'Una by Garde Manger' by Architect Palak Nachrani
This project aims to achieve a design that is characteristically informal and inviting yet commercial and vibrant.
A site that offers a beautiful mango tree, three side frontages and a swanky location in the heart of the city, the building boasts a steel mesh facade topped with an iconic grey color.
Una by Garde Manger aims to give customers an experiential connect and sense of place, the restaurant offers a calm and soothing ambience which lights up with ample natural light penetrating through the glass façade in the day.
The location is really advantageous in many ways and is centered around a beautiful mango tree. The facades capture vision from all sides not only by the virtue of its location but also the design of the massive 2 Ton steel installation on the façade and the 20 x 20 feet corner LED screen adding a whole new tangent to how the city looks at architecture and design.
"The café, meant to be a healthy, plant based eatery, which by the program itself is very ahead of its time for a city like Raipur. It was to be the first of its kind in the entire state which did make us rethink how we perceive the food and eatery culture in the city. The brief made it clear that we not only want to be different in what we serve, but also make sure the vibe and feel of the place resonates with the theme and food that is being served." explained lead designer Palak Nachrani. The aesthetics are very evocative and exciting, also due to the play of contrasting materials such as steel and stone with concrete and glass, to top it up the English grey colour of the building makes it stand out.
"We wanted to give the customers an experiential connect to the place by an ambience that is calm and soothing, where they can relax and enjoy a fun meal with friends and family. Choosing the right colours, textures and materials has been an important part in creating this dramatic, luxurious yet natural looking ambiance. Blues and greens creating a sense of vibrancy with all the wood adding the required warmth. Whites and greys bring a sense of stillness and maturity enhancing the aura of the café. The double height ceiling keeping the tree as the central element with the floating metal mesh creates a dramatic expanse of space, also almost blurring the edge between indoors and outdoors making the tree a natural painting framed by the huge glass window." added architect Nachrani.
The upper deck is lively and jazz, bookable for all the parties in town. The exposed roof with floating steel mesh creates a sense of raw and untouched earthy feel, juxtaposed by the glossy black and white epoxy flooring conveying a contemporary character. This flooring has become one of the major highlights of the café to a sense that it has now been used as part of the café graphics such as in packaging and branding.
Project: Una by Garde Manger
Location: Raipur
Designer: Palak Nachrani
Photography: Snapster, Unfolding
Find out more about Palak Nachrani here.
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