NAGPUR CONVENTION HOTEL

Nagpur is a city that celebrates myriad festivals, has acclaimed commercial relevance of late. The British colonists accredited its geographical location and for the very same reason the region serves as a significant railway station, being the geographical center of the country. In the present day it ranks among the best cities of the country in terms of livability, public transport and infrastructure.

The history of Nagpur architecture showcases a variety of colonial buildings primarily administrative in nature. This is evident in the prevalent architecture of its public buildings like the Railway Station, the High Court, and the Empress Mill to note a few.

The site is located around 9.5KM from the railway station and approximately 13KM from the airport. Its strategic location on the main highway to Amravati city made it a viable site for a Convention Hotel. With growing number of conferences and requirement for wedding venues its was apparent that the hotel had to be designed in an adaptive manner which could allow for multiple events.

The design brief was to put together a building that clearly defined user movement and multiple acts without compromising on usability of either the hotel or the convention. The zoning splits the site into 2 components: event space and non-event space. The rectilinear shape of the site allows the building to place itself creating a symptomatic relationship between the convention and resident hotel part. The convention block is made of banquet facilities which opens into a lawn making a direct connect to the street. This allows for easy movement of the props and artifacts in case of expositions while reinforcing its programmatic presence from the highway. The Banquet lobbies merge seamlessly into the hotel lobby allowing for easy movement between the two programs yet maintaining a clear demarcation with the strategic placement of cores. The ancillary hotel programs also are adaptive and can cater to the convention facilities or wedding requirements to hold smaller functions. Multiple event spaces through the hotel building allows the narrative to be hybrid in nature.

The circulation through the site is a loop system with individual drop offs for the different building types. The continuous loop allows for a smooth transition between pick-up and drop-off. Parking has been tucked away in the basement to keep the ground clear for ceremonial walks and wedding processions by providing multiple lanes for movement. An additional loading bay has been provided on ground for easy movement of services for events.

The ground floor and first floor create a base for the L-shape hotel to situate itself at the perimeter. The L-shape of the hotel block, frames views to the city, the lake and the orchards capturing vistas on all sides making each room an asset. The rooms vary between single and double loaded corridor creating a striated set of volumes inspired by the stone mines in the vicinity. The second floor of the hotel which is the terrace of the convention block is the heart of the hotel. Multiple programs amalgamate here and strategic landscaping is designed to negotiate between the public and private spaces. The second floor contains the all-day dining, sports bar, club, children’s room, spa, gym and swimming pool. The main restaurant opens to the swimming pool and cantilevers over the entrance of the hotel lobbies. The restaurant plays both by the day and night reinforcing it’s connect to the city. The cantilever of the rooms provides indirect shading to the swimming pool by the Nagpur sun while the stepping of the floor plates creates opportunities for landscaped terraces.

The architecture reinterprets the language of the layered cuts of the mining visually while the translation of the architecture oscillates between the contemporary and the classic. In response to the climate, use of stone as a thermal insulator and concept of mutual shading has been suggested.