#1
COLABA
DESIGNING FOR FOR PRECINCTS PRECINCTS DESIGNING
Through the ages, the Idea of Bombay has been primarily exported from the colonial precinct of Colaba. Through film and media, through popular culture and writing, the romance of the Industrial powerhouse city with it’s bustling harbour and busy docks, voluminous trade and unstoppable merchants, the swindling and the deals, colourful characters and their British overlords, all stemmed from these 2 islands, Colaba and Little Colaba of the original seven that made up the city of Bombay.
To design and work in a precinct like this one cannot help respond to the strong city connection, through site and context alike, and try to weave it into the design direction in a meaningful way Working in Colaba offers up unusual opportunities to respond to, across a varied palette of programmes, our responses to projects working in Colaba have been strangely connected. The over-riding presence of the idea of Bombay, and the pressure to respond to the colonial scale, thick walls and stone detail, Art Deco surroundings and unique pace of life, has physically sculpted our design responses to these projects.
Fernweh
(German ) 1. Feeling homesick for a place you have never been to 2. A distinct longing for far-off places
BOMBAY AND THE WORLD Colaba represents the International face of the city for most globally aspiring brands. Set in opposition to the rest of Mumbai, Colaba has uniquely western aspirations. From it’s languid Art District tag, to the halting tourist population, and multiple incidences of historical importance, the precinct is uniquely International in it’s outlook. Most international facing brands tend to favour Colaba for their flagship presence.
THE OTHER CITY The presence of the Harbour, various institutions of philanthropic origin, the old-world architectural context and it’s clear headed planning, all speak of a city that no longer exists. Colaba is a poignant reminder of what Bombay lost, the rest of the city is alive and organic, what Mumbai struggles to retain.
A PALATABLE PRECINCT Colaba becomes a significant precinct for brands and ideas that struggle to reconcile with the reality of the city. Colaba allows brands to forget the everyday grime of city existence, and engage with the city of collective memories, a vacation for the mind and a slowing of pace. Here one can refer to the city in the dream of existence, memorable but ultimately unreal.
A SENSE OF TIME SLOWING DOWN With the strong dose of Nostalgia comes a significant slowing down of pace, a way of engaging that allows browsing and perusing, brands that aim to capture the flaneur, or the citystrollers find a natural home in Colaba. Brands that strive on a hectic pace, high footfalls and higher energy, tend to be misfits in the precinct. With this slowing down comes an atmosphere of refinement, taking time to savour nuances the rest of fast-paced city trampled on long ago.
OLD PRECINCT / OLD VALUES The presence of Institutions of repute, built on charitable donations and the best the city had to offer, serves as a harsh reminder of a lost value system. Brands that allude to this old-world morality and to this lost world find a strong fit within the Colaba mind-space. The influence of this value system then results in spaces and experiences that are meant to be consumed slowly and meticulously.
#1 CLOVE RETAIL / LIFESTYLE STORE
Clove was imagined as a home, the idea being to create a simple yet elegant shell, for the meticulously curated products on the shelves. We created a painted display unit in each room, which was otherwise a bright, day-washed white minimal space. A single eccentric brass lamp weaves it’s way through the entire space, summarising the entire design intervention. Clove steps back heavily from any form of bold design intent, choosing instead to highlight the form and contours of the space, working on an extremely limited material palette. Interventions like the painted wall unit and brass lamps quickly recede into the background, allowing focus on both the rich context in a beautiful old structure and the curated products on display.
A few eccentric additions permeate the otherwise minimal space, like our deconstructed shadow-chandelier, the “Shandow�.
#2 PIZZA EXPRESS CAFE / RESTO-BAR
Rudyard Kipling ( Born 30th December 1865, JJ School of Arts Campus, Bombay )
At the Pizza Express in Colaba, we started looking for a narrative connect between the best of Colaba and the best of Great Britain, at the time of the colonial peak of the city. We found this in the poetry of Rudyard Kipling. Rudyard Kipling was born on 30 December 1865, in Bombay, in the Bombay Presidency of British India, to Alice Kipling and John Lockwood Kipling. Lockwood Kipling, a sculptor and pottery designer, was the Principal and Professor of Architectural Sculpture at the newly founded Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art in Bombay. “Mother of Cities to me, For I was born in her gate, Between the palms and the sea, Where the world-end steamers wait�
Dhanraj Mahal, built in the 1930’s, is one of the most interesting examples of a regionalised interpretation of the global Art Deco style. It’s grand structure features an intriguing local meets global language, and was one of the costliest buildings built at the time. This Grade III heritage structure was designed by Gregson,Batler and King and constructed by Shahpoorji Chandabhoy.
The Pizza Express brand, a popular cafe style brand in the UK was making it’s foray into India, and aimed to occupy the ground floor of this iconic Art Deco structure. We felt the poetry of Rudyard Kipling, and the proximity to the Harbour made for an interesting context for the brand to explore. We tried to articulate a maximal Art Deco X Steampunk design direction for the brand, allowing it to differentiate from the other convenience and budget-based Pizza brands, to create a flagship destination for it’s roll-out in India. Through this fit-out we created an engagement template, to allow the brand experience to undergo variations, as it moves through the country. Colaba allowed this merger to achieve a maximal interpretation, where the intricate Deco detailing didn’t feel out of place which may have been too overwhelming in any other part of the city.
#3 LE15 CAFE CAFE / PATISSERIE
One of the interesting primary conversations with Pooja ( the prolific dessert chef and author ) revolved around personifying her new Cafe. We started off suggesting a young Sean Connery. What we ended us with after multiple iterations was an older Monica Bellucci.
At the Le15 Cafe, the brand aimed to create a signature all-day cafe experience, and in Pooja’s own words, a more “grownup” version of her wildly successful Le15 Patisserie brand. Colaba was her place of choice, nestled in the ground floor of a beautiful colonial building. We thought a more European-leaning, Noir inspired space with subtle detailing would nicely complement both the location, and the work with the copious amounts of sunlight streaming into the site. We explored a monochrome colour palette, with Old Bombay detail elements of corner protectors and chamfered plastered surfaces, in an attempt to synergise with the site.Colours were reserved for her striking creations and guests within the space.
It was interesting to us that a brand that draws obvious inspiration from Paris and Parisian culture finds a natural home in Colaba. While the brand exists at other places in the city, it is able to create a holistic environmental package only when the view outside the windows matches the ambience of the inside of the Cafe.
The Le15 Cafe is also one of the most social-media aware brands, and the Cafe would need to fit that tag as well. Elements and details were consciously worked in to be able to let the venue work it’s way into the media feeds of it’s guests.
Working in Colaba offers up a host of learnings. Design directions tend to step back from context, and one is more consciously aware of history than any other part of the city. Design directions need to be discovered, not imposed. The precinct inspires a sense of refinement and International facing attitudes, both in the brand itself as well as the design directions selected. We tended towards a more leisurely mood explored in each space, and experiences for slower consumption. The over-riding presence of the very old creates a more contemplative mind-space, that then permeates into design directions as homage, rather than contrast.
FIN