Firm： Studio Lotus

Type： Commercial › Exhibition Center Retail Showroom Cultural › Cultural Center Gallery Museum Sculpture

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2014

SIZE： 3000 sqft - 5000 sqft

Photos： Randhir Singh (1)

Studio Lotus was appointed by the Crafts Museum to redesign the Museum Shop, the Café and sections of the Courtyard all of which were in a poor state of disrepair.

The overall idea concept in the renovation was to retain the use of humble material in building the framework and functional aspects and using craft to elevate the spirit of the spaces.

For the Museum Shop, building openings have been reconfigured to naturally connect it to the landscape around, making the shop much more visible and create a sense of lightness by bringing in daylight from the old internal courts. The high volume of the building and elements such as the old timber rafters have been restored and revealed by removing the false ceilings and restoring construction details. The walls serve as a canvas for either storytelling through craft or for merchandise.

Café Lota is a natural extension of the Museum shop and is set in the negative space created by the boundary wall and the museum shop. A lightweight metal framework inserted into this odd volume ties the space together and creates nooks and portals for people to dine and converse in. Negative spaces are filled with plants to create a light and airy yet shaded enclosure that makes full use of the beautiful trees and painted walls that surround the eatery. A lightweight bamboo trellis of varying density brings dappled light into the space through the day.

Bot the spaces use a tight palette of local sandstones, local timber such as mango, Mild-steel and sand plastered walls to create a monolithic backdrop for the crafted objects and an earthy setting that ties all the spaces together.

Modular and easy to re-configure MS & Timber display system, that spans tall vertical surfaces in some places effectively holds the varying nature of craft objects and textiles.