<h5-red>CLIENT<h5-red> GODREJ PROPERTIES LTD I <h5-red>AREA<h5-red> 21,900 SQFT I <h5-red>STATUS<h5-red> COMPLETED I <h5-red>PHOTOGRAPHER<h5-red> EDMUND SUMNER | <h5-red>TEAM<h5-red> GPL DESIGN STUDIO: ANUBHAV GUPTA, NAMRATA MEHRA, SUPARNA SETHI; STUDIO LOTUS DESIGN TEAM: AMBRISH ARORA, SIDHARTHA TALWAR, SUBRATA RAY, ROHIT SAPNATANI, PRIYA JINDAL, AAKARSH DESAI
The Clubhouse is a critical element of ‘The Trees’, an upcoming 34-acre flagship mixed-use development for Godrej Properties Ltd. <rt-red>The flagship scheme comprises residential, retail, hotel and corporate work spaces amidst a dense mangrove belt located in Vikhroli, Mumbai.<rt-red>
<rt-red>Studio Lotus + GPL Design Studio collaborated to create the Clubhouse as a key differentiator in the scheme; outlining its function in the plan as a node, which would be expressed as a collection of objects abstracted and crafted from the memories of the site.<rt-red> The historical significance of the location is layered into its prospect through the project program’s stories and experiences that interweave the prominent past, present and future of the owner group.
One of the key parameters was that the design of the Clubhouse be a dialogue between legacy and modernity with the new intervention becoming a part of, and not a superimposed insert into the site. <rt-red>Symptomatic of the contiguous scheme, the massing integrates a principal axis of existing rain-trees with a hierarchy of activities spanning sports, wellness, recreation and administration in a sensitive response to the retail edge and residential blocks.<rt-red>
<rt-red>The external expression has been emphasised as a reflection of its surrounding scale: factoring in an outlook that is more outside-in than inside-out<rt-red>; hence the outdoor is designed to be seamless with sculptural spines and articulated outlines, whereas the indoor experience is kept at ground level. Existing structures and landscape have been reused to emerge as commemorative retrofits and interspersed thoughtfully into the newer urban fabric.
<rt-red>While the Glycerine Plant is being readapted as a multipurpose hall, a ‘Grove’ of Silos, reminiscent of the old cylindrical units at site, have been created to fit in the reception, café, gym and spa.<rt-red> The Café is a shared resource that blurs public and private spaces. An intermediary pool and various outdoor spaces are internally threaded while ‘The Stacks’—concrete cubes housing recreational and ancillary areas—terminates the clubhouse edge. The connected rooftops explore a narrative of their own: intertwining areas for yoga, meditation, golf and leisure.
<rt-red>The material palette essays the idea of ‘Wabi-Sabi’<rt-red> through the timeless mediums of concrete, corten steel and zinc that will age gracefully and add their evolving imagery to the narrative. Existing and proposed vegetation have been layered in as connecting elements.
