ABOUT THIS HOTEL

• DESCRIPTION
• FACILITIES
• ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN
• MEET THE ORIGINAL

SPECIAL OFFERS FOR THIS HOTEL

• THE RAAS EXPERIENCE OFFER
• SUMMER SPECIALS

SUMMER SPECIALS

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ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN

Lotus Design Services
Praxis

Only natives of Jodhpur such as co-owners and brothers Nikhilendra and Dhananajaya Singh could have had the temerity to attempt a project such as RAAS, and the intuitive grasp of its environs that have ensured continuity. Dhananajaya’s role as a conservationist of Jodhpur directly informed the meticulously sympathetic restoration of the heritage buildings, while Nikhilendra hand-picked the two firms trusted to amend and enhance its facilities.

This personal stewardship of the design process has resulted in a seamless three-way fusion of antiquity, innovative technology and ecological sustainability. Each bathroom, for instance, contains solar-heated cast-iron bathtubs and floors hand-laid by Jodhpur craftsmen. The indigenous excellence and dedication that underpins every detail is epitomized by the fact that everything from cocktail glasses to rose sandstone shutters was heaved on bullock-carts through the walled city’s labyrinthine alleys. Ingeniously, those shutters also double as a heat-absorbing stone membrane that supplements artificial climate control.

The architectural vision that synthesized old-world graft with chic was devised by Lotus Design Services and Praxis – two award-winning design studios respectively based in Delhi and Bangalore. Their minimal jali screens that front RAAS’ suites echo and update the pointillistic surfaces within, striking a seemly balance between sleek geometric aesthetics and time-honored ornamentation. In this way, the two firms’ inspiration both sustained the local craft sector and catalysed its development. “Jodhpur’s artisans are amongst India’s best. The latticework we opted for was much more contemporary than their traditional fare, yet they got it just right. ,” reveals Nikhilendra.

In an architectural sense, RAAS is as valuable for what it isn’t as what it is. Given the site’s character accumulated over three centuries, the pressure to undertake an orthodox ‘reconstruction’ was immense. To their credit, Nikhilendra and Dhananajaya eschewed such an empty facsimile in favor of compassionate metamorphosis. Features such as the urbane mid-century style leather furniture and lustrously sable terrazzo floors allow RAAS to bask in an assured self- confidence; its older buildings countervailed and uplifted by such juxtapositions.

Rather than a remote, sterile gated community, the hotel is inextricably linked with its surroundings, which makes for a peerlessly cohesive stay. “Approaching the 500-year old fort in an air-conditioned taxi destroys your appreciation of its context, while an approach on foot from the RAAS embeds you directly in the fabric of history,” says Nikhilendra. “Guests look out at the city with a sense of kinship.”