Ritu Kumar Store, Kemps corner

The new Ritu Kumar store at Kemps corner, designed by Studio pomegranate is yet another exploration in bringing to the fore existing history, and tying into the fabric of its location, while being a gallery to display the designer's work. The ground floor of Kwality house, was occupied by a hobby store for decades, prior to that a clothing shop, and a bank was there. Over 60 years, layers of building materials had piled up, and a once-beautiful space was made a plain "box." First visits to the property revealed a large room, about 2000 Sq.ft. with an awkward mezzanine on the right as you enter, and a series of rooms towards the back on the left. Two beautiful iron columns were hidden by gypsum sheet, and five layers of flooring were removed to get the original level of the plinth, leading to an increase in overall height. False ceiling was removed to reveal a beautiful jack-arch floor above. Several layers came off, and the space nearly presented itself in its final form. The design of the store- like the previous stores for Ritu Kumar by the studio; with a bright open space utilizing a neutral palette of white and shades of pale green and grey, all serving as foreground for Kumar's colourful garments. The outside of the building- with three large windows makes for a perfect storefront with great visibility. The existing elevation was studied, and barring the arches, used almost as is. The interior space was cut up [notionally] with the use of gentle arches into three similar sized rooms for display, and a bridal, changing, and billing desk. On entering, one sees a set of glass and teak benches that are product display, and a central billing desk that peeks out boldly from behind two columns. The interior space consists of polished seamless natural Kota stone. This was brought in a large 4' square format, special care was taken at the quarry to ensure minimal colour variation so as to have a monolithic appearance; steps and other level changes are carved out of this monolith, then polished. All edges are rounded and polished. The walls are rounded at the edges, and don a neutral textured finish. The ceiling retains the jack arches- painted in taupe, they present a subtle texture far above. Slender supports suspend for the clothes, and lights float in between. The second line of spaces were made into a bridal suite, with palampores as wallpaper, and a brass framed vanity. The walls in this part are light pink, and textured as the other space. Further along this line is the toilet and billing desk, which is spacious, made of kotah and a precariously placed thin piece of marble on top. This space is a diversion from previous store designs with a deep red textured colour. A single globe lights the space. The studio would like to point out that the tendency for most interior design, and architecture in the country is to hide and cover original building elements as they sometimes present technical challenges. Studio pomegranate has been "unravelling" almost every space it has worked on, and has been delighted by what lies beneath. Learning from these, and celebrating them can be very rewarding. As mass production proliferates- the world loses craftsmanship and skill, there is an aching lack of awareness and love for one's profession. The contractor for this project is an example of the poor quality of construction professionals in the country. The studio has had to work much harder to explain the importance of sound details- such as the presence of a window frame. Such companies and individuals are a larger part of our community than the passionate people who have built previous projects for the studio. The sincere hope here is that education improves, and the nation wakes up to the tremendous losses it is causing itself as poor quality requires frequent reconstruction, leading to unnecessary cost overruns, wastage, and ultimately adversely impacts the environment. This project brings together many elements and ideas from previous stores for the same brand, it solves problems, and is part of the studio's learning, and dialogue with the clients and itself about Design Team: Rasika Rajagopalan, Shweta Chhatpar, Pranav Naik, Tulika Shrivastava, Shashi Kumar