Project Facts –
Project: The Clearing House
Location: Ballard Estate, Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Area: 3700 Sq.Mt.
Status: Built
Design Team: Pranav Thole, Saurabh Suryan, Subham Pani, Sandeep Patwa, Aniket Umaria. Vami Koticha, Sameep Padora.
The client wanted to have the all-day -The Foyer-and evening dining areas- The Chamber- as separate entities. The interior space was cavernous and perfect for a more opulent dining experience .The challenge was not to be intimidated by the historical context and have the design be subservient to it. The new materials inserted had to hold their own against the fabulous existing cast iron structure. The two main spaces had very different characters- the outside one being the all day dining, and thus had to have lots of natural light, one of which came from the skylight that reveals the chimney, and the other through the large arched openings that interface with the street- giving it a more casual feel. The material palette completely changed with the inner space, which had more formal booth seating and decorative lighting . The warm tones of panelling worked effectively with the dark painted shell of the space. The central idea was always to highlight the chimney, as the most prominent visual marker of the space and use the skylight to almost internalize the chimney visually within the space. Inside, the intricately detailed cast iron ceiling and columns were kept intact, and the booths were designed to scale down the large volume and make it a comfortable, intimate dining experience.
