24 CELEBRATING THE COLLECTIVE

Over the past two decades, Studio Lotus has redefined the vocabulary of contemporary Indian architecture by grounding modern design in context, craft, and community.

 Photo courtesy: Studio Lotus

Founded in 2002 by Ambrish Arora, Ankur Choksi, Asha Sairam, and Harsh Vardhan, the Delhi-based multidis ciplinary practice has grown into one of India’s most progressive and influential design studios. With over a hundred designers, architects, and thinkers, Studio Lotus is driven by the philosophy of Conscious Design—a deeply rooted belief that architecture must celebrate local resources, cultural narratives, and the collective spirit of making.

 For Studio Lotus, each project begins with a question: What gives this place meaning? Their answers lie not in imposing new forms, but in revealing the identity already embedded in the VOL 8 ISSUE 1 25 land, the people, and the craft. Whether it is a museum, a hotel, a government complex, or a restaurant, the studio’s work dem onstrates that design can be both forward-looking and anchored in heritage.

 Photo courtesy: Studio Lotus

CRAFTING A DIALOGUE BETWEEN ERAS

Few projects capture this ethos better than Baradari at the City Palace in Jaipur—a dining destination that reinterprets the idea of eating “within history.” The 14,000-square-foot space, located within an 18th-century palace complex, had long been a modest café. The royal family of Jaipur invited Studio Lotus to transform it into a fine dining venue that honoured the past while feeling distinctly contemporary.

T he team’s approach was archeological yet inventive. Layers of plaster and paint were stripped away to reveal the raw rubble masonry of the original structure, which was then restored using traditional lime mortar. At the centre of the courtyard, a modern Baradari—literally “a pavilion with twelve columns”—was in serted in handcrafted marble and brass, a striking counterpoint to the aged textures around it. This new structure bridges time, symbolically and physically dividing the courtyard while con necting spaces and eras.

T he team’s approach was archeological yet inventive. Layers of plaster and paint were stripped away to reveal the raw rubble masonry of the original structure, which was then restored using traditional lime mortar. At the centre of the courtyard, a modern Baradari—literally “a pavilion with twelve columns”—was in serted in handcrafted marble and brass, a striking counterpoint to the aged textures around it. This new structure bridges time, symbolically and physically dividing the courtyard while con necting spaces and eras.

REIMAGINING GOVERNANCE THROUGH DESIGN

 In Krushi Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, Studio Lotus redefines what a government building can be. Commissioned by the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, this 130,000-square foot administrative complex houses more than 600 officials—it welcomes the public as participants.

 Drawing from Otto Königsberger’s original vision for Bhu baneswar as a “lively point of public life,” the architects trans formed the ground floor into a civic hub. It opens onto a plaza VOL 8 ISSUE 1 27 with a garden, amphitheatre, and pond—spaces where work shops, exhibitions, and markets take place. Above, the offices remain secure but visually connected, a gesture of transparency.

 Materially, Krushi Bhawan is a tapestry of Odisha’s craft traditions. Over 100 artisans contributed to its making: metal workers adapted dokra casting for lighting fixtures, while stone carvers depicted agricultural folklore in laterite and khondalite. Even the building’s façade, a brick screen inspired by Ikat hand looms, celebrates local textile traditions in architectural form.

Passive cooling, night-purging systems, and solar panels in tegrate sustainability at a fundamental level, reducing HVAC use to just 20% of the built space. But Krushi Bhawan’s true sustain ability lies in its social dimension—its ability to bring govern ment, craft, and community together. It stands as a rare example of inclusive, culturally responsive public architecture in India.

LUXURY ROOTED IN AUTHENTICITY

At RAAS Jodhpur, a World Architecture Festival winner and Aga Khan Award nominee, Studio Lotus demonstrates how luxury can emerge from restraint. Located within the walled city at the foot of Mehrangarh Fort, the boutique hotel is designed in collaboration with Praxis Inc. and unfolds as a dialogue between the old and the new.

 Three heritage structures were painstakingly restored in lime mortar and Jodhpur sandstone, housing shared spaces like the pool, spa, and dining areas. The 36 new rooms occupy contem porary stone buildings that frame views of the fort. These new interventions borrow from the jharokha—the traditional stone latticed window—reimagined as folding sandstone screens that offer both shade and openness.

Every element celebrates craftsmanship. Over 100 local artisans contributed hand-cut stone, terrazzo, and sheesham wood furniture. Nearly 70% of materials were sourced within a 30-kilometre radius, making RAAS both ecologically sensitive and regionally grounded. Here, luxury is not opulence—it is the quiet beauty of honest materials, contextual intelligence, and human touch.

 BRIDGING TRADITION AND MODERNITY

Studio Lotus’s versatility shines across scales—from adaptive reuse and hospitality to civic infrastructure and retail. Their upcoming projects, including the Aga Khan Trust for Culture’s museum complex in Hyderabad, the Visitor Centre at Mehran garh Fort, and high-rise developments in Mumbai and Chennai, continue to explore how architecture can shape experiences that are meaningful, local, and sustainable.

 Even in projects like Taj Taal Kutir in Kolkata, the studio weaves narratives of place into refined contemporary design. T he hotel’s neoclassical elements recall the grandeur of Bengal’s colonial-era clubs, while its interiors draw from the region’s craft and ecology—Jamdani-inspired patterns, Kantha-stitched headboards, and murals of the Sunderbans’ flora and fauna. In bridging Calcutta’s past with modern Kolkata’s identity, Studio Lotus reminds us that place-making is both memory and imagi nation.

 Amid the deodar and oak forests of Kumaon, The Villa in the Woods is Studio Lotus’s ode to building lightly and living in har mony with nature. Part of a 90-acre masterplan for conscious VOL 8 ISSUE 1 29 community living, the villa responds to the fragile Himalayan ecology through a design that respects the land’s contours and natural systems. Constructed using a modular light-gauge steel framing system clad in locally sourced materials, it minimises on-site work and waste while blending seamlessly into the ter rain. Raised on stilts to allow water to flow naturally beneath, the villa evokes the experience of treehouse living—its decks, skylit bedrooms, and sunlit courtyards dissolving the bounda ries between indoors and outdoors. A palette of timber, slate, and local stone references the region’s koti-banal vernacular architecture, reinterpreted through refined craftsmanship and contemporary detailing. Sustainability is embedded through out, from passive solar design and radiant heating to phytorid wastewater recycling, creating a near self-sufficient home that coexists gently with its environment. In its quiet presence, the villa exemplifies Studio Lotus’s enduring commitment to con text, craft, and the poetry of place.

 At the heart of Studio Lotus’s work is collaboration—be tween architects and artisans, between tradition and technol ogy, between purpose and poetry. Their projects ask important questions about how India builds, preserves, and innovates. T hey invite us to imagine architecture not as a solitary pursuit of form, but as a shared act of cultural stewardship.

 As the firm continues to garner global recognition—from Archello’s list of the World’s Top 100 Architectural Firms to the World Architecture Festival, the PLAN Awards, and AD100 for twelve consecutive years—its practice remains deeply grounded in local realities. Studio Lotus builds not monuments, but mean ings. Its architecture, in essence, is a celebration of context— and a call to design with conscience.

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