A Retail Store Making A Chromatic Direction Towards Pastels And Patterns | Portico Design Concepts
The Project
Pehnawa is a retail store project that was completed in Aurangabad just as the strictures posed by the pandemic began to relax. It is three (G+2) storey, a reasonably spacious 5,400- square-foot area and a triple-height entry gave the architects enough room to explore a striking, eye-catching retail design replete with colors, textures, and diverse materiality. The products being retailed included women’s wear, contemporary clothing for men, and ethnic menswear.
Visit: Portico Design Concepts
The Brief
When the architects were handed over the ground + 2 site, the civil work was already over. In effect, they received the site as a bare shell. Other than specifying how the different types of fashion wear would be segregated floor-wise (see next point) and the fact that the tables that would seat customers to mull over intended purchases be white (to best set off the colors of the garments), the clients gave a carte blanche to the architects where material usage and the overall look & feel were concerned.
The Layout
The ground + 2 structure has a triple-height volume at the front with the rest of the floor plates being singular entities without any further demarcations. The lofty volume functions as a waiting lounge and billing area. The levels were used to segregate the merchandise as follows: the ground floor was devoted to women’s wear (girls and ladies); the first floor to men’s wear; and the last floor to men’s ethnic wear.
The Triple-Height Volume
The compact footprint of the triple-height volume created an entity that was exaggeratedly linear. To reduce this skew while not actually physically cutting down the size, the architects created a cascading lighting installation of aluminum frames suspended at various heights (some hanging till first-floor eye-level) to break the soaring feel. Profile lights were added to the frames to add drama and a play of light and aid with the general illumination of the space. To ‘erase’ the mess of lines formed by the rectangular frames, the design team added infills of corrugated GI sheets — which were repeated in the wall paneling of the volume (GI sheets presented an economical alternative to creating the texture with punning and POP). This striking atrium design adds its own muscle to the elevation of the showroom.
The billing desk stands in the triple-height atrium. A black frame-like element, set off beautifully by the background of terracotta bricks, is rendered from tiles. It wraps around the desk and transforms into a table-top on the other side. The wall behind the billing desk sees an added detailing of patterned MDF, which is carried forward to the ceilings of the store, but as a POP design.
Opposite the desk, a slim, contemporary display rack presents snippets of collections available at the expansive showroom. A bench provides a comfortable perch to customers as they wait for the billing to be done, while a potted plant on the slatted table adds a refreshing touch and breaks the monotony of colors. The table, bench, and rack were custom-made on site.
The Main Retail Sections
The merchandise is displayed on open metal shelves whose gently-rounded corners provide a subtle, yet perceptible contrast to the straight-lined geometry that dominates the visual flavor. Strangely enough, given the rich and more complicated details that abound, it was getting these contours right that proved to be the challenge of the assignment — one that saw two fabricators throw in the towel and took the best part of two months to complete! The display tables are of two types: closed ones with white back-painted glass tops and open ones with under-counter hangers and clear-glass tops.
Here and there, smaller display units, almost like occasional tables, dot the floors. Mirrored expanses, delicately beveled with geometric patterns, amplify the contemporary ambiance as well as serve as looking glasses (in addition to the mandatory trial rooms of course, which are tucked discreetly to a side). A definite highlight is in the men’s ethnic section, where a circular, mirrored, outlined-with-light wall element with an abridged catwalk in front creates a striking spatial pause, besides providing the right environment to contemplate a purchase.
The Visual Aesthetic
Corrugated GI sheets, vitrified tiles, back-painted and clear glass, mirrors, exposed clay- bricks, and mild steel form the leading materials. While the chromatic direction was decided as pastels accented with black lines, the surface finishes included textures and patterns, both visual and tactile. Essentially, the architects sought a cool, contemporary scheme that was offset with swathes of warmth woven via exposed brick expanses on select sections of walls and the floor. A bespoke floor design, crafted out of regular vitrified tiles, signals thrift and the desire to achieve cohesive detailing. The overall impression is space-filled geometric patterns — the lines of exposed bricks, the corrugations of the GI sheets, the rhomboids of the bespoke mosaic floors, the grid-like POP patterns on the ceiling, the cut- glass-like bevelling on the mirrors.
FACT FILE:
Design Firm: Portico Design Concepts
Project Name: Pehnawa
Project Type: Retail
Completion Year: 2020
Area: 5400 sq. ft.
Project Cost approx: 1.2 cr.
Lead Architect: Ar. Shruti Tanwani & Ar. Gopal Tanwani
Project Location: Aurangabad, India.
Photography: Phxindia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/porticodesignconcepts/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/porticodesignconcepts/
Set within a quiet enclave of Bangalore, this 4,300-square-foot residence transcends conventional definitions of luxury home designs. Oku is an exploration of memory, material, and meaning. It is an architectural manifestation of cultural continuity. Here, design serves as a vessel for lived histories, tactile traditions, and the silent poetry of craftsmanship. The home is not […]
From the very first glimpse, this home makes a quiet yet assertive statement — a story of considered elegance woven through the interplay of textures, geometry, and an emotive material palette. It isn’t just a residence, but a journey of values, and a deliberate pause from the chaos of urbanity. A poetic 4 bedroom design […]
Referred by his cousin, who initially approached us for a large residential bungalow, Dilip Jain sought our expertise for his newly purchased 4 BHK luxury apartment in Akota. While the builder had completed the civil work for the kitchen and bathrooms, the client was unsatisfied with the final results. We took the initiative to transform […]
This thoughtfully curated home strikes a delicate balance between artistic expression and understated luxury, along with elegant home decor. Designed as a harmonious blend of classic elements and modern aesthetics, the space brings warmth, sophistication, and bold personality into every corner. Elegant Home Decor Meets Timeless Luxury In These Interiors | Sumit Bagade Architects Arch […]
The Wabi Sabi Interior design of this residence was done in 71 days, including designing & execution. Contrary to our standard practice of a step-by-step design process, the process here was pretty fluid & more based on intuitions, visualizations, sketches & discussions. Only sketches were made, which proceeded to working drawings; no 3D visualization was […]
AMOGH 18 reflects AURA DESIGN HAUS’s core design ethos: to create spaces that are as timeless as they are contemporary. The project is a testament to the belief that minimal interiors, when thoughtfully executed, can be both warm and expressive. It’s a residence where sophistication meets simplicity, and where every detail is an invitation to […]
Balcony decor ideas are a trend nowadays, as people have increasingly started living in apartments. These tiny spaces of the house have a larger importance in the day-to-day life of a person who lives on the upper floors of the apartments. Thus, balcony decor ideas must be very subjective to the people living in the […]
Staircase design for home plays a key role in shaping both function and style in interior architecture. Designers consistently push boundaries to create a staircase design for home that reflects personality, optimises space, and enhances aesthetics. From minimal floating stairs to ornate traditional options, each staircase design for home contributes a unique character. In this […]
In the heart of a lush Ahmedabad neighborhood, a bare-shell duplex flat is transformed into a soulful sanctuary by Aura Design Atelier. Titled The Layered Narrative, this 2500 sq ft Indian apartment balances warmth, restraint, and personality, interweaving the lives of its residents through materials, light, and spatial flow. From the onset, the home reflects […]
The clients’ requirement was to create a wellbeing centre at Oleander Farms, Karjat, Maharashtra, that would be a tranquil sanctuary for their visitors. Walking through a dense canopy of trees, hearing the soft chirping of birds, we slowly embarked on an expanse of a 2-acre of land that was both open yet heavily tree-laden. This […]