Today, post-pandemic travel demands reliable, sanitized, efficient, and comfortable hotels that provide a safe retreat away from home. Nuo, a 27-key urban hospitality project located in Greater Kailash, New Delhi, is the first in a series of small urban hotels by jüSTa Hotels & Resorts that fulfill the specific needs of young, peripatetic professionals in the post-Covid world.

Unlike other urban hospitality projects that are most often housed in superficially adapted existing buildings in the city center, Nuo is conceived, designed and built from scratch, accommodating the specific requirements of an urban hotel in the most efficient way possible. 

Our design treats the hotel not as an isolated building but as a comprehensive urban intervention. The boundary wall is eliminated, opening the building to the streetscape with a large open-to-sky entrance court. A glazed façade forms an unhindered transition between the outside and the inside, offering a view of a neon green spiral staircase that acts as a beacon, inviting visitors to take notice.  These elements draw passersby in letting them engage visually with the activities within. 

The large 15-metre-high, skylit atrium is punctuated by a sinuous black staircase in steel that takes guests to the first, second and third floors, which house individual rooms, and further to the terrace level that accommodates a gym and an open deck.

While the upper levels house the private sphere of the hotel, the neon green staircase leads guests down from the entry-level to the lower ground and basement level that form the thriving public sphere. The lower ground floor houses an art gallery, and the basement accommodates a co-working space equipped with amenities, including conference rooms and a pantry.

The interiors of the shared spaces create a universal appeal with neutral tones of black and grey, giving rise to a progressive aesthetic. Floor finishes in high-performance, locally-sourced floor tech carpets imbibe this theme with a black base and grey linear patterns. Distinctive, serpentine LED strips run along the ceilings of the corridors and down the stairwell, injecting these spaces with a sense of dynamism. This design sets a recognizable identity that can be easily replicated in upcoming urban hotels by jüSTa Hotels & Resorts at different urban canters. 

The monochromatic aesthetic is carried through to the individual rooms but is paired with warm tones of wood introduced in the floorboards and furniture. The rooms strike the right balance between comfort and efficiency, featuring custom-designed furniture with integrated luggage storage and work desks that respond to the needs of the travelling professional. Locally sourced wood fibre-boards, which can be recycled, are extensively used to attenuate excessive noise of the bustling city outside. A projecting bay window forms a distinctive feature in every room, optimising limited views, bringing in daylight, and acting as a lively burst of space.

The facades of the building are developed in response to the sun path, minimising heat ingress from the south and the west and using glazed projecting bays to capitalise on the light from the northeast. The bays and balconies form striking, rhythmic elements that bring relief to the cuboidal mass of the building, showcasing a play of light, shadow and form and setting it apart from its context. 

The design of Justa Nuo represents a seamless urban connection, carrying the vibrance of the city life into its interior spaces.