Saanjh

Ahmedabad, India

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Saanjh

Ahmedabad, India

Firm

Metanoia Designs

Type

Hospitality + Sport › Wellness/Spa

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2025

SIZE

5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft

Spaces possess a sentience of their own, revealed not in spectacle but in steady restraint. In a sea of colour that appears all-encompassing, one might anticipate pomp. Yet at Geetanjali Salon’s newest outpost in Ahmedabad, that assumption quickly dissolves. Shaped by the hands and minds at Metanoia Designs LLP, the space asks its patrons to leave every notion of convention at the doorstep; an ethos articulated through client Sumit Israni’s creative brief to principal architects Shivangi Sharma and Prakhar Jain.

Located on Ahmedabad’s prominent Sindhu Bhavan Marg, the project sits amid a promenade of ambition where businesses seek to offer the city a considered, design-aware experience. Named Saanjh—the Hindi word for twilight—the salon draws from the fleeting moment between light and darkness. Like the hour it references, the space exists in a delicate in-between: softly radiant, neither fully illuminated nor cast in shadow.

Rendered in a crimson-rust palette across ceilings, walls, and floors, the interiors recall sun-baked earth at dusk, creating warmth that is felt as much as seen. “Here, colour is not merely a visual trope. It is deliberate. Spaces appear to melt into one another, drawing patrons into comfort while muting the chaos beyond,” shares Prakhar.

For the architects, this project continued a familiar design philosophy. “There is a quiet balance between indulgence and intention within these walls. For us, architecture and interiors are inseparable; together they shape experiences that begin upon arrival and stay with you long after,” notes Shivangi.

Such an approach demanded a client willing to challenge conventions. With Geetanjali Salons already a trusted household name, Israni sought to rethink the archetype of the wellness space. “It was one of those projects where we happily set aside precedent. The clients wanted something radical for this flagship store, a place where grooming transcends routine to become ritual,” Shivangi recalls.

Spread across two floors, the design unfolds through Indian-rooted materials and a living backdrop of colour. The architects encountered the site as a bare shell, with a double-height volume intended to anchor vertical movement. From the outset, the team approached the layout from within. “Design had to be reverse-engineered. Salon offerings were imagined as art rather than services. Spaces became the backdrop while stylists stepped into the foreground,” Prakhar explains.

The spatial journey begins at the reception, where fiery red Agra sandstone stretches across the floor like a frozen landscape. Conventional signage is replaced by sandstone and micro-concrete retail shelving framed by stainless steel guide rails, while the reception desk reads as a sculptural installation in solid stone and Corten steel. Overhead, a luminous stretched ceiling feature by Vibrant Technik diffuses light throughout the plan.

At the heart of the salon lies the central styling zone, an unobstructed axis illuminated by halo-like ceiling cutouts. The setting transforms the act of hairstyling into something performative. “The stylist becomes the artist here,” Shivangi explains. “Lighting is designed to eliminate shadows and allow craftsmanship to unfold seamlessly.”

Flanking this core are the hair colouring gallery and barber’s station, while a dedicated men’s grooming wing sits discreetly along the other side of the plan. Here, privacy is achieved through a custom jaali-inspired screen developed with Colortale LLP. Created by blending sandstone dust with micro-concrete to form a composite the architects call Stone-Crete, the latticed partition filters light and casts animated shadows across the corridor.

At the centre of the composition rises a ribbon-like white staircase that cuts through the terracotta envelope. Crafted in mild steel and set within the double-height volume, its fluid form contrasts with the solidity of stone. “Part installation, part functional element, it has quickly become a favourite backdrop for editorial and bridal shoots,” Shivangi notes.

Ascending to the first floor reveals a quieter realm devoted to longer, more personal services. Treatment rooms and bridal spaces take centre stage, reflecting the cultural importance of extended grooming rituals in India. “Wedding preparation often involves families spending hours together in salons. We wanted these moments to feel unhurried and special,” says Prakhar.

With Saanjh, Metanoia Designs LLP transforms an amorphous brief into a sensorial experience grounded in Indian materiality and colour. The project reinterprets the typology of the wellness space, one deeply familiar yet rarely reimagined. Here, architecture becomes a quiet storyteller, elevating the everyday through texture, memory, and atmosphere. Geetanjali’s vision, shaped across cities and years, finds new life within these walls, a design spirit that was always meant to arrive.