Facing the Juhu Tara road, and a step away from the beach. The new store for Ritu Kumar was made to bring the outside in; Disconnect the viewer from the bustle outside, with a garden entrance that pulls in the visitor, while showcasing garments, and accessories inside the store.
Once inside, the 800 Sq.ft space has been divided into loosely-bound rooms, that open into a common verandah, the viewer can be lost in this loop that swings around the garments, the outside and the changing room mass. As every store the studio has designed for Ritu Kumar, here also, the garments are given first priority, and every detail is for the display. The store is conceived as an open space utilizing a neutral palette of white and shades of pale green and grey, all serving to foreground Kumar’s colorful garments. The interior space consists of polished seamless natural Kota stone. This stone was brought in a large 4′ square format, special care was taken at the quarry to ensure minimal color variation so as to have a monolithic appearance. All edges are rounded and polished. The walls are rounded at the edges, alluding to the ageless beauty of 1920s Bombay; they don a neutral textured finish. The ceiling is black, and holds a fastening mechanism for brass rods that the garments are hung on. The massing is dominated with the presence of a changing room block reducing the entrance zone into a smaller foyer. To the left is the billing desk, and the right is a loop of clothes on racks. The changing room is a plush, fabric-lined room with replica chintz. The billing desk is set in between two equal masses of the toilet, and store room. A single globe lights up the space, the desk is flanked by two marble doors that let light through.
The studio appreciates the effort and energy put into this collaboration by the Ritu Kumar team who were supportive of our design strategy, and showed great faith in our skill as fellow designers and architects.
Project team: Shweta Chhatpar Shah, Pranav Naik, Rasika Rajagopalan, Neel Davda, Yashasvi Adamane, Ashraf Khan
Architecture+Design 