Start from Bangalore on an early-morning or mid-morning flight to Delhi (IGI Airport) so you’re not rushing the first site day; flying time is about 2.5–3 hours, but with airport check-in, baggage, and the Delhi traffic buffer, plan for most of the day to be in transit. If you can land by early afternoon, that’s ideal. From IGI Airport, take the Airport Express + Blue Line or a direct cab/auto depending on your luggage; to Anand Vihar it usually takes around 60–90 minutes by metro and 45–75 minutes by cab, with cab fares often ₹700–₹1,200 depending on traffic. Keep your bag light and arrive with a sketchbook, a water bottle, and a charged phone/power bank so you can head straight into observation without needing to settle in much.
Begin at Anand Vihar ISBT & Metro Concourse and spend about an hour watching how the interchange works at peak movement. This is a very Delhi kind of place: people arriving from buses, metro, autos, and footpaths all at once, with strong pressure points at entry gates, ticketing, shaded waiting areas, and the pedestrian spillover outside. For an architecture student, the best sketches here are not just of the building form but of circulation, threshold conditions, signage, and the informal edge uses around the station. Stand at different points—one near the metro exit, one near the bus forecourt, and one slightly away on the road edge—to compare how the same space changes by viewing angle and movement density.
Move on to Anand Vihar Terminal for about 1.5 hours to study platform interfaces, crowd handling, and the material character of the station from the public side. Focus on the transition zones: drop-off areas, ticket access, security checks, luggage movement, and the rhythm of waiting versus motion. This area gets especially lively in the evening, so it’s a good time to record how lighting, signage, and crowd control shape the experience. If you want quick refreshments, there are basic snack stalls around the station, but don’t overstay in one place—keep the observation active and walk the perimeter to understand how the station sits in the larger urban edge.
For dinner, head to V3S Mall Food Court near the Laxmi Nagar / Vivek Vihar edge. It’s practical, fast, and has enough variety that you can eat without losing time—expect roughly ₹300–₹700 depending on what you pick. After dinner, do a short park-side walk near East Delhi’s residential edge around Anand Vihar/Karkardooma if you still have energy. This is a useful after-dark study: note street lighting levels, security presence, the feel of the sidewalks, and whether the public edges feel open or defensive at night. Keep it to 30–45 minutes, then rest early so you’re fresh for the more intensive Kashmere Gate day tomorrow.
Leave Anand Vihar early enough to be at Kashmere Gate Metro Station right as the commuter peak is settling in — that’s the best hour to read the station as a piece of infrastructure rather than just a transfer point. From Anand Vihar ISBT / Metro to Kashmere Gate, the Blue Line → Yamuna Bank → Red Line route is the smartest choice; expect about 35–45 minutes if you keep the interchange smooth, and budget ₹20–₹30. Give yourself a little buffer, because the station is busy, and the first thing to observe is circulation: entry funnels, ticketing queues, platform widths, vertical movement, and how students, office workers, and intercity passengers all occupy the same system. Spend about an hour sketching thresholds, signage, stair/ramp movement, and the contrast between the station’s fast, compressed interior and the loose street edge outside.
From there, walk or take a very short hop to Red Fort and study the dramatic shift in scale: the hard transit geometry gives way to the monumental Mughal wall, deep gateways, and the long, defensive edge facing Old Delhi. Two hours is enough to trace the outer perimeter, draw the proportion of walls to street, and note how contemporary traffic, vendors, and service movement press against the historic form. If the main gates feel crowded, use that as part of your analysis — the urban edge here is as important as the architecture itself. Keep your camera and sketchbook ready for wall texture, shadow lines, and the way the fort sits as a monumental object but also as a lived boundary in the city.
Continue to St. James’ Church, which is a useful reset after the fort: quieter, smaller, and much more legible for studying proportion, colonial-era detailing, timber structure, and the calmer spatial rhythm of the grounds. It’s the kind of place where you can sit for 30–45 minutes without being rushed, draw elevations, and compare the material language to the weight of Red Fort you just left. For lunch, head to Aastha Restaurant or a similar no-fuss North Indian place near Kashmere Gate — this is the right time for a practical meal, not a long sit-down. Expect ₹200–₹450 for a proper plate of thali, dal, paneer, or roti-sabzi; most such places are open through lunch and stay busy with office workers, students, and transit passengers, so service is quick.
After lunch, move to Civil Lines and take the Delhi University North Campus edge walk. This is where your site reading shifts from monument to urban fabric: tree-lined roads, boundary walls, institutional setbacks, and the low-rise, spacious morphology that feels very different from Old Delhi’s compression. Spend around 1.5 hours walking slowly, noting plot sizes, street enclosure, wall heights, and how the campus edge controls views and pedestrian movement. This is one of the best stretches in the city for architecture students because you can observe the ordinary but important stuff — drainage edges, shade trees, compound gates, and the way academic/residential land uses soften the street. In the evening, head to Chandni Chowk and finish at Gali Paranthe Wali for the most textured part of the day: narrow lanes, layered signage, shopfront rhythm, food stalls, and constant movement. Go with the expectation that it will be lively and slightly chaotic; that’s the point. A couple of parathas with lassi or chaat is enough, usually ₹150–₹400, and it’s a strong final note for recording street life, material contrasts, and how food culture shapes public space in Old Delhi.
After your early start from Kashmere Gate, aim to reach Connaught Place by around 9:00–9:30 AM so you can catch Janpath Market as it wakes up. This is the best time to study the street edge: stalls setting up, shop shutters rising, and the slow build of pedestrian movement along Janpath Road. Give yourself about 1.5 hours here to sketch the retail frontage, signage, and how the market spills onto the footpath; most stalls are active from roughly 10:00 AM onward, and you’ll find the light kinder before noon. If you want a quick tea or water break, there are plenty of small kiosks around Outer Circle and Janpath for ₹30–₹100.
A short walk brings you down into Palika Bazaar, which is useful for observing a very different spatial condition: underground circulation, compressed retail, and the way heat and noise shape buyer behavior. Late morning is the right time because it’s busy but still navigable, and you can spend about an hour noting the narrow corridors, repetitive shop modules, and artificial lighting. Keep your bag close, wear comfortable shoes, and expect a very dense environment — it’s one of those places where the architecture is as much about movement control as it is about commerce.
Come up for air at Central Park and use the open lawn to reset your eye. This is the best spot in CP for quick people studies, tree canopy sketches, and reading the roundabout geometry of the district as a whole. Around midday, the park gets lively but not overwhelming, and an hour is enough to sit, draw, and observe how office-goers, shoppers, and tourists use the space differently. For lunch, United Coffee House is worth lingering over — not just for the food, but because the interiors give you a classic old-Delhi institutional dining atmosphere that’s ideal for noting materials, lighting, and seating hierarchy. Budget around ₹800–₹1,500 per person, and if you can, sit a little longer than planned; it’s a good place to write field notes without rushing.
After lunch, head toward Agrasen ki Baoli on Hailey Road for the most rewarding sketching session of the day. The stepwell is usually open from around 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, entry is free, and the afternoon light works beautifully on the stone surfaces and repeating arches. Spend at least 1.5 hours here: one side for elevation studies, one for section-like spatial notes, and one for texture, shadow, and crowd behavior. It’s a calm contrast to CP, but still close enough that the walk between them feels like a shift in urban mood rather than a major transfer.
Finish at Jantar Mantar, where the open-air astronomical instruments make a strong final stop for composition studies and wide-angle photographs. Late afternoon into early evening is ideal, when the shadows start to define the forms better; plan around 1.5 hours here, and if you can, stay until just before closing so you can record how the space changes as the day cools and foot traffic thins. It’s a good point to close your notes for the day — you’ll have covered retail frontage, underground circulation, public open space, heritage interiors, and monumental scientific architecture all within one compact district. If you’re heading back with sketches and a bag full of purchases, keep your exit around 6:30–7:00 PM so you avoid the worst evening crowd; from Connaught Place you can return via Rajiv Chowk with the same metro connection, or take a cab if you’re carrying too much to manage comfortably.
Start early from New Delhi with enough margin so you’re not sketching in a rush—Delhi mornings are best before the heat and school-traffic build up. Take a cab or metro into Nizamuddin and begin at Humayun’s Tomb right around opening time (typically 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM; ticket around ₹35 for Indian citizens and more for foreign visitors). This is the day to slow down: spend time on the charbagh symmetry, the red sandstone-and-marble palette, the dome proportions, and how the water channels organize movement even when they’re dry. For architecture notes, walk the perimeter first, then enter the garden axes and sketch the elevations from a few different distances—your best light will be in the first 2 hours.
From there, a short auto ride brings you to Sunder Nursery, which is ideal after the tomb because it lets you switch from monument study to landscape-architecture study without breaking the rhythm. Entry is usually from early morning till evening, and the ticket is modest (roughly ₹50–₹100). Pick a shaded bench or the quieter waterbody edges and observe the adaptive reuse logic: restored structures, native planting, walking loops, and how families, joggers, and tourists share the same space without it feeling over-managed. After about 2 hours, move into the Nizamuddin Basti walk—this is the most valuable part of the day for urban observation. Keep your pace unhurried through the lanes, note thresholds, repair patterns, street widths, informal vending, and the contrast between heritage edges and the lived settlement fabric; this is where your site-recording will feel most alive, especially if you spend time just sitting near a lane junction and watching the neighborhood function.
Head to Khan Market for a late lunch and coffee break. It’s one of Delhi’s most polished pedestrian retail streets, so it’s perfect for studying frontage depth, shop signage, shaded arcades, and how expensive retail still works at a human scale. Budget around ₹700–₹1,800 depending on where you eat; good practical stops include Big Chill Café for a heavier meal or Perch Wine & Coffee Bar for something lighter, with easy people-watching from the upper windows or sidewalk tables. After that, continue to India Habitat Centre on Lodhi Road, which is one of the city’s best contemporary institutional complexes for an architecture student—courtyards, transitions, stepped public edges, and the way the place balances events, circulation, and pause spaces. Late afternoon into evening is especially good here because the shadows sharpen the geometry and the courtyards become much easier to read.
Wrap up by heading back toward New Delhi in time for your flight. From India Habitat Centre, a cab is the least stressful option if you’re carrying bags; plan on leaving 1.5 to 2.5 hours before airport reporting time because evening traffic can be unpredictable, especially once the office rush starts to spill out. If your departure is from IGI Airport, give yourself extra buffer for check-in and security, then you can use whatever time remains for a quiet coffee or a final review of your sketches before boarding back to Bangalore.