Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex, Uttarakhand

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex, Uttarakhand Architecture Images, Architect

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex in Uttarakhand, India

22 Sep 2020

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex

Design: yh2

Location: Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex Uttarakhand

The Indian Himalayas, a steep mountain landscape through which the sacred Ganges River meanders, is a nature that supersedes all human construction.

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex Uttarakhand

For the development of the hotel complex Taj Rishikesh, it was this modesty in face of the grandiosity of the place that guided our approach.

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex India

The project was developed following a trip to the Indian Himalayas, where we studied the traditional vernacular architecture developed over millennia. This architecture evolved in response to the rugged mountain topography and the locally available materials, and this established the foundation of the project.

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex India

The resort, located 250 km north-east of New Delhi, incorporates the main hotel block and a series of villas on a vast and steep site overlooking the Ganges River. The site layout is inspired by traditional Himalayan villages, anchored around a Darbargadh, the traditional residence of local rajas or lords.

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex Uttarakhand

The Darbargadhs are used as a combination fortress-palace-temple, and offer at their heart a walled courtyard that ensures the protection of the villagers in times of war, and serves as a gathering place for community life in harmonious times.

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex Uttarakhand Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex India

Created in the image of a traditional Darbargadh, the main block of the hotel overlooks the valley and provides a central location for gathering all the main services of the resort: the reception, restaurant, bar, boutique, library, and more.

The villas, as in a traditional Himalayan village, are laid out as a series of pavilions built on a succession of stepped terraces kept in place by massive stone retaining walls. This stratification of the site in successive levels offers each villa a private view of the mountain panorama and the majority with framed views of the Ganges River.

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex India

The architecture of the project takes advantage of the materials found locally: river stones for the retaining walls, slate for the roofs and flooring, and large wooden frames for the joinery. Traditional Himalayan construction techniques intermix stone walls with vast cantilevered cedar beams. This traditional building style called Kath-Kuni has been reinterpreted here with modern materials, with steel replacing the cedar beams that are now banned from exploitation in the Himalayas.

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex Uttarakhand

A long sinuous central pathway unites the property, winding through the different plateaus and leading to the various buildings of the resort complex. From the national highway at the top of the site, this long ribbon gently unfolds, connecting the main hotel block on the top plateau to the villas on the intermediate terraces. The path then travels further down to the yoga and spa pavilions at a lower plateau, only to end its journey at the swimming pool and restaurants that directly overlook the beach on the banks of the Ganges. This serpentine line of light-colored gravel winds elegantly through the site, just as the Ganges meanders through the Indian Himalayas.

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex Uttarakhand

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex in India – Building Information

Architects: yh2
Location: Rishikesh, India
Area: 79 rooms and villas – 150 000 sq ft
Construction period: 2011-2020
yh2 design team: Marie-Claude Hamelin, Loukas Yiacouvakis, François Bélanger, Marianne Vézina
Architects in India: Edifice consultant – https://www.edifice.co.in/
Edifice Consultants Pvt Ltd Team Credits: Mihir Bhatt, Radhika Dey, Pallavi Jitkar, Akshata Bane, Binu Kuriokose, Kolathu Baskaran
Interior designer: Eco-id architects
Landscape architect: Burega Farnell
Lighting consultant: GA Design
Developer and contractor: Darrameks Hotels & Developers Pvt. Ltd
Structural engineer: S.V. Damle

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex Uttarakhand

About yh2
yh2 is a Montreal architecture firm founded in 1994 by architects Marie-Claude Hamelin and Loukas Yiacouvakis. For yh2, architecture is the art of place-making. It is a creative and transformative tool, a way to reinvent reality.

All aspects of a project are carefully studied: integration within a given context, conceptual design, working drawings, architectural details, interior design, and object design. Concepts are developed in such a way that each of the elements must play a part in the overall composition. Nothing is superfluous.

yh2 deliberately chose to concentrate on fewer projects. Headed by its two founding partners, the team dedicates its full attention to these projects, which have received numerous awards throughout the years.

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex Uttarakhand

Photographer: Maxime Brouillet

Taj Rishikesh Spa Resort Complex, Uttarakhand images / information received 220920 from v2com newswire

Location: Rishikesh, India

Indian Architecture

Indian Architecture Designs – chronological list

New Delhi Architecture Walking Tours

Indian Architect – contact details

Rishikesh is located close to Chandigarh:

Northern India Buildings

North Indian Architecture Designs

Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh
Design: Le Corbusier architect
Forecourt of the Government Museum and Art Gallery
photo © SM Dhami
Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh
Government Museum and Art Gallery Chandigarh One of Twelve Recipients of Getty Foundation’s Keeping It Modern Grants.

Disha Electrical and Lighting Store
Design: Studio Ardete, architects
Disha Electrical and Lighting Store
photo : Purnesh Dev Nikhanj
Disha Electrical and Lighting Store in Chandigarh

Marble Arch, Chandigarh
Design: Morphogenesis, architects
Chandigarh Housing, Indian Residential Building

Chandigarh Unbuilt Competition
Chandigarh Unbuilt Competition
image courtesy of architects
Chandigarh Unbuilt Competition

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