The Aga Khan Award-nominated architecture practice, Studio Lotus, based in New Delhi, just completed the new Flagship Store for Jaypore in Bengaluru, India. The brief underscored the renovation of an existing structure for the mid-luxury clothing and lifestyle brand in order to offer an immersive retail experience. Through subtle design interventions, the project aims to create a place which reflects the Jaypore’s core values and unique Indian signature, while defining a new retail identity that highlights the idea of local design with global connect.
The two-storey 370 m2 structure was conceived as a flexibly planned retail space that features a unique courtyard-inspired layout. The central area can be used as a place for display as well as for viewing the additional exhibits of exquisite merchandise that surround it. The interiors of the store unite the malleability of craft with the precision of geometry, paying homage to the Indian subcontinent's textile traditions. Breaking rank with other brick-and-mortar stores in the country, the project defines the first of several new retail spaces that will showcase the brand's revamped identity.
Accentuating the fine-quality commodities is the subtle colored and gently textured backdrop of materiality throughout all of the interior spaces. The historically utilized details and geometries found in phulkari, shibori, ikat and kanjeevaram have also been used throughout the store. These are artfully placed in elements such as the store’s modular display compartments, strategically placed glass partitions as well as its strong gray tile floor base. Painted in terracotta red, the ceiling is accentuated with brass lamps that create a warm ambience, while lightly textured walls give a tactile quality to the commercial space. Behind the cashier’s station is an installation piece of vertical timber slats that have been carefully carved and treated with traditional Indian colors of deep orange, red, gold and green. The project defines a new retail identity that highlights the idea of local design with global connect.
From the outside in, the patron’s retail experience is one of layered refinement. There are a multitude of references to the proud heritage of the country represented at a variety of levels throughout this flagship store. The front façade is adorned with a perforated skin made of gorgeous, latticed fiber cement panels that represents a glorious glowing lantern – an image which results from the combination of intricate craftsmanship and cutting-edge engineering. The bi-lingual signage and ‘J’ logo brand the store with a simple, but distinguishable identity.
The reverence to preserving and honoring India’s rich history has been notably and powerfully achieved by Studio Lotus in the Flagship Store for Jaypore in Bengaluru.
Location: Bengaluru, India
Client: Jaypore
Area: 370 m2
Architect: Studio Lotus
Consultants:
MEP: Ecube Services
Project Management Consultancy: 4 dimensions
Façade: RK enterprises
Photography by Ravi Asrani, courtesy of Studio Lotus