The Peak

THE PEAK - Resort and Spa

The Peak is located in the untouched serene landscape of Udaipur, located in Rajasthan the desert kingdom of India. Designed as a destination to unwind and rejuvenate the property hosts, 8 pool villas, event space, Restaurant, Spa, Gym, star gazing platform and an outdoor pool.

Nature meets Culture
The design concept amalgamates the untouched beauty of nature that engulfs the site, along with regional architecture of Rajasthan. The idea of built and landscape is seen as an amalgamation in the design. The original contours of the site have been grafted back and used as an interface to create architecture.
Each villa is nested as a cocoon space in the landscape, to create minimum disruption to the natural beauty of the site. Local patterns were studied from the architecture of Rajasthan, and a “Hexagonal” pattern that is a common denominator in nature as well as the regional architecture has been used as a unifying element for the design. This hexagonal base pattern has been grafted on the site to create a system driven approach to design the landscape, entrance buildings, scooping of the villas, water bodies, etc. to create a sense of harmony and symbiosis in the design.

Window to Landscape
Architecture of Rajasthan boasts of intricate carving and Jharokha’s (Semi covered balconies with perorated windows all around). The concept of a Jharokha has been translated in the design as the villas are scooped out from the terrain to create these “Jharokha’s” with outdoor pool, star gazing deck and sit-out space. Each villa is conceptually a window (Jharokha) to experience nature.

Recourse Conservation
Locally available stone has been used as structural element for the project, to ensure a minimum disruption to nature. Most of the materials used in the projects have been sourced within 5 kms from the project site. Given that Rajasthan is the stone hub of India, locally available stone has been used for the outdoor landscape as well as indoor finishes.

Cocoon & earth cooling
The villas are designed for “leisure travellers” as well as for “work from destination”. The design brief looks at creating a home away from home with 100 sqm villas cocooned in nature. Each villa comes equipped with the outlook of a long stay traveller, with a master bedroom, living, dining, pantry, outdoor pool, star gazing platform and an outdoor deck.
The villas are nested within earth, to create a heat sink and keep the villas naturally cooled in the scorching dessert heat during daytime, and keeps the villas warm during the night in the winters. Since each villa is surrounded by earth, the heat gain and heat dissipation happens at a controlled rate. The outdoor terraces and the depth of the villa has been designed to ensure ample light inside the villa, without exposing the surface area of the built to the sun directly.

Outdoor space and Shallow water bodies
The wind direction on the site is from South which is the entrance of the site and travels along the depth of the site up towards north. This wind movement has been channelized by creating two building flanking either side of the entrance that create a wind tunnel effect and compress and accelerates the wind. Further shallow water bodies have been designed along the path of the wind which cools it down. Given the villas are scooped out of an inclined surface, the wind coming in contact with the water bodies is cooled down and travels seamlessly along the sloped site and creates a cool breeze reaching the villas which is further pushed in the villas with the help of a pergola.
The central plaza has been designed as a multifunctional space. This can have regional folk dance, puppet shows (regional to Rajasthan), breakout space for high tea, archery, pool deck, as well as event space for events to be held by guests.

Sustainability
The entire design is about sustainability. It ranges from resource management by using locally available materials, energy conservation by using nesting the villas in earth giving stone jali as roof element to create ambient outdoor seating space, and using wind movement and shallow water bodies to naturally cool the space.

PROJECT: THE PEAK - Resort and Spa, UDAIPUR, INDIA
SITE AREA | BUILT UP AREA: 6746 SQM | 3157 SQM
CLIENT: RAHUL VENTURES
STATUS: PLANNING PERMISSION
PROGRAM: 8 POOL VILLAS, RESTAURANT, RECEPTION, SPA, GYM, SWIMMING POOL, EVENT SPACE

DESIGN: AMIT GUPTA, BRITTA KNOBEL GUPTA
PROJECT TEAM: ASSOCIATE: KARTIK MISRA, PROJECT LEAD: ADITYA KUMAR SHARMA, TEAM: ANJAN MONDAL, HASNAIN ALAM
PROJECT TEAM (CONCEPT DESIGN): ASSOCIATE: SONAL DONGRE JAIN, AKSHAY KODOORI, KARTIK MISRA TEAM: STEVEN DERRICK THOMAS, ADITYA KUMAR SHARMA, ANJAN MONDAL, CHAITANYA GOYAL, HASNAIN ALAM, HARSHI GARG

The Peak by Studio Symbiosis in India won the WA Award Cycle 38. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.