Hard Rock Café, Lower Parel

We were commissioned to design India’s first Hard Rock Café, set inside an unused textile Mill building in South Mumbai. The Café was to dramatically house the trademark Hard Rock Memorabilia while fulfilling the need to respond to the 45 ft high volume of the shed.

The design response was inspired primarily by the industrial nature of the site. The challenge for us however, was to infuse into this, the Hard Rock brand in new and innovative ways.

The internal spaces are segregated into 3 important zones; café, bar and retail and are further split on various levels. The segregation of these zones was important as the Café had to work equally well as an all day family restaurant, as a high energy bar lounge and as a prime venue for live bands to perform.

The dining zone is subtly demarcated from the Bar area by larger-than-life illuminated canvas graphics of rock-stars that move vertically, separating or integrating the spaces as required.

Two dramatic double height walls, clad in a sumptuous streaked purple velvet sport backlit niches of varying sizes that house the precious memorabilia that Hard Rock is famous for.

The rest of the walls are rendered in an exposed waxed cement finish, and then adorned with assorted gilded frames of varying sizes with autographed photos of rock stars, letters, gold albums, and other memo.

One of the focal points in the design is the bar counter with a one of a kind Hydraulic stage over it. The stage can move up and down the vast volume during performances, giving bands the opportunity to interact with their audience from different levels. Inspiration was drawn from the common industrial lifts transporting heavy material in such Mill spaces.