The architects call the hotel a modern Indian palace, combining sustainable design with the traditional crafts of the state of Andhra Pradesh, which has long been renowned for its artisan jewelers and weavers.
Three buildings with a total area of about 30 thousand m2, accommodating 270 rooms, are arranged around a central courtyard, raised by three levels. These ground floors make up the hotel's shopping and entertainment area, with art galleries, banquet rooms, restaurants and shops. You can enter the courtyard through the lobby, restaurants and bar that overlook it. This space, fortunately sheltered from strong winds, is used by restaurants for their outdoor terraces. A veranda raised on 3 floors offers magnificent views of Hyderabad and Lake Hussein Sagar.
There is also a pool with a transparent bottom, which is the ceiling of the nightclub on the floor below: the sun's rays passing through the water create unusual lighting effects there.
The hotel rooms are located above the entertainment part. When designing them, the architects took into account the trajectory of the sun's movement: mainly, the guest rooms are concentrated on the north and south sides, while the utility rooms have been moved to the shaded west wing. Atop the high-tech glazing, the facades are protected by a "screen" of perforated and embossed metal panels, in the design of which the authors were inspired by local jewelry traditions. The screen allows diffused daylight into the premises and protects against the noise of trains passing nearby.
SOM architects also designed a range of hotel interiors: lobby, bar, shopping area and banquet rooms. The jewelry theme continues in them - the rooms are designed in golden and silver tones, and are also decorated with mosaics made according to the drawings of local artists.
This hotel was the first in India to receive a LEED Gold certification, with engineering systems developed in collaboration with the American Stevens Institute of Technology. The hotel, for example, has a gray water recycling system that recycles waste water before being discharged into the city sewer. Energy consumption in the building has been reduced by 20%.
N. K.
