Why do Mumbai’s hipster cafés and pubs look the same? These architects might have the answer

In the four years since Studio 823 designed their first café, Birdsong in the Mumbai neighbourhood of Bandra, the aesthetic has become a template – a muted colour palette and exposed brick walls, these are the preferred choice of many a café aspiring to be hipster-chic.

Samir Raut, one of the design studio’s founders, is not fazed by the imitations. Their creations, he said, are distinct from others – and what sets them apart is context. “See, the idea was not to make a French or New York cafe. We wanted to make a space which is highly detailed and designed but is contextual. If somebody passes by, it should feel like it is always there.”

That has remained Studio 823’s mantra as they have gone on to design some of most popular restaurants – Bar Stock Exchange in Colaba; branches of Social in Todi Mills, Versova and even in Bengaluru’s Koramangala neighbourhood; Glocal Junction in Andheri – and expanded to iconic spaces like Kala Ghoda’s minimalist stationery shop, Filter.

Studio 823 was founded in 2010 by Raut and his friend Siddhesh Kadam. The two had many things in common: both were graduates of Mumbai’s Rizvi School of Architecture, and both had earned post-graduate degrees abroad.

The first two years were not uneventful. Raut and Kadam were joined by a third college friend, Faizan Khatri, as they designed an art gallery and a store, among other places. Then, in 2012, a client told them that he had purchase a small space in a new building on Bandra’s Waroda Road and wanted to open a café there – this was to be their big break.

The three were unsure of how to proceed. The street was a mix of quaint bungalows and heritage buildings, and a bustling café seemed the most unlikely of additions. They decided they wanted the space to seem like it had always been part of the surroundings. The result, Birdsong Café, fast became a favourite for young people armed with sleek laptops, fashionistas looking for a backdrop for an impromptu shoot, or anyone craving gluten-free, artisanal desserts.

Working out of a tiny garage in the compound of a building near Shivaji Park in Dadar, Khatri and Raut are unassuming, the opposite in some ways, of their aesthetic. Their office is cramped with figures and charts. They don’t want the firm to be pigeon-holed into a particular niche and find themselves in a state of constant flux, choosing to be inspired, above all, by the “pursuit of happiness”.

Designing some of the most popular cafés, restaurants and bars, places with a cool, young vibe which a generation of Instagram addicts instantly feel at home in, was never part of the trio’s plans.

“It just happened,” Khatri said.

In truth, they think they are far removed from the kind of people who inhabit these places – Raut prefers to spend his time playing the sitar, while Khatri enjoys travelling and going for long bike rides. It would be rare to find them at a bustling spot in the city after sunset, both prefer the solitude of quiet dinners.

Both Khatri and Raut describe themselves as “not-party people”, but like to think that they are “teenagers at heart”. The chaos of Mumbai’s nightlife was never for them, they said, even when they were much younger. Khatri is a teetotaller, who likes to sketch as much as he can. When he visits places like Bar Stock Exchange or Social at night, when they transform from an all-day-breakfast café and co-working space to a loud, throbbing party, he is amazed.

“To enter is to feel like – ‘What the heck is happening?’” he said, smiling at the irony of the situation. “We cannot relate, it feels completely alien to us.”

The key to their work, they said, is context – architectural or design elements need to complement their surroundings. Exposed brick facades, for instance, have become something of a cliché in Mumbai’s ever expanding restaurant scene, but Raut said: “If you get an old building then I guess its okay, but how can you put an exposed brick building in Bandra-Kurla Complex, when you are surrounded by glass?”

This is why a controversial Goregaon outlet, a co-working space inspired by church architecture, simply did not work, according to Khatri. Choosing controversy to create buzz is tricky. “When the customers walk in, they must feel like the decision was justified, so as architects you have to work doubly hard,” he said. “In a way, the gastropub was almost setting itself for failure, by creating ‘drama it did not deserve’, becoming pretentious in the process.”

But as a result of this design philosophy, Studio 832’s architectural creations can often look too simple – as though nothing much has been added or changed about the original space.

One of the best compliments the firm has received, said Khatri, was when a patron told them that it felt like not much work had been done on Bar Stock Exchange. The bar is a reflection of the art deco architecture in South Mumbai’s Colaba. Its location provided Studio 823 with a chance to engage in something that they’ve always loved – old-school Bombay charm.

So the team used white and black marble to create a monochromatic look. The spot became popular not just because of the relatively low prices of the alcohol on offer but also for its easy vibe. According to Khatri, the space works because of its clean interiors, that feel unadorned and minimalist.

“When you walk into space to have a good night out, you don’t want it so say, ‘Hey, look at me!’ You want some comfort,” he said.

A few months ago, Versova Social (another co-working space which turns into a watering hole by night) shared photographs of its interiors on Facebook. The images rapidly went viral – the Victorian architecture-influenced interiors were an instant hit, distinct from any other bar or café. But Khatri said it was all context – they noticed the building Social was housed in was influenced by colonial architecture, and looked particularly incongruous in the area. They wanted their design to play this up, and extended the exterior’s influence into the decor and ambience. The space was filled with greens, as a comment on the area’s diminishing mangrove population.

If their projects don’t feel too similar to each other, this is because Raut and Khatri are not influenced by a particular design philosophy, but let their collaborators inform how they approach a project. For instance, a fabricator designed the perfect lighting fixture at Nico Bombay, a bistro, that gave the space the requisite unique touch.

One of the places Khatri talks about most fondly is far from the city’s nightlife, inside an old building at Hughes Road, that was once a flour mill. The firm was asked to turn the space into an open art gallery-cum-home-decor-store by Naziya Merchant, a friend who worked as a solicitor but needed an outlet to explore Indian art. They began by removing all the existing plaster and opening out the walls, leaving the space pretty much the way they found it.