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    Renesa uses contrasting terracotta and terrazzo materials to create all-day cafe in New Delhi

    New Delhi-based architecture and interior design studio Renesa juxtaposed terracotta and terrazzo materials to design a space that acts as a cafe by day and a bar by night.

    The eatery, which is called Rosie and Tillie, was named by its owners – chefs Anukriti Anand and Vicky Mandal – who wanted to create a hybrid open-plan brunch and cocktail bar.
    Curved booths run down the middle of Renesa’s cafe in Delhi”The cafe expatiates on the dichotomy of a woman who goes by the name Rosie in the morning and Tillie in the evening,” Renesa head architect Sanchit Arora told Dezeen.
    “While chef Anukriti Anand, an expert in bakery, wanted a space that could be called a daytime cafe with cakes and coffees and beverages, they also wanted something that could serve yet another mood; one of night, exclusivity and sombreness,” he added.
    The studio implemented a contrasting rust and white colour paletteNestled in a former Indian restaurant in a shopping mall in New Delhi’s Saket neighbourhood, the cafe features terracotta, warm white terrazzo and curvilinear architectural motifs.

    Customers enter Rosie and Tillie through an outdoor seating section that is decorated in the same materials and colour palette as the cafe’s interior.
    Once inside, guests are welcomed by a row of rust-coloured and creamy white booths upholstered with plush white seats, which run through the centre of the 1,700 square-foot space. These add texture and warmth as well as privacy for diners.
    Booths and walls are clad in the same tilesRenesa, which recently completed a brick-clad showroom interior in Delhi, made the sculptural “spine” that divides the space into different zones the focal point for the mixed-use site.
    “We took an axis as the starting point for our project,” said Arora. “A curvilinear spine divides the space not just spatially, creating efficient zones, but also metaphorically, animating the personalities of Rosie and Tillie.”
    The studio threaded white terrazzo throughoutEach booth has a circular table in its middle where customers can dine on menu items such as french toast, buffalo chicken burgers and American-style pancakes.
    During the evening, they can sip cocktails while sitting on high stools at the main bar counter towards the back of the room.

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    One half of the room is lined in pale flooring and has an earthy red paint applied overhead, while the other half of the room is decorated in the opposite colours.
    Red brick tiles along the walls envelop the space while industrial looking metal lights hang overhead along the length of the plan, uniting the two sides of the space.
    The space has a mixture of traditional table seats and bar counter options”The perimeter of the floor plan is dotted by dining nooks that make way for communal dining in intimate groups illuminated by bespoke luminaires that are artistic installations in their own right,” explained Arora.
    “The hybrid of experiences ranging from the daytime bistro-esque identity morphs effortlessly into the moody lounge by evening via the vocabulary of materiality and lighting that render the venue in a binate mien void of physical demarcations,” he added.
    Other recent cafes featured on Dezeen include a serene eatery in Melbourne called Au79 cafe by Australian studio Mim Design and the Connie-Connie cafe at the Copenhagen Contemporary art gallery which Danish studio Tableau and designer Ari Prasetya filled with wooden chairs by designers.
    Photography is by Niveditaa Gupta.

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    Mind Manifestation lines self-designed studio in Pune with perforated bricks

    Indian practice Mind Manifestation has set up its studio in a converted apartment in Pune and designed the interior to reflect how the local landscape changes colour from season to season.

    Pale green lime plaster and perforated bricks transform the 120-square-metre flat into a workspace that is both compatible with Pune’s tropical climate and reflective of the grassy hillside on which it is set.
    Perforated bricks line the reception area of Mind Manifestation’s studio”The material palette has been tastefully chosen so as to match with the different shades of the hill throughout the year,” Mind Manifestation explained.
    “Thus nature flows through to the indoors and the space becomes part of nature.”
    Seating in the reception area is crafted from recycled cardboard tubesThe office is fronted by a small reception area, where both the floor and desk are lined with perforated bricks.

    Here, visitors can sit and wait on a bench that curves around one corner of the space, fronted by recycled cardboard tubes.
    Just behind the reception desk is a door that leads onto a small terrace, which is also floored with bricks to foster a seamless connection between the studio and the outdoors.
    The window seat looks out across a hillsideBeyond the studio’s entrance area are a few rows of oakwood desks with cane-backed office chairs. There’s also a deep-set window seat that offers views over the sunny eastern side of the hill.
    Walls here and throughout the rest of the office are washed with lime plaster, specifically selected by Mind Manifestation for its breathability. The floors, on the other hand, were poured over with terracotta-coloured concrete to match the bricks.

