Session 84 summary
Studio Lotus is celebrating 20 years this year and they have grown from an Interior Design (ID) practice to Architecture and Interior Design practice. Often on weekends or atleast on Saturdays, they bring in people to run a workshop and do sessions where they discuss about what they are working on in a project, discussing challenges in the studio as a team, etc. One of the key things in the process is to engage with people and look at the larger picture, so they really deep dive into their process, looking at what are the larger impacts their decisions are going to make in the design process and choices are made keeping in mind all the stakeholders that are there.
Some of the projects that Studio Lotus did were:
Narrative for a retail price: store for Rajesh Pratap Singh, at Emporio New Delhi 2008- it was a retail brand identity they did for Rajesh Pratap Singh. It is a store in Emporio in a high end luxury mall where there a lot of similar size footprints given out for retail showcasing and they had to create an identity for him. Rajesh very humbly gave a brief about himself- his garments are very understated but there are a lot of textures and a lot of tactile quality that he brings in in-terms of how he constructs his garment. The team broke up tools from the trade and after a lot of mock-ups and failed experiments they arrived at the destination where they started working with scissors which became like their motif. Which then was converted into a large graphic pattern across the veil that they were visualising. Which from the vertical phase to the ceiling, it kind of wrapped the whole store. When looked closer, then one realises that it is scissors, there were many patterns which were generated and the whole work was done at site. Another store they worked in was for Gaurav Gupta for his recent project where the idea was to create a divide in the store and reflect the persona of Gaurav’s garments which is mostly surreal. They took references from his story telling devices Gaurav uses in his garments and the techniques that he uses for his garments. The entire store was divided into two sections/collections, the bridal and the bed and what they wanted to do was to create something that was amorphous which was fluid so there were large concrete walls that divided the store into two zones of the store. These concrete panels were cast at site they created special structure system and they created relatively a mystical experience as one walks across the store, discover the two sides of the displays and the panels would gently sway if one accidently walks into them. For the display devices, they worked with the local craftsman one sees, they brought in those craftsmen to build various parts of the store. For the hangers, they took inspirations from Gaurav’s sketches of the swans, so the metal was beaten into hooks, a series of them form a display rack, the gate was converted from gaurav’s drawing of two swans. His technique of converting fabrics i.e. sculpting fabrics was taken and converted into a cast and they created mirror panels out of them.
Raas Jodhpur: working with local skills and materials to build a new vocabulary for contemporary expression adaptive conventional wisdom and building technologies- They worked on some of the hotel projects they have been working one with a brand and one of which was in the old city of Jodhpur where they were given the site in the heart of the old city of Jodhpur and the key idea was to capture the experiences of the Mehrangarh Fort from the site. There were buildings which were around 100 years old and they had to bring in a 40 room hotel around it. For this they designed the site in such a way that walked through the old gate, came into the courtyard and then their first building which houses large part of the rooms becomes the gateway into the compound and one can walk through that building and come into a courtyard which is the main public experience of the hotel, that is where they put in the swimming pool and the rest of the buildings were tucked away in a way that when one enters the premise those buildings are juxtaposed against the Mehrangarh Fort and that becomes the primary visual of the hotel. They spent a lot of time conserving the old structures, they peeled off layers of plaster which revealed the hidden details, they pulled the stone out, for the old structures they used techniques of the way it was. For the main new building that they wanted to install, since the fort sits on the western face/phase so they had to deal with the harsh sun that would come into the building and they looked up to reinterpreting the traditional jaali motifs that one sees in Rajasthan. So they had to create a thermal mask to cut the harsh sunlight and they worked with the local craftsman who are very familiar with the stone which was locally procured. One of the key premise they made for themselves was to work with materials in a 30km radius and also the sight itself had a constraint of moving materials because it is in the middle of old Jodhpur town and the only way to access the sight was through the narrow streets. So, they didn’t have trucks moving in and had to use smaller vehicles, bullock carts to move the material into the property. In terms of skill, they realized that the concrete works were poorer than stonework skills, so a lot of their architecture expressions started using 50mm stones. So, when looking at the building the two skins are actually dressed up only in stone, they even used stone