This Ahmedabad store looks straight out of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

In the heart of Ahmedabad’s Bodakadev commercial district, a stainless-steel studio rises from a polished concrete floor, catching light in soft, distorted fragments. There are no doors framing its threshold. No conventional aisles mapping a path. No walls declaring where one room ends and another begins.

Inside Bluorng’s 100-square-metre flagship store, the immediate impression is not of a store but of an inhabited sculpture, or a sleek space that embraces the aesthetic of the spaceship from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Conceived by New Delhi-based architecture practice Metanoia Designs (MND), the space is a radical departure from traditional retail environments. Rather than relying on high-contrast display fixtures or grand decorative gestures to capture attention, founders and principal architects Prakhar Jain and Shivangi Sharma approached the project as an architectural exercise in subtraction, creating what they term a “labyrinth without walls”.

A framework for expression

The store doesn’t reveal itself in a single glance. Solid forms, controlled openings, and shifting perspectives build a sense of anticipation, pulling visitors deeper into the space. It begins as almost monolithic and gradually unfolds into new layers, views, and spatial relationships as one moves through it. The mall-facing entrance introduces Bluorng’s signature blue as a sharp visual threshold before settling into a restrained composition of steel, concrete, and diffused light. There are no planters, no props or ornamental objects to soften the space. The only elements at play are the stainless-steel partitions, display systems, the elevated trial room, reception, and integrated storage, with Bluorng’s garments left to punctuate the grey-and-steel palette with colour and texture.

“What stood out to us about the final store was how strongly the architecture reflected the character of Bluorng without overpowering the product. The restrained material palette, the rawness of the spaces, and the controlled movement through the store gave it a very distinct identity. It feels minimal but never empty, and that balance is what we really appreciated about the design,” say Siddhant Sabharwal, who founded Bluorng with Mokam Singh.

The decision to adopt such a stark, almost Brutalist architectural vocabulary was born out of a dialogue between Metanoia Designs and Bluorng. Every Bluorng store to date—across Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Gurugram, and Noida, with several more currently in progress—has been designed by Metanoia Designs. The studio recognised that the brand’s core identity centres on self-expression and individual style. To introduce a loud, decorative interior would be to compete with the very garments on display.

“I don’t think architecture needs to be louder to be more impactful,” reflects Jain. “For us, minimalism was not about making the space empty; it was about deciding what deserves to remain. Sometimes, removing the unnecessary makes the idea stronger.”

By “unnecessary”, Jain means the layer of visual noise that most retail interiors default to: dramatic spotlighting, decorative props, branded signage, multiple competing focal points.

The controlled labyrinth

Where standard floor plans tend to direct movement linearly, guiding visitors past predetermined display racks toward a point of sale, Metanoia has discarded this prescriptive approach entirely, opting instead to orchestrate an environment governed by curiosity.

Inside, every freestanding, monolithic stainless-steel partition terminates just below the luminous ceiling grid. This gap preserves a continuous field of view across the top of the store while fragmenting the space at eye level. As a result, the entire interior is never revealed at once.

A visitor sees a metallic plane, moves toward it, catches a glimpse of a garment or an opening, and instinctively changes direction. Movement becomes progressive, organic, and exploratory, resembling a stroll through a contemporary art gallery rather than a transactional errand. “We wanted people to feel that the space was continuously revealing itself. Every object became a spatial cue rather than simply a display surface,” Jain explains.

In a store with no fixed path, you need something to orient yourself by. That’s where the trial room comes in. Instead of tucking it away in a corner, the architects lifted it up, letting it rise above the partitions so it’s visible from almost anywhere in the store. It isn’t a display piece or a centrepiece in the conventional sense; it's more like a landmark you keep catching sight of as you wander, a quiet way of knowing where you are without ever being told.

Overhead, an even field of diffused light filters through a black grid, illuminating every garment with equal importance and eliminating the hierarchy usually imposed by accent spotlights. “Instead of using signage or strong directional elements, we designed a volume that anchors the entire experience,” adds Shivangi Sharma.

Bluorng’s stores look so unlike the rest of Indian retail. The difference, Jain and Sharma are quick to clarify, was never the point in itself—it emerged from questioning what a retail store actually needs. “Contemporary retail often relies on visual abundance, strong branding, dramatic lighting and multiple cues competing for attention,” they explain. “We chose to work in the opposite direction, not as an aesthetic reaction but because the brand and the garments already carry a strong visual identity.” For Metanoia, it also reflects a larger belief—that Indian architecture doesn’t need to conform to any recognisable idea of “Indian design” to remain rooted in its context, and can be abstract, experimental, and globally relevant all at once.

Together, Jain’s spatial logic and Sharma’s instinct for human experience give Metanoia’s work its edge. Bluorng’s Ahmedabad flagship is the clearest proof of it yet. Strip away the noise most retail design relies on, and what’s left isn’t emptiness—it’s an experience.

Address: G10, 11ABC Ln, Ashok Vatika, Ahmedabad