Lotus blooms in the corner shop

chances upon an interior design firm for which small continues to be big.

Twelve hundred square feet is not a very large space for a shop; in fact, in these days of big bang retail, it's downright small.

But go to the Good Earth store in New Delhi's tony Khan Market, and you can see how smart, skillful design can make the most of space, averting attention from the smallness of it and emphasising, instead, the other, positive attribute of a small space "" a feeling of cosy homeliness.

Enter the store, and you encounter a veritable cornucopia "" an ornate candelabra in coloured glass and wrought iron stands on the floor set against the exposed brick and iron of the column, with a string of lamps on a wrought-iron cable draped just over; behind, a bolt of damask hangs loose from a plywood beam that cuts through the store and, ingeniously, also acts as overhead storage, and in front there's a little stool with candles in various shapes and sizes.

Turn left, and every inch is taken up with Good Earth's trademark wares for the beautiful home laid out, in little islands of drama, perfectly accesorised. A pleasantly diffused light enters from the plate glass facade of the store, which have ledges running all the way, lamps, bottles, jars and other knick-knacks stacked above and below.

The path naturally wanders to the right side, the bedroom area, where floor to ceiling shelves in muted cement board are stacked with cushions, rugs and what have you; further on, to the left, is the spa section with bottles, vials, pouches of douches, incense, salts, colognes laid out while across, is the tableware tastefully displayed under focus lights.

Ankur Choksi, one of the principals of Lotus Design Services, the firm that planned and executed the interiors of the store, says, "Given the high rentals here, the clients did not want to waste any time in doing up the place. We had only 45 days in which to do everything." Lotus's primary design intervention was to impose structure on the trapezoidal space with irregularly situated columns.

"The first thing we did was to put in a grid. In plywood, this also doubles up as storage, provides a frame for the light and a conduit for the electrical-cabling and airconditioning, and guides customer movement within."

The maze and attic were two working metaphors in the design concept, says Choksi. The store design takes a backseat to the opulence of the products, except for one detail "" the squares of gold foil in varying sizes stuck randomly all over the exposed-brick ceiling.

It's worked out very successfully, even though one listless little boy who'd accompanied his mother to the store complained of not liking "stores like this", because they didn't have a chair where he could sit down and read his book!

But then, perhaps, it was a commentary more on his mother's decision to have her son tag along, than to the success of what Choksi and his partners, Ambrish Arora, Siddhartha Talwar and Arun Kullu have achieved.

And what better testimony to that than Good Earth brand manager Beenu Bawa's admission that the store does as well, and on days even better than their 20,000 sqft store in Mumbai. No wonder, the company has retained Lotus to design its much larger store at Select City Walk mall in Saket.

Lotus, however, is not known for its larger stores (retail, and some hospitality, have been the forte of this five-year-old Delhi-based firm, but it is also now getting into architecture). Rivet, Levi Strauss's boutique store in Bangalore in The Leela Palace arcade, is only 900 sqft.

"The brief there was to create a buzz, not to sell; a clubby place which also makes consumers aware of the history of this iconic product, in an interactive fashion," remembers Choksi.

This design, which fetched the firm the Indian Institute of Interior Designers' award for best designed retail space (small) in 2005, realises this brief through, among other things, an interactive store front made of 8,000 copper rods and 16,000 buttons that slide in a giant perforated wall.

"People can actually punch the giant rivets, forming patterns within the store," says Choksi, showing pictures of people leaning against the wall, and forming man-sized impressions on the back.

So, why hasn't the firm designed bigger stores? "Large format stores tend to be very monotonous," says Arora, a self-taught designer who's also done line production for a Bollywood-Hollywood joint production.

"It tends to be driven by systems, the need to manage and cut costs rather than communicate a brand experience. We've consciously decided to stay small, so that we can enjoy the process of design and don't lose the passion that defines our work."

But good work is its own best publicity, and clients with concepts for interesting spaces are making their way to Lotus, as, for instance a boutique hotel in Jodhpur, and the firm's first international