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    • Design

    Rajat Sodhi’s Orproject fabricates waving walls for designer Amit Aggarwal’s flagship store in New Delhi

    JAN 7, 2021 | By Sanjukta Ghosh
    Orprojects explores new ways to play with light such as reflection, colour, transparency and opacities; Photographs courtesy Orproject, Shovan Gandhi, Suryan//Dang
    The structure uses 2,650 unique polycarbonate panels, 1,816 with a reflective film and 834 transparent. These are held together by 5,265 screws; Photographs courtesy Orproject, Shovan Gandhi, Suryan//Dang
    Orproject's design aesthetic lies on the intersection of nature-inspired computational design, digital fabrication technologies, inventive materials and craftsmanship; Photographs courtesy Orproject, Shovan Gandhi, Suryan//Dang
    While moving across spaces, shoppers visualise passing silhouettes, fleeting glimpses and exaggerated, diminished reflections; Photographs courtesy Orproject, Shovan Gandhi, Suryan//Dang

    From experimental, small-scale installations to large real-estate developments, Orproject Architects is known to incorporate ecology as a narrative to express their approach in design concepts. And that’s what Rajat Sodhi and the Orproject team achieved when they designed a partition system for fashion designer Amit Aggarwal’s flagship store in New Delhi.

    Aggarwal’s work is known for its use of novel materials and the textures, transparencies and reflections it creates through custom fabrics and sculpted dresses. This makes the brand’s association with Orproject only logical. 

    Based on the programmatic requirements within the store designed by Alina Vadera of Ava Studio, the flowing spatial divisions are crafted as architectural-scale waving fabrics out of reflective sheet material and suspended from the ceiling. The curvature and spacing of the panels create shimmering light reflections and varying opacities and transparencies depending on the orientation. 

    Orproject’s partition system for Amit Aggarwal’s flagship store in Delhi uses reflective sheet material in an architectural scale; Photographs courtesy Orproject, Shovan Gandhi, Suryan//Dang

    “The waving walls are made of polycarbonate plastic sheets. There are two sets of panels in the walls—one is laminated with a mirror film, while the other is transparent. These are connected by custom screws that adjust to the different joints. You know, some places have two sheets overlapping and in other places, six sheets,” shares Sodhi.

    Detail of the fabricated wavy walls; Photographs courtesy Orproject, Shovan Gandhi, Suryan//Dang

    Along the top and bottom are steel sheets that adjust to and hold the different starting and ending angles of inclination of each element. While those on the floor are affixed to the flooring using bolts, the one’s along the top are suspended from the ceiling. The team applied research into complex patterns and geometries for the creation of this unique shopping experience. The flowing walls form the background to Amit Aggarwal’s similarly flowing and evocative collection of dresses.