red-tiled masonry, a Mughal colour, and far to the right, a red column, knife-edged, cutting through the Delhi haze. The building is, in the best possible sense, a waste of space. Unlike so many of Delhi’s modern buildings, there is no attempt to squeeze in as much floor area as possible. It is low density. The building has space to breathe and so does Connaught Place.