Malik Architecture have completed work on Radisson Resort & Spa Lonavala, India, with Kamal and Arjun Malik taking the joint rolls of principal architect.
Lonavla, a hill station in the Sahyadris (a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley), is a popular weekend retreat for Bombay residents. Its natural topography, climate, verdant landscapes and history — including ancient forts and Buddhist cave temples — has attracted rapid development leading to a substantial erosion of the character that defined it.
The Radisson Lonavala Resort is located in a predominantly residential neighbourhood, its architecture blending in with neighbouring buildings and surrounding verdant land; a marked rebuttal to previous overdevelopment. Paying homage to Lonavala’s rich Maratha culture, architecture includes an elegant wooden façade and an airy, open atrium.
The feeling of multi-storey building has been avoided by developing the ground as organic, free form public spaces with split level topographical connections. The organisational structure makes nature the protagonist and deploys space, material and light in ways that replace the experience of a ‘building’ with a journey through a landscape that is alternately built and unbuilt.
Guest rooms are split over six categories: Superior, Deluxe, Junior Suite, Suite, Presidential Suite and Four-bedroom Villa. Aesthetically draped in the exuberant beauty of Lonavala, each are kitted out with all the modern-day amenities and more.
Soul-satiating cuisine is served in the variety of restaurants and cafés on site, whilst those looking to sip cocktails at sunset can do som up at the rooftop lounge.
A mere two hour drive from Mumbai and an hour from Pune, Radisson Resort & Spa Lonavala is a place to unwind, detach and immerse oneself in the beauty of Maharashtra’s heartland. A million miles away from the bustle of city life, yet close enough for a quick getaway, this is a design-led hotel with disconnection at its core.
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Radisson Lonavala Photography, Bharath Ramamrutham.
