Fact File
Location: Nashik
Plot Area: 3.2 Acre
Total built-up: 13935 sqm
Architect Firm: Sanjay Puri Architects
Start year: June 2016
Completion year: Feb 2020
Lead architect: Sanjay Puri
Design Team: Toral Doshi, Manjeet Khatri, Sudhir Ambasana, Dipti Patil
Photos: Dinesh Mehta
Source: v2com
The site for this hotel is gently contoured rising up nine meters towards the south with the entry at the lowest level in the north. Situated in the wine-growing region of India, the north faces a large river and a dam with hills beyond. The southern side rises up into the hills in close proximity to the site.
The client’s requirements included a large banquet hall of 15,000 sq ft in addition to 60 rooms and other facilities. Since the banquet hall would have large gatherings, its access is planned directly from the road frontage at the lowest level of the site. The public facilities including the hotel lobby, restaurant, bar, spa and business center occupy a higher level six meters above the banquet hall entered directly from an ascending approach road.
The rooms at the higher level are oriented to face the river in the north or the immediate hills in the south with open circulation spaces and naturally ventilated and skylit courtyards. Each level of the hotel is integrated with the natural contours of the site, minimizing land cutting and landfill. No soil was taken out of the site or brought into the site while constructing, making the construction both economical and sustainable.
Aria Hotel is designed contextually, responding to the site contours, the views of the surroundings, the climate and the materials creating a web of experiences within its different volumes
Sanjay Puri
Over fifty percent of the walls are built with natural black basalt stone available near the site. All the circulation spaces are naturally lit and ventilated rendering the building energy efficient. Solar panels on the rooftop, over the banquet kitchen and parking areas, generate fifty percent of the electrical energy required. Rainwater harvesting tanks, with water recycling and reuse, add to the sustainable methods adopted. All the rooms, restaurants, spa, and banquets open into sheltered balconies and decks that provide outdoor usable spaces whilst minimizing the heat gain into the internal volumes.
On each floor, the rooms form rectilinear cuboids that are angled differently, creating balconies that frame the picturesque surroundings with two floor high suites at the topmost levels. Painted in terracotta color stucco, these frames are juxtaposed with the black basalt stone walls of the lower floors.
