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Architects: Studiio Dangg
- Area: 3100 ft²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Avesh Gaur
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Manufacturers: Jaquar, Piccolo Mosaics, Ultratech
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Lead Architects: Manav Dangg, Akanksha Sharma
Text description provided by the architects. Standing as a bold distinction to its very quaint context, Zura is a space that looks inward for a mesmerizing experience. Split across three floors, while the first level houses all the back-end services, the second level is the indoor bar & dining, and the top floor, is an open-air terrace opening to the view of the lush forests of Deer Park.
Originally, the first and second floors were connected visually through a cutout. To maximize the indoor space for both indoor levels, we sealed this cutout, allowing ourselves more room for exploration. The indoor area was perceptibly split into two halves due to the site structure. The challenge of working with a limiting scale, the duality of form, and the material flowing harmoniously played a vital role in setting the palette & form for the project. The consistent yet seamless use of blue mosaic and travertine stone as highly contrasting hues set the tone.
We were keen to explore an amalgamation of distinct forms and materials together in a small space in a way that challenges their assumed role. Creating minimally, yet mindfully. We wanted a site that, if stripped of all its functionality, would appear abstract and otherworldly. We wanted to push the limits of how a lack of literalness would enhance one’s engagement with the space. Getting off the lift, one is addressed by a bright palette, giving the false impression of all there is to the space. On turning into the space, the palette, and form, fragmenting both sides seem inspired by a black hole and a supernova colliding. Night & Day. Vaulted & Defined. This phenomena has been married through two materials – navy mosaic & travertine
Flowing in a curved form, the navy mosaic blurs the extent of the floor, walls, and ceiling. The opposite side in everything travertine, whether it’s the floor, or the geometrically 3D CNC-cut tiles spreading across the wall & ceiling, crafts this proportion to stand out as very defined, and inelastic. The serpentine bar mimics a heavenly body appearing monolith in the navy mosaic. The brighter side holds the dining seating, and the staircase that leads up to the terrace.
Through the ascend, the homogeneity of the palette and form follows. The terrace area also plays with its proportions in more or less the same way. The travertine and white marble flooring, laid in a concentric pattern, is complemented with a parametric roof also created with the same proportions, creating a wave as it follows the line of the seating area. The serpentine roof created through a series of sections that constantly vary at every interval allows an immersive play of light & shadow all day long – consistently inconsistent in its playfulness with the sun.
The roof hovers over a step-up that distinguishes the varied seating. The outdoor bar carries the detail of the 3D tiles, bringing forth a texturally prominent element to the upstairs. Opposite to the bar is the covered private dining room, finished in a lithe navy fabric ceiling with a softly-lit chandelier. The unevenly cut wooden battens cladded on the 13-foot tall shared wall with the neighbor toys with sunlight all through the day creating a soft shadow at night with uplighters.
