To be asked to impartially critique one’s own design is almost like asking a person to dissect his own baby for what it’s worth-a task that requires one to first fall out of love with one’s own creation.
Nevertheless, an attempt is in order.
For their 6th semester, the third year class of SPA was assigned the task of designing a hotel in one of 3 given locations, with each site presenting its own challenges. Amri Chadha chose to design in the diplomatically sensitive Chanakyapuri, allegedly intrigued by its sensitivity and ‘international’ opportunities. In designing a business hotel, she addressed the socio-economic context well, and by way of landscaping and cultural elements, has created an engaging public space to boot.
The real question arises when one weighs her design against her claim of it alluding to the associative memory of the magnificent Chanakya cinema, the demolition of which created a hole in the heart of what used to be Chanakyapuri’s cultural identity.
Her design stands as an icon of the modern, almost clinical approach to architecture, appealing in the cleanliness of its form, free of the frills of the excessive. In the huge open area, the massive looped concrete tube demands to be looked at; even as a passerby in a vehicle, the view is visually engaging.
Very singular and modern on the outside, it has surprisingly traditional fundamentals: the concrete tube loops over itself to form a courtyard, a quirky, perhaps cheeky way of addressing the overall context of the city of Delhi, nevermind the hotel’s location in the midst of gated and walled embassies. In this also, the design trumps its typology: the absence of a boundary wall suddenly opens up the building to its surroundings.
The courtyard lets the steam out of what could have been a very solid, opaque mass, sitting in the center of the huge plot. Inside, the rolling streams of water down two courtyard faces also addresses the climate and the potential heat island effect of the building.
Whether or not this strategy will turn to bite the designer in her tail as winter approaches, only time will tell.
Despite the fact that the building has a profile and a view from all sides, the privacy of hotel guests is not compromised, as long wooden horizontal louvers run along the tube as it loops. However, the lack of availability of natural light within the rooms can be seen as a glitch.
The proportions of the building speak well of the aesthetic sensitivity of the young designer. The welcoming, enveloping lobby and sheer lack of definition within the public areas of the hotel are a refreshing change from the ostentatious, often over the top lobbies one gets used to. This is hardly a hotel for those fishing for luxury, but those with a keen eye for design and cleanliness of space and mind.
The hotel courtyard has a winding underground, art gallery access to the very intriguing sunken trench (public space) that runs outside. This is an interesting, removed-from-the-average experience, so to speak. But, as it goes, this may be a wasted asset to a hotel that may not invite people who find their appeal in hotels that cater to the rich and relaxed.
The same is noticed in the hotel’s absence of sun-decks and swimming pools.
Almost Scandinavian-design in principle, Amri Chadha’s hotel design aesthetic can hardly be questioned, as can’t her bold use of façade treatment. With a public space wedged out of the side of the built, and a dugout trench that boldly cuts across the site, one realizes that her design derives it strength from sharp definition and fearless singularity of form.
But whether a design like hers can work in a larger context as varied as it is vague, remains the true bone of contention.
