Pizza Express, Mumbai

  Hospitality Design Special

By Ar. Anshuman Roy

Photography: Ar. Sagar Padwal

Info & Images courtesy Urban Studio

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The new Pizza Express in suburban Mumbai is a chic maze of industrial flavoured fine-dine designed by Ar. Pronit Nath of Urban Studio...

A far cry from the everyday 'end-to-end' glass facades we see everywhere, here is an entrance that beckons with its neatly gridded up 'industrial' style cascade of windows, framed in black aluminum sections with its little canopied logo announcing Pizza Express.

Warmly lit interiors welcome us into a distinctly industrial flavoured ambience that engages our senses and urges our eyes to wander. Curiosity is aroused.

        

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A plethora of patterns greet us. Upon a closer look, these reveal themselves to be predominantly utilitarian, and essentially an attribute of the elements they comprise, seldom used exclusively for aesthetic embellishment. The triumph of the composition, lies in that, the collage of elements and patterns comes through as tasteful and intricate, never for a second overbearing or descending into anarchical confusion. 

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A screen in core-ten steel frames the entrance passage, and forms an implied partition between the passage and the seating zone directly in front of it. Electrical looping expressed as Copper Tubes elegantly weave through the overhead space, to end in beautiful industrial cage lamps, with long filament Edison bulbs. These assume orthogonal orientations, twisting and turning overhead in perfect synchronicity with the seating layout below, and the services above. Some descend over tables as singular copper lamps, and others culminate in a more rigid, sentinel -like formation on the walls. At one point, they descend in a cluster, forming a unique chandelier above one of the tables.

What is striking is the boldness of the lines and zones that define this space visually. Instead of using the traditional false ceiling, the design goes the whole hog with the industrial intent, exposing the ducting, acoustics, track lights, fans and sprinkler systems.

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Once again, this is done tastefully, using camouflage to create a 'black zone'. All the services are painted black, along with the expanse of ceiling that forms their visual backdrop, extending to the beam bottom.

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The palette of colours used comprises mainly of hues of browns and grays. The nature of finishes used, a combination of timber, concrete, Core Ten and copper, lend a raw and earthy elegance to the ambience. The flooring for the dining areas is finished in light wood, planked in a Herringbone pattern, which then continues on a large expanse of the wall, the colour a shade deeper. The seat cushions are finished in classy tan leather, and the chairs themselves are a rich oak brown. The sofas adjacent are upholstered in rich warm gray leather.

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Continuing with the bold, industrial theme, the columns are finished in Indian Patent Stone, with the backdrop wall finished in white exposed brick. The white wall also doubles up as a projection surface. Carefully curated visuals are projected on to the unconventional screen.

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This blend of elements creates a warm and immersive atmosphere. It exudes the class of a fine-dine restaurant, but does so admirably with the help of elements that you would seldom associate with one.