walls between the washroom and the primary room. Then they worked with layers of embellishment on it which is all hand dressed with different techniques and different patterns. The main floors and surfaces within the room are also hand cast, they used the traditional technique of Port taraso in the rooms as well as the bathrooms. They also did an extensive use of stones across the headboard/fort, the balcony which looks out at the fort with a 450kg sliding device. So the hotel keeps animating itself as the client comes in, open up the balconies and look out to the fort and in the main corridor the quality of light keeps shifting to the stone screen. Raas Chhatrasagar: creating a new story for a wildlife camp hotel built over a historical dam at the edge of a reservoir in remote Rajasthan, contemporizing craft and traditional building techniques interpreting luxury with the idea of handmade and bespoke. The brief was to create 14 or 16 tent property on an old manmade dam in the reservoir Chhatrasagar, next to a large water body. They worked with a very lightweight structural system because it had to sit on a dam. It is built using a series of structural wall and one textile roof stretches across with details like skylights built into it and the bamboo structures hold up the entire mass. On one side there is the forest or the green zone and on the other side there is the water body. The idea was to create a two shaded experiences and they built a public space which acts as a pavilion. So, there is the swimming pool on one side and on the other side there is the reservoir. The building is built using stones and the structure system is very light and rest in circular columns. Then they started working with a storytelling narrative of the flora and fauna of the region. So, a lot of expression within the property is built using this narrative, they worked with a very local palette, local craftsmen, giving them a canvas to tell a story. The tents are first dressed in large block-prints and then layered with hand embroidery and the entire interior lining is used as a story telling device and gives each tent a different narrative, a different colour story, the furniture pieces all of them have the local flora and fauna transferred in different ways.
The Baradari at city palace Jaipur: re-vitalising a historic building to create an important connect with the city and the visiting tourists, making the old transform to be an aspirational space for the urban dwellers but yet creating a dialogue with the legacy and heritage. They do a lot of work which is in the domain of adaptive reuse and the project in the Jaipur city palace where they were invited to rearticulate an old café into the museum premise and the idea was to connect the tourists as well as the locals and make something which was aspirational for both. The location is at the entry point before moving into the museum. There was an old toilet block which obstructed the connection of the entire courtyard and they worked with the local conservation team and got them to realise that that structure was built or came in a much later stage and they opened up that courtyard which wasn’t connecting and giving a line of sight from the arrival experience of the museum and that was rearticulated as an anchoring device. The new device was a contemporary intervention using local stones adding a jewel like structure as the bar and the old structure was stripped bare of construction and became a backdrop to the new install which came in. the old structure was carefully restored, the geometry of the old structure was retained as a backdrop and the new inserts on the floor, the new furniture was created using stone. A lot of the inspiration of the new insert came from the art deco story one sees inside the palace grounds of Jaipur. The mirror work of Jaipur was reinterpreted, the patterns were also reinterpreted and new floors were inserted where the old floors were worn out. They also carefully created indoor outdoor spaces, so most of the metal work was done locally. They again had the mandate of working with local skills available in that region and they carefully chose the methodology they wanted to use. Presenting the India story in masti: creating a strong positioning for a restaurant in Dubai using quirk and reinterpretation of Indian craft. They did a project in Dubai celebrating India. The whole project is built and installed in the wild. So, most of the pieces, furniture etc. were all created and handcrafted in India and then shipped and then installed at the site. The name is masti was chosen and the idea was to bring in that madness from India and reinterpret it for a very high end bar and restaurant space. They had two floors, as it is at the edge of a beach property so there is a beach access, there is an access from the parking zone, there is two points of entry and at the upper level there is the bar which becomes the anchoring device for the upper level. The building is very contemporary in a cold material of metal. The approach that they have taken is that they have gone all out with the colour, crafted elements, they have taken patterns from their textiles and transferred them onto the tables, even the textile was custom developed with a textile and graphic designer from Delhi. The juice bar in the lower level is inspired from the juice stalls seen in India. In the bar on the upper level they brought in a giant elephant installation, even the stained glass panels were handcrafted in India then shipped there.
