Studio Lotus is a globally renowned, multidisciplinary design firm that specialises in Master Planning, Architecture, and Interior Design.
Ankur Choksi, a graduate of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, transitioned from graphic and exhibition design to interior and architectural design. His approach is narrativedriven, drawing inspiration from regional context and culture while adapting to evolving luxury paradigms. Co-founding Studio Lotus with Ambrish Arora and Sidhartha Talwar, Ankur oversees the Interior Architecture division, leading large-scale projects in the Hospitality, Residential and Adaptive Reuse segments.
Here’s a look at some of their innovative designs.
Max House, New Delhi
Max House is an office campus developed for Max Estates, the real estate arm of the Max Group. The building’s design aims to reflect the brand’s underlying philosophy of sustainability, resilience, and environmental harmony. Two of the towers are greenfield developments that accommodate a myriad workspaces; the third is an adaptive reuse intervention that converts an existing structure on the site into a recreational hub.
Referencing nearby industrial structures such as the Modi Flour Mills compound, the office block at Max House features a distinctive façade in local brickwork. The design incorporates several measures that bring down the building’s energy consumption. The façade, composed of hollow brick masonry, insulated spandrel panels, and double-glazed units (DGUs), is engineered to cut out glare and create a thermal buffer, lowering operating costs. Lifts and services, placed along the end of the building, also ensure maximum flexibility in terms of spatial use and configuration. The building’s focus on environmental sustainability and employee health and well-being has earned it an IGBC Health and WellBeing Gold rating, in addition to a LEED Gold certificate.
Ekaya Banaras, Ahmedabad
The studio has recently completed the new retail experience store for Ekaya Banaras, India’s first handloom luxury brand — in the city of Ahmedabad. Bringing together a 120-year-old legacy of traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design sensibilities, the brand looked to define a space that exemplifies its vision of promoting luxury handloom textiles to a new generation of buyers.
Weaving being central to Ekaya’s brand identity, the store’s design is built around a modular installation of brass pipes that creates the impression of an immersive threedimensional weave. Functionally, a display device integrates in-built lighting, and the assembly creates an ever-changing tapestry that lends the space a visual dynamism and allows for the experience zones beyond it to be layered and subtly revealed.
RAAS Chhatrasagar, Rajasthan
RAAS Chhatrasagar is a 16-key hospitality property perched atop a century-old dam on the banks of the Chhatrasagar Lake, in Nimaj, Rajasthan, reinventing the erstwhile temporary tourist camps set up across the embankment. Designed using a system of low-impact foundations and lightweight superstructures that minimise its environmental impact, the new property provides guests with a year-round opportunity to experience the wildlife, the lake, and the region’s unique sunrises and sunsets amidst 800 acres of pristine forests. Woodcut and locally inspired stone crafts are expressed as contemporary interventions in the new property.
This article has been excerpted from our sister publication ‘Society Interiors & Design’.
