Mandi House
Building in New Delhi, India
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In the 1940s, the 18th Raja of Mandi State, Raja Sir Joginder Sen Bahadur built his residence next to what is now Himachal Bhawan. The estate was later sold and divided in the 1970s. The old palace was demolished to make way for large, modern offices which were constructed in the 1990s. The state house of Himachal Pradesh, Himachal Bhawan, is now located here. The headquarters Doordarshan Bhawan of the national television broadcaster Doordarshan is also located here. Today, the name of the office complex remembers the old royal residence as well the Mandi House metro station. The area gradually became a key arts district, anchored by institutional landmarks: the National School of Drama campus (post-1959), the Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts (1960s, Shiv Nath Prasad & Ebrahim Alkazi), and the Triveni Kala Sangam (1950), all of which expanded Mandi House's identity as Delhi's cultural hub. The Agrasen ki Baoli well is located near Mandi House.
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Architecture
The architecture of Mandi House reflects a layered urban fabric of royal remnant, brutalist civic buildings, and mid-century cultural institutions. The Doordarshan Bhawan, designed by Raj Rewal in the 1970s features massive exposed sandstone and concrete forms, marking a departure from earlier colonial styles. Across the road, the Shri Ram Centre (designed by Shiv Nath Prasad, with input from Alkazi) showcases a cubic massing with a prominent cantilevered roof slab and stark geometric lines, a bold example of 1960s institutional brutalism in New Delhi. The Triveni Kala Sangam blends low-rise, open-plan design with classical colonnades, housing galleries, theaters, and studios around courtyards. It is an elegant fusion of modernist planning with traditional spatial arrangements.