TheIdealHomeandGardenAugust 2019 | 87
Architect Speak
The Pink Zebra, also called the Feast India Co.
(FIC) is a take on the bygone British culture in
the city of Kanpur, with the extravagance of the
European grandeur. Architect Sanchit Arora,
the brain behind the concept mentions, “The
purpose of making The Pink Zebra was to speak
of a complex and contradictory architecture
based on the richness and ambiguity of old
and modern experience, including that very
experience which is inherent in art. The core
idea was to create a hybrid rather than pure,
compromising rather than clean and leave the
visitor hanging in the middle of an artistic sea.”
The idea for the restaurant was initiated by the
client’s love for Wes Anderson’s set ideology,
and his love for fearful quirkiness along with
constructed frames, this can be seen throughout
the space. The love for extreme symmetry and
restricted colour palettes can often give the
expression of a surreal, self-contained world,
but adding that certain bizarre element to break
that monotony of Wes’s spatial ideology came
through the black and white zebra lines dipping
themselves in the pink monotone set in the
British Raj’s colonial order.
Sanchit further reveals, “The other thought was
to create a distinct aesthetic architectural style
that connects to the city people and poses its
stand by the use of a striking colour palette.
The Pink Zebra with its unique facade design
creates an everlasting effect on the passersby,
and invites them into a magical, expertly crafted
world whose spaces are framed to treat the eyes.”“Sometimes, architecture seeks to find a
harmony between the disconnect of design
and gastronomy through a phenomenological
relationship of branding,” says Sanchit. The
Pink Zebra breaks the monotony of the normal
style of food culture in Kanpur and creates an
exhibitional blend of architectural elements
into the culinary mode. How about dipping a
zebra into a deep pink sea? Rightly said - it’s
time to visit Kanpur.