Living Stone

In Jaipur, the experience gallery of Stonex India designed by Hiral Jobalia Studio transforms the popular cladding and flooring material — stone — into a work of art in an ambience that feels like (a dream) home.

- Carol Ferrao

Good design thrives on a trusted client-architect relationship, and the decade-long association between Stonex India and Hiral Jobalia Studio is proof. The brand — which is well known for its Indian and imported marble, semi-precious stones, granite, travertine, onyx, limestone and composites — turned to the Mumbai-based firm in 2010 to create its first gallery and office in New Delhi. Since then, the two have built not just an amicable relationship but also a productive dialogue on design and concept. “When they approached us to design their experience gallery as well as their exclusive stockyard at their new state-of-the-art facility at Kishangarh, Jaipur, it was more like homecoming for us,” shares architect Hiral Jobalia.

Nothing thrills an architect more than being trusted with a site where space is not a constraint. The “enormous site”, Hiral explains, was to be defined by a stockyard and gallery, covering 30,000 sq ft and 4,000 sq ft respectively with the gallery space sporting an excellent height of 14 feet. “The idea was to create a stage for their unique collection of materials as well as the brand’s impressive technical abilities to tame and sculpt them,” explains the architect who envisioned the gallery as symbolising “passion for nature and creativity.” The challenge was to execute the concept in just 100 days with no room for delay as the clients had already frozen the launch date.