By Savitha Hira
Photography: Vinesh Gandhi; courtesy Sanjay Puri
Architects
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Whether it is a serene
minimalist Chapel on international turf or a design-busy resto-lounge in the
heart of Mumbai, Sanjay Puri Architects continue to climb the charts of
sculptural architecture…
It is probably the artist
in him that takes command of the creative freedom he is given, whilst the
architect in Sanjay then assembles the technicalities into place, summing up
the whole into an intriguing physical structure that tends to satiate on both
fronts – pragmatic as well as ephemeral.
When Sanjay designed the
Blue Cilantro, a futuristic design wrap for a pan-Asian restaurant in Mumbai,
several years ago, he was playing with sculpture in architecture, but very
safely. Today, the Auriga restaurant and night club stands testimony to his
confidence in moulding spaces wrapped in free-form/ faceted,
precision-deliberated design; going into miniscule detailing that aggregates to
the larger picture: audacious, involved and stupefying.
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Simply
put, Sanjay is playing well into the hands of what the club-trotting audience
seeks – a place so ubiquitous that it fills your craving for an aesthetic high
on a night out. This restaurant and
lounge, standing next door to his office elucidates the vocabulary of faceted
geometry.
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The
entire building exterior is designed in a web of abstractly folded triangular aluminum
planes that reflect sunlight in different ways through the day and are beacons
of colour-change lights by night.
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Metal and wood are the two
trajectories that Sanjay traverses here: while the al fresco cafeteria and its adjoining night club are sheathed in
back-lit with colour change silver metallic louvers on the ground floor,
accentuated by varied textures of black forming an arresting backdrop; a single
flight of steps traverses through a 24ft. high volume from the metal dominated
nightclub to a wood enclosed restaurant above.
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The
interior is a more abstracted form, where the wrap sheaths the walls, columns,
ceiling, staircase and bar, the entire space rendered sculptural with the
integration of all design elements within the abstractly woven web. The
fluidity of the free-form undulating wood strips with its strong palette of
umber, black and grey (flooring) blurs out other elements to create a strong
envelop that at once intrigues and excites the visitor.
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Combined
with a sumptuous scrumptious cuisine that tickles the taste buds, here are two
distinct space wraps that sculpturally redefine the way internal spaces can be
perceived.
Do we see another award
coming up; adding to his rich repertoire of 33 international besides as many,
if not more, on the domestic turf?
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