Luxury dining delight offering authentic African menu is located in an uptown location in Pune. The restaurant exhibits the essence of African landscape and architecture as you walk around the outdoor seating spaces. The indoor seating space expands on to the serene al fresco that gets skillfully creative with the bamboo parasols, made by local artisans, accompanied by elements of African landscape. The ficus tree that closely mimics the African Baobab tree, sets an incredibly homely feel. This culinary inspiration and meticulous attention to details is an ode to African land and its rich culture. ~Yamini Vaswani

An Ode to African Landscape with this Diversely Inclusive Restaurant in Pune : Baobab | Amoeba Design

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Baobab, a fine dine restaurant is part of a mill area converted into a group of restaurants surrounding a common plaza. Baobab is a tree that originates in Africa and the client wanted to have an African inspired menu and ambience and wished for a subtle dominance in the vicinity of other restaurants. The entire ambience is inspired by the pan-African colors, red, black, and green which represents the spirit of Africa.

As the red represents the noble blood that unites all people of African ancestry, the color black for the people, and green for the rich land of Africa.

Our main challenge was to create a fine dine experience keeping the spirit of this rustic space intact. Our main challenge was working with existing dilapidated structure which was a double pitched sloping workshop and kept on giving us surprises. We asked ourselves– What’s it like to have a fine dine restaurant in a dilapidated workshop of mill inspired by the African colors and have a casual outdoor space highlighting Baobab the tree? Our attempt was to take advantage of the existing character through our design by creating an emblematic indoors with the marriage of rustic and fine dine aesthetics.

Black and red forms the main material palette of the indoors while the outdoor is accentuated by natural stones with a symbolic Baobab tree inspired by the natural landscape of Africa. The palette is accentuated with copper and wood to create a visually stunning appeal.

From the main entrance, one can see through the restaurant to the back lit bar at the far end with the hint of red. The restaurant’s seating formations are diverse and varied, allowing for versatile social engagement. The dining consists of clusters of booths and free tables. The outdoor rustic ambience supports less formal and casual conversations.

The original rusted GI sheets on the existing roof were replaced with clay tiles keeping the old wooden trusses intact. A skylight was introduced at the junction of two roofs in the under lit space creating a connection with the nature in the heart of the space.

The concentric circle flooring in black cuddapa stone subtly leads your vision towards the center of the place under the skylight and is highlighted in red, leading you to the sky above which is the fifth element of the palette. The central red area hosts a communal dining space.

The art-deco chandeliers at the bar add an exquisite touch to the dining space. The bespoke lighting in the interior sets a tone for more personal conversations, making the space more intimate. The entire furniture has been customized as per the design.

Conceptualized as a space inspired by Africa, one can see creative flourishes in the menu design and crockery as well.   

The table numbers have been derived from the birthdates of people associated with project right from carpenter, site supervisor to the designer & partners in this restaurant. This simple gesture creates a sense of belonging for everyone who has been an integral part of creating this restaurant in their own capacity.

Designed By: Amoeba Design

Project Type: Restaurant 

Location: Pune 

Plot Area: 5000 SQ.FT. 

Built-up Area: 4000 SQ. FT 

Project Size: 5000 Sq.ft. (Indoor + outdoor) 

Project cost: Rs.1.15 Crore

Seating Capacity: 200 pax capacity 

Year Built: 2019 

Project Duration: 8 months 

Principal Architects: Ar. Pashmin Shah & Ar. Satyajeet Patwardhan

Civil Contractor: Kailash Kumavat

Interior Designers: Amoeba Design

Landscape Architects: Amoeba Design

Structure Engineers: Deltacom Consultants 

Lighting Designers: Amoeba Design 

Interior Styling: Amoeba Design

Text Courtesy: Amoeba Design

Photograph Courtesy : Pulkit Sehgal & Rohan Joshi

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