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    To one side of the plan is a large meeting room centred by a wooden table. The same cardboard tubes that feature in the reception were used here to clad the table’s cylindrical base and to create a textured wall feature.
    At the back of the space is a chunky concrete ledge where staff can recline as well as a shuttered window.
    Green lime plaster covers the meeting room’s wallsAdditional work areas can be found towards the rear of the floor plan, along with a more casual meeting room where staff can gather for brainstorming sessions or team lunches.
    This room is fronted by a series of perforated brick screens that allow cooling winds to pass into the interior. Bricks were also used to build a block of tiered seating at the back of the room.
    Perforated bricks also create screens in a secondary meeting roomArchitecture and design studios often take on the responsibility of creating their own offices.
    In London, the couple behind local practice 2LG Studio established a workspace in their four-bedroom home, while Esrawe Studio set up its Mexico City office inside a former dance hall, taking care to preserve the building’s weathered ceiling trusses.
    The photography is by Hemant Patil.
    Project credits:
    Architecture: Mind ManifestationLead architects: Anand Deshmukh, Chetan LahotiDesign team: Pranjali Ekre, Dipti Kanade, Vidisha Paltewar

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    Lucky Chan restaurant in Bangalore combines craft objects with candy colours

    Indian office MAIA Design Studio has designed a Pan-Asian restaurant in Bangalore, which brings local crafts together with a Tokyo-inspired palette of colours and patterns.Lucky Chan is a casual restaurant serving sushi and dim-sum, which takes over the grand floor of a two-storey house.

    Lucky Chan takes over the ground floor of a two-storey house
    Because it’s a residential building, the space is divided up into a series of rooms. MAIA Design Studio founder Shruti Jaipuria saw this as an opportunity to explore a variety of different concepts.
    Her interior design scheme gives each room its own character, but they all share an eclectic mix of colour, pattern and material.

    Mosaic tiles create stripy walls in the open-air section

    Large surfaces of grey Sadharalli granite feature alongside ceramic tiles that combine candy shades of red, yellow, pink and green.
    “We were inspired by the hip Harajaku style of Tokyo while developing the colour palette,” said Jaipuria, “but the material palette is more local”.
    “As an office, we aspire to use local material and craft in contemporary and unexpected contexts,” she told Dezeen.

    The main dining room combines granite walls with a ceiling installation
    Lucky Chan can be divided up into five different zones: the main dining room, the open-air section, the passageway, the sushi bar and the private dining room.
    The main dining room is perhaps the most simple of the spaces, although it features a very unique detail – hanging from the ceiling is an installation of 250 turned-wood sculptures, created in collaboration with local artisans.

    These 250 turned-wood sculptures were made by local artisans
    These curvaceous wooden objects celebrate the tradition of hand-lathe woodwork in the nearby township of Channapatna.
    Each piece is coloured with natural lacquers, made using substances that include turmeric, walnut bark and manjista root.

    A passageway section features a neon sign that reads #heretogetlucky
    Mirrors lining the surrounding ceiling beams create the impression that the installation goes on forever.
    “The visual effect makes the large 900-millimetre beams disappear, thus opening up the otherwise small space and making it lighter,” said Jaipuria.

    The sushi bar is made from birch plywood and covered in green tiles
    Wooden chairs provide seating in both this space and the adjoining open-air section. These chairs feature seats hand-woven with coir, a coconut fibre, making use of another local craft technique.

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    Mosaic tiles create a pattern of stripes on the end walls. The same tiles feature in the sushi bar, where they create a grid effect. They also form a chequerboard pattern on the table in the private dining room.
    “Parallel lines and cross-grids started to play an important role while we were designing the space,” said Jaipuria.

    The private dining room has panelled walls and a chequerboard-patterned table
    Birch plywood brings a more lightweight feel to these rooms, providing custom furniture and also panelling on the walls.
    These wooden elements include a sushi bar with an integrated conveyor belt, which Jaipuria believes is the first of its kind in India.
    Other details include silk lamps that were handmade in Pondicherry, an array of plants in colourful pots, and a neon sign that reads #heretogetlucky.
    Norm Architects also looked to Japanese design for its Sticks n Sushi restaurant in Copenhagen, while Linehouse referenced a retro Chinese canteen for its John Anthony dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong.
    Photography is by Gokul Rao Kadam.
    Project credits
    Design studio: MAIA Design StudioDesign team: Shruti Jaipuria, Roshni Ramnane, Rahul ChughChannapatna execution: Atul Johri, Mubarak

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