Articulating a story for an iconic building for the government: Krishi Bhavan, Bhubaneshwar Agricultural Directoral of Oddisha- (large scale project) this was one of their first government projects where they were invited to do iconic building for the Odisha Agricultural Directorate. A lot of time was spent debating and engaging with the brief itself. The brief was rearticulated with the government body and Studio Lotus started engaging with questions such as how can a government building become more connected with the community it is serving, can there be ways in which the building expression is rooted in the state that it is sitting in in the immediate context of the surrounding and how can we engage with craft actively. How they will make the government a patron to engage with the local craftsman. The entire ground floor was cleared up of all the office spaces and that became an active programmable space for different kinds of activities they would engage with the people they are serving, there are experimenting zones for the farmers and NGOs to develop new techniques, amphitheatres, haats for farmers to sell their produce, lecture rooms, etc. various kinds of facilities were opened up as the public zone at the lower level. For the main building itself they needed a screening device so they started working with the mud blocks to create a jaali and for the jaali the inspiration was taken from the local ikkat fabric, which was then converted into a pattern that creates an optical of play. The building also uses a passive cooling system. On the ground level they with a particular stone which is very easy to handcraft, so there is a lot of narrative that is built into that public space, so the lower floor became a canvas and they brought in many craftsman to go and build narratives and start expressing at that level- the columns have been dressed up, the various screens have been inserted, large murals were done after the stones were laid, the large murals were hand cut. All of them picked up stories from mythology from different aspects of states, seasons and it is actively used by the local community who send their time there.
Crafts museum store and café lota: adapting a building with very frugal interventions and attracting the audience by creating the building as a canvas for visiting craftsman- it was a project in Delhi where they were brought in to look at a small museum shop and bring in some intervention which would activate that crafts museum ground as an active public zone. The wanted to increase the footfall apart from people just coming to the museum shop or museum remise itself. They wanted to create a sense of open space available to the public to engage with. So they cleaned up the old museum and the interventions they brought in were more in the masterplan around creating large sit down areas and the focus was the café which they wanted to use as an activation space. The café is actually created between the boundary and the main museum shop. It is a very lightweight metal structure as it was a very low budget intervention and they created a simple light-root structure that bridges the existing building and the boundary wall and creates a sheltering device it is lined with bamboo on the lower side and it has a fibre sheet on top. Since there were a lot of crafts people engaging with the premise, they worked with a lot of craftspeople to articulate the old building and dress it up and bring in a layer of a narrative which is basically different techniques and different explorations that is seen. A hill community, Uttarakhand: dwelling units in the hills, minimising impact to and revitalising ecology and building on very steep slopes- some of the initial research was more about looking at the existing water system, the flora and fauna of the area. They spent about a year and a year and a half just putting in many check dams to revitalise the land and bring up the water table. The planning of the entire site was done in a way where minimising any cutting of the soil, so even the roads had been planned in a way where very minimal JCB intervention had to be brought in. by studying the water system they were able to plan the villa positions in a way that they don’t disrupt the water movement. Again going back to traditional systems of, instead of concrete detailing of walls they went back to using bamboo walls to stabilise the edges of the soil and hold water. For the villa, instead of doing large footprint intervention at sight they worked with a very light structural system which works on pin foundation, they only worked with box sections- it’s a basket deep construction system using regular ms box sections which allows for the light structures to rise up in sloping hills and the idea was to leave the soil free so that vegetation and water flow would stay unobstructed.
About the Speaker
Ankur Choksi
As Design Principal of Studio Lotus, Ankur adds over 19 years of in-depth experience to the practice. He founded Studio Lotus in 2002 along with Ambrish Arora & Sidhartha Talwar. A Graduate in Design from the National Institute of Design at Ahmedabad, Ankur trained and worked as a Graphic and Exhibition Designer, exploring multiple media at various design firms at the early stages of his career, before moving to Interior and Architectural Design. Ankur’s passion for stretching the conceptual possibilities of a project till its last detail is reflected in his diverse repertoire of Narrative-based Experiential Design that includes Retail and Hospitality Environments, Workspaces and Brand Experiences. Ankur has an active interest in Design for Brands and Experiences, Design Education and impacting change in Evolving Communities through Design. He has spoken at various national design forums like FOAID and has served as visiting faculty and juror at prestigious institutions including NID and CEPT in Ahmedabad and NIFT in Delhi.
