The clients wanted Zerruco to be a space that would work as a dining space during the day, as a bar and restaurant in the evening, convert to a lounge late-evening and subsequently transform into a nightclub post-midnight.
<rt-red>CLIENT<rt-red> PRASHANT OJHA, KASHIF SARFI I <rt-red>AREA<rt-red> 8,700 SQFT I <rt-red>STATUS<rt-red> COMPLETED IN 2013 I <rt-red>TEAM<rt-red> AMBRISH ARORA, ANKUR CHOKSI, ARUN KULLU, PRIYA JINDAL, ARUN KUMAR I <rt-red>PHOTOGRAPHER<rt-red> ANDRÉ J FANTHOME
The clients wanted Zerruco to be a space that would work as a dining space during the day, as a bar and restaurant in the evening, convert to a lounge late-evening and subsequently transform into a nightclub post-midnight.
The venue is an independent space set in the compound of the Ashoka Hotel in Chanakyapuri New Delhi. The building was completely decrepit and needed to be brought down and rebuilt on the same footprint with minimum downtime. <rt-red>The space was conceived as a tall structure that transitions into a semi-covered verandah, which in turn opens into an outdoor space.<rt-red> This allowed for the spaces to be truncated into zones, also allowing for creation of different experiences as per the brief.
<rt-red>The concept uses custom-designed acoustically isolating glass and framework to create visually connected yet acoustically isolated zones.<rt-red> Different floor levels have been generated to allow for visual connections for different activities such as the DJ console and bar counter flanked by a zone with a more bar-like mood at the entrance lounge (which also serves as a waiting area for diners). Private dining zones have been slightly elevated to create lines of sight to the live music and the dance floor.
The material palette has been carefully curated from natural finishes and colours such that the feel is fresh and chic in the day and becomes glamorous as the evening sets in. The indoors is stone, tan leather and walnut furniture offset by accents of floral fabrics whereas the outdoors is sandstone, seamless floors in sand-washed cement and oil-finished timber offset with pale colours of blue and blue-grey. <rt-red>A custom-designed 3-Dimensional CNC router-cut ash wood wall becomes the principal feature for accomplishing the transformation from restaurant to nightclub.<rt-red>
In the day, the white ash wood is fresh and natural while during dinner mode, it is front-washed with spotlights. In the lounge mode, it is back-lit with LED washers and in the Club mode, each 4x4” tile is individually mapped as pixels by an advanced multiple projector setup that is hooked up to the DJ console. <rt-red>The success of the project has been in its appeal to a wide audience that comes in for the distinct experiences it offers, with many coming in to spend an entire night from early evening till the wee hours of the morning.<rt-red>
