Cultural Retail Space
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
- Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
- 2022
- Completed
- Retail & Craft Showroom
- 520 sq.m
- 340 sq.m
Cultural Retail Space is a showroom in a lane near the old city, set up for a family of weavers and craft dealers who wanted to sell their work without losing the feel of a workshop. The brief was for a space that felt part of the lane: open to the street in the mornings, calm and cool in the afternoon, and lit warmly enough for silk and brass.
The ground floor is a single room with a timber-framed mezzanine. A carved wooden screen runs along the street side, shading the window and letting light fall across the floor in patterned shadows. Brass-finish pendants hang over the counters, recalling the lamps in the weavers' homes, and the walls are finished in lime plaster so that the textiles read true in the warm light.
A small courtyard at the rear gives the café a shaded seating area and a way for visitors to step away from the displays. Storage and packing sit under the stair so the shop floor stays uncluttered. Brick piers left exposed along the rear wall tie the interior to the lane's older buildings.
“A shop should feel like the lane it belongs to, only cooler.”
Seen in photographs
The ideas that shape the building
- 01
Carved timber street screen
A carved screen shades the frontage and throws patterned light across the shop floor through the day.
- 02
Brass pendants over lime plaster
Warm lighting suits silk and brass, and the soft lime finish reflects light without glare.
- 03
Mezzanine display gallery
A timber mezzanine gives room for larger textiles and keeps the ground floor open and easy to walk through.
- 04
Rear courtyard café
A shaded courtyard seating area lets visitors pause, and it separates the café from the trading floor.
Teak
Lime Plaster
Exposed Brick
Brass
Kota Stone
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