Florentine styles, it has since gained iconic status as India’s most celebrated hotel. By no means the first hotel in India, The Taj Mahal Palace did set a new standard for luxury and design and continues to do so today. Hotel design and architecture has
I
undergone various transformations over the decades, never more so than in the past twenty years since the industry experienced its first real growth spurt. From the conversion of old palaces through to luxury newbuilds and resorts, the hotel sector is deeply rooted in the history, culture and religion of India. The initial concept of designing hotels in
India was formulated from adaptive reuse of traditional palaces, forts and castles, converting them into lodgings under the label of ‘heritage hotels’. Keeping in mind the diverse new uses the building had to be put to, many old structures were renovated into hotels retaining the basic flavour of the past architecture with new elements construed to take on a unique expression. Today, India has
t was 1903 when Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata opened the first Taj hotel in Mumbai. An architectural marvel that combines Moorish, Oriental and
a number of heritage hotels that not only preserve a bygone era through architectural features such as pillars, archways, domes, period furniture, frescoes, old wood panelling, etchings, stained glass windows, ornate glass work and local stone, but also give a sense of the royal social life through memorabilia. Rajasthan leads the country in the number of heritage hotels, reflective of the city’s particularly wealthy royalty that once occupied them. Jai Mahal Palace, once the residence of the Prime Minister of Jaipur, opened its doors to guests in 1955 making it one of India’s first palace hotels, while Udaipur’s Shiv Niwas Palace unearths the past through its gold paint, ornate benches, ivory and wood doors, and scalloped arches. Architectural practice Abhikram, led by Nimish Patel and Parul Zaveri, says of the project: “Each area of the palace was designed individually after understanding from the owner the use and ambiance of the palace spaces in context of history. This was to ensure its continuity of authenticity, with minimum but appropriate interventions, while facilitating the complex and contemporary needs of the guest.” Other examples include Hotel Narayan Niwas Palace at Jaisalmer, Umaid Bhawan Palace at Jodhpur, Bikaner Heritage Hotel, Taj Lake Palace & Devigarh Hotel in Udaipur, and Fort of Mandawa in Fatehpur. The Chittoor Palace in Chennai is another example of a restored 400-year-old mansion where replicas of the Maharaja’s furniture, traditional lime plaster, handcrafted tiles, and polished
31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56