The Brick Bond

Design Firm: RENESA Architecture Studio
Principal Architect: Sanchit Arora
Location: New Delhi, India
Project Typology: Retail
Photographer: Niveditaa Gupta

An immersive milieu that places its core product at the heart of its visual storytelling for all of posterity to behold. At The Brick Bond, conceptualised and executed for Jindal Mechno Bricks group, the humble yet most resilient fundamental of construction conjures an ingrained and palpable narrative that permeates the very walls of the space. 

With over 50 years in the fraternity, the company (now helmed by second generation entrepreneurs) was seeking an intrinsic facelift for the brand’s demeanour that could be expressed through a thematic and modular design identity; an evolving yet congruent architectural language that could dot any retail outlet nationally and globally.

Located in the teeming construction material retail nucleus of the Indian capital, the overhaul of the obsolete design identity began for the studio at the façade-level; the primary interface of a visual connection that patrons establish with a retail destination. The unassuming and uniformly punctured elevation alluringly beckons one through its portal, headlined by the overlay of brick architecture — a manoeuvre that allows the core material to don a focal role in a trice.

As India’s foremost brand of modular bricks and with a celebrated legacy of its craft to be carried forth, the design impetus pivoted around the conceptualisation of a resonant ‘Brand Architectural Ethos’ that could define the experiential centre at hand and venues the world over. Focusing on the lifecycle of each brick from its earthly genesis to its firing, the interiors have been interpreted as a contemporary dive into the chambers of a classic brick kiln. Bestrewed in a lyrical concoction of a gamut of earthy hues and laying patterns of brick bonds, the venue has allowed the bricks to become the true-blue protagonist in the spatial scheme.

With a warm spectrum of yellows, terracotta, browns and taupe, the floors, ceilings, and walls have been swathed in various brick modules that gain their distinct tints based on the firing levels the native clay undergoes. The petit blueprint hosts a prepotent display area, and ancillary zones like an office, bathroom, and pantry section. With three distinct brick bond typologies, primarily across the façade, interior walls, floors, and the vaulted ceiling, the architectural intervention focuses on exhibiting to the patrons how the material can be utilised in an ingenious and malleable manner.

With a homogeneous presence, the palette dabbles in a range of umber tones which manifest as a repository of bricks that playfully engage in a tête-à-tête with light that percolates through the interstitial windows, creating theatrical strobes of diffused illumination indoors. An ennead of monolithic brick-clad pedestals emerges from the floors symmetrically in the heart of the layout imbuing a sense of sculptural omnipresence, creating display surfaces for the catalogue of products.  

At the Jindal Mechno Bricks experience centre, the design algorithm pays homage to the layered history of the endeavour itself and syndicates its avowed future which brims with umpteen possibilities in the arena of construction. The elemental approach towards urging the utilisation of the building product itself in the designed environment allows patrons to connect with the sustainable, minimalistic, and timeless demeanour of the bricks. A space wherein the disposition is trademarked to be brand-specific and product-driven with its every weave while tying in with the proud homegrown ‘Make in India’ initiative.

This piece was published on ArchDaily, in Architecture + Design (December 2023) and was curated for the design studio’s portfolio on their website.