Evoking Traditional Spatial Gestures

Project: Taj Theog Resort & Spa, Himachal Pradesh Architects: Studio Lotus, Delhi

The project architects were invited by late architect Pradeep Sachdeva to bring in a deliberate mountain house warmth and intimacy into the experience of spaces for the client’s first venture in Himachal Pradesh— to revitalise the brand’s hospitality experience as more human, service-oriented and with a strong local connect.

This new luxury getaway is located on the periphery of the town of Theog and is a 90-key hotel spread over a cluster of three, linear buildings sited on a long stretch of a hill top. Situated at an altitude of 2310m, the sleepy town of Theog provides respite to tourists seeking a quieter experience compared to the popular destinations of Shimla and Kufri all located within a 30km drive.

The building looks onto panoramic views of the surrounding valleys, and its architectural expression draws from the vernacular. With the backdrop of this building and the setting, the brief for the public spaces in the hotel was developed to reinterpret the narrative of ‘a home in the mountainside’. The architects worked with a very tight palette of local materials to render a quiet and spartan spatial experience. The warmth, attention to detail and layering of materials responds to the varying scales of the spaces. Contemporised, handcrafted elements from the vernacular lexicon, made in locally-sourced timber and stone, are brought forth to evoke traditional spatial gestures associated with hospitality and home-like warmth.