Dr. Zama M.S. is the Founder and Managing Director of Starneth India. He leads the company's strategy, partnerships and accountable delivery of landmark observation-wheel projects in India.
Delhi, Delhi
Delhi Eye
Jaal and Axis
A formal Delhi NCR landmark defined by curved four-leg pylons, a winter garden axis and transit access.
Concept. Design direction, not a committed project
Concept visualization. Every design direction on this page remains a concept until site, engineering, wind, geotechnical, aviation, coastal, environmental, heritage and authority studies are completed.
The city
Where it sits, and what it is read against.
Delhi is a city of deliberate axes. Successive capitals were laid out with governing geometries, and the twentieth-century civic quarter added another at a much larger scale. The city also has a long tradition of perforated stone screens that provide shade, cooling and controlled views, alongside formal gardens organised around water. Its continental climate brings extreme summer heat, cold winter nights and severe winter air quality. Ceremony and shade are the two constants.
Concept motifs
- Axis
- Jaali field
- Sandstone base
- Water channel
- Courtyard sequence
- Sandstone red
- Warm ivory
- Deep indigo
- Muted brass
- Garden green
Cultural research
Every source below changed something in the design.
Cultural material is used here as design logic: geometry, proportion, circulation, material and climate response: never as applied surface decoration. No temple, mosque, monument, government building or sacred object is copied, and no religious imagery appears on capsules, tickets, merchandise or commercial space.
- Delhi's axial planning
- Made the arrival sequence the primary architectural act. The approach is a single straight axis with a water channel on it, and the wheel sits exactly on that axis: bilateral symmetry, no oblique view.
- Red sandstone
- Set the ground plane and the pavilion base. Sandstone is used as mass at low level, where it is walked on and touched, and never as cladding high on the structure.
- Mughal and Indo-Islamic geometric screens
- Became abstract jaali logic: a perforated field used for shading, station ceilings and rim infill, generated from a repeating geometry rather than copied from any monument.
- Lutyens-era civic scale
- Fixed the proportions of the boarding court: wide, low, formal, with the wheel set far enough back that a visitor sees it whole from the axis.
- Layers of historic cities
- Justified the restraint. In a city with this much built history, the concept deliberately avoids competing, and takes its monumentality from geometry rather than from height signalling.
- Formal gardens and processional space
- Organised the landscape as courtyards, tree lines and a central water channel, with the wheel terminating the sequence instead of interrupting it.
Design direction
Jaal and Axis
Delhi Eye is organised around a long civic garden axis and a low transit-linked terminal.
Two pairs of broad curved pylons form a four-leg portal around the axle, giving the wheel a deeper and more monumental support profile than the coastal concepts.
A conventional radial cable field and deep rim keep the structure legible at metropolitan scale.
Abstract jaali geometry remains in pavilion screens where it provides shade and filtered light.
How the wheel stands up
- Four curved steel pylons work as paired front and rear frames around the axle, with visible depth in oblique views.
- A deep trussed rim and straight radial cables support thirty climate-controlled cabins.
- The sandstone-toned terminal is structurally independent and connects directly to the formal garden and transit arrival.
- Concept only. Wind, seismic, geotechnical, aviation, air-quality, transport and protected-view studies govern final height.
Station architecture
- A shaded, formal pavilion with courtyards on the axis, a central water channel and tree lines on both sides.
- Screens do the environmental work: the queue is shaded and cross-ventilated by perforated walls rather than by mechanical cooling.
- Controlled views: the wheel is concealed on approach and revealed at the last courtyard.
- Sandstone underfoot and at hand height; lighter material above, so the mass sits at the bottom.
Capsule and visitor experience
- Restrained interiors in ivory and muted brass, with the screen geometry appearing once, at the ceiling, and nowhere else.
- Glazing specified for a continental climate: solar control for summer, and interiors that are not cold-feeling in a Delhi January.
- Filtered ventilation, because winter air quality is a real operating constraint here rather than a theoretical one.
- Level boarding at a designated position in every rotation set, on the same axis as every other visitor.
Lighting identity
- The jaali geometry is the lighting. The rim screen is backlit as a pattern rather than outlined as a ring.
- Warm ivory light at low level, cooler light in the screen, so the composition has a base and a field.
- Static or very slowly changing. Nothing chases, nothing pulses.
Landscape and public realm
- A formal garden sequence: courtyards, tree lines, a central water channel and a terminating boarding court.
- Deep shade from mature-canopy species along the whole axis, planted as an avenue rather than as clusters.
- Water used for cooling as well as for geometry: the channel is a microclimate device.
Commercial activation
- A civic events court that works for public programming when the wheel is closed.
- Restrained retail set into the courtyard walls rather than into the boarding sequence.
- A garden café on the axis, with its own entrance.
- Interpretation of the city's layered planning history, sited as public content rather than as a paid exhibit.
Visitor journey
Arrival to return, in six moves.
- 01AxisA straight approach along the water channel, wheel not yet visible.
- 02CourtyardsA sequence of shaded, screened courts stepping toward the site.
- 03RevealThe last courtyard opens and the wheel appears whole, on axis.
- 04BoardingLevel boarding from a centred threshold under the screen.
- 05RotationThe axis first, then the city's other geometries, then the horizon.
- 06ReturnOut through the garden, not back down the axis.
Climate response
- Extreme summer heat: shade, screens and water are the primary devices, mechanical cooling the last one.
- Cold winter nights: the boarding court is detailed to be usable in January, not only in October.
- Winter air quality: filtered ventilation in capsules and enclosed spaces is treated as a base requirement.
Sustainability approach
- Passive shading and cross-ventilation as the first environmental system in every public space.
- Regional sandstone, selected for transport distance as well as for colour.
- Water reuse through the channel and the garden, with no potable irrigation.
Accessibility approach
- The axis is the accessible route. There is no separate accessible entrance, because there is only one entrance.
- Gradients across the whole courtyard sequence held to ramp standards without any step-and-ramp pairing.
- Level boarding at a designated capsule position in every rotation set.
- High-contrast wayfinding and tactile paving along the axis and at every courtyard threshold.
Mobility connections
- Set-down held off-axis so the approach stays pedestrian for its full length.
- Cycle parking at the first courtyard.
- Intended to connect to a metro or bus interchange by a shaded pedestrian route rather than a car link.
Concept gallery
Delhi Eye: concept visualizations
Concept visualization. Every design direction on this page remains a concept until site, engineering, wind, geotechnical, aviation, coastal, environmental, heritage and authority studies are completed.
Concept visualizationComputed vector geometry
Destination overviewThe wheel terminates the sequence instead of interrupting it. Concept visualizationComputed vector geometry
Blue hourThe geometry is the lighting. Nothing chases. Concept visualizationComputed vector geometry
Boarding pavilionScreens do the environmental work before any machine does. Concept visualizationComputed vector geometry
Capsule and visitor experienceThe screen appears once, at the ceiling, and nowhere else. Concept visualizationComputed vector geometry
Structural detailStructural infill between the chords, not applied cladding. Concept visualizationComputed vector geometry
Public realmWater used for cooling as well as for geometry.
Leadership / Delhi Eye
Leadership and project partners
Company accountability, with local responsibility.
Starneth India leadership applies across the platform. Local partners are credited only on the project where they hold a confirmed role.
Local partners will be added here only after their project role and publication approval are confirmed.
Project status
Concept. Design direction, not a committed project
Delhi Eye is a design direction. There is no award, contract, financing, concession, approval or construction start associated with it, and nothing on this page should be read as one. Each city project would be structured, financed and contracted independently.
Concept last reviewed 2026-09-06.
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