Interiors & Designs

Towards new architecture

Sanjay Puri

A suite room in combinations of red, white and grays

A rectilinear box with square-punctuated windows at regular intervals or flower beds running along the length of the building is easily discernible as a hotel building in India and the world over since decades now.

While the architecture of residential, commercial, offices, bungalows, museums, exhibition centers have all been continuously evolving over the years, the hotel building has remained relatively unchanged, looking like a simple box. In the recent years however architects have been able to convince a few hoteliers with the result that there are interesting buildings being made as hotels the world over.

In India, however, most hoteliers still want the unassuming box as their hotel buildings. While they have accepted new designs for the interior spaces, their minds remain closed to any evolution in architectural design. As a result with our country on the threshold of the biggest hospitality boom ever with over 2,000 new hotels being planned in the next few years, we may only see more box-like structures, which would look like they have been existing since the last few decades in spite of being constructed newly.

Staid or stylish?

What is it that creates this aversion in most hotel chains and hoteliers to deviate from the staid hotel architecture of the past? When the interiors have been continuously evolving what stops them from allowing new directions in the architectural design? They all want to create an identity but restrict this aspect to the interior design and services when the largest impact in terms of identity is the built-form. A single building, the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, changed the economic conditions of the city making it a tourist destination and thereby creating a large number of jobs and helping the city progress on all fronts.

A good architectural design can have tremendous impact. The way we perceive spaces can be redefined in an interesting manner creating a unique identity. While being functional, spaces can be created that can truly exhilarate the senses. This needs to be manifested in the architectural form and layout. The interior design is the next step towards creating such spaces but can never do what the architectural design can do. A good building whether a hotel or an office building is a coherent symbiosis of architectural and interior design with architecture creating the spaces and interiors further accentuating them.

We need to break away from what has been done in the past and evolve new designs that look at the aspects differently to create spaces that are unique and have their own identity. There can be no one way of doing things as is being done over so many years.

Shipra hotel in Noida, Delhi-NCR was a typical hotel building constructed 20 years ago. It was decided that it will be transformed into a boutique hotel. The entire existing exterior of square windows and linear bands were stripped away and done anew in a rectilinear composition of purple, white and clear glass juxtaposed against a rectilinear composition of pink and silver aluminum paneled walls. The identity of the hotel is thus created from the outside itself and continues into the interior spaces, where a 24-feet high lobby leads to the public spaces.

Transformation…

What existed as a small 48-room hotel for over 20 years in Sector 18, Noida known as Shipra hotel with a room rate of Rs 1,500 opened its door one year later as Mosaic, a boutique hotel with a room rate of Rs 7,000.

The entire hotel including its exterior and the interior underwent a dramatic transformation. Angular planes transformed the original plastered box shaped building into a composition of solid, transparent, straight and angular forms that are further defined by colour and abstract composition. An abstract rectilinear composition of purple, white and clear glass along with metallic pink and silver aluminum and pink granite, now sheath the building exterior.

A large silver angular canopy heralds the entrance into a high-ceiling lobby. Clear glass on three sides allows this small lobby to visually extend up to the boundary of the plot with each side facing a different view. Thin backlit aluminum sections float below a dark wood ceiling bending up and down creating a rhythm juxtaposed against travertine clad walls. Circular glass inserts in a 24-feet high wall with colour change LEDs that keep changing the ambience in the lobby at regular intervals creating dynamism.

Mosaic has two F&B outlets. The first is the lounge bar christened Fluid due to its design. Floor wall and ceiling and furniture merge in undulating ripples across two levels creating a completely fluid cocoon like space within. Changing colour lights used throughout the interior of this bar allow for complete transformation at 20 minute intervals into a variety of hues of greens, blues, reds, pinks and yellows.

Interestingly, each of the two levels is intentionally not synchronised allowing for different colours to imbibe both spaces with a different ambience simultaneously. The lower level includes a small dance floor and DJ section.

The other F&B outlet called Latitude is a multi-cuisine restaurant situated on the first floor. Long continuous wraps of stacked plywood float within this restaurant forming alcoves of varying scales juxtaposed against each other creating varying compositions of form as one moves through the restaurant and creating individual identities for the space within. Banqueting facilities are provided on two different levels, a lower one for easy external accessibility for larger functions and a series of merge-able smaller rooms on the second floor for conferencing.

The four uppermost levels of this seven level hotel house the 48 rooms. The corridors are interestingly curvilinear with textured walls and indirect lighting a complete deviation from the staid hotel corridors one normally encounters. Lighting, textures and colour enhance the curvilinear form creating a warm ambience.

The relatively small existing rooms were transformed completely by a number of elements that have succeeded in creating a much larger feel within the rooms. Bathroom with full height glass corners open up the room from the vestibule itself. Sliding doors for wardrobes, toilet and refrigerator and cantilevered bedside tables and study table further enhance the spatial feel.

Complete edge-to-edge and top-to-bottom glass on the outer side further open up the rooms without a visual barrier from the interior to the exterior. Warm colour tones and textures used in a predominantly white room also allude to the spatial character of the room.

Each floor has one suite with an individuality imparted by furniture, lights, accessories and colour scheme. The living room space and bedroom space are divided by a clear glass partition for it to look larger while automated roller blinds tucked away in the ceiling can provide for privacy. The suites are equipped with dressing space and large four fixture toilets. Plasma TVs are provided to the living, bedroom and the toilets within the suites along with Bose music system.

The design of the hotel completely corroborates to the name. This is a hotel with a mosaic of experiences, a mosaic of colours, of textures, of lighting, of compositions, of forms, of spaces each with a unique identity and yet integrated together holistically.

The underlying concept was to redefine the way a hotel is perceived. The existing box like structure was completely transformed by angular planes created to form a dynamic juxtaposition of form that delineates the structure now. Colour has been provided not in a static way by paint but in a dynamic way by colour change lighting that constantly transforms the lounge bar completely while being an important element in the lobby, in the form of projected glass modules from a marble clad wall. Textures imparted by natural look materials play an important role throughout the interiors in the restaurant, the corridors and the rooms.

Function is always more important than form although in every design both form and function are integrated together from the beginning to the end to create the perfect balance.

The writer is a Mumbai-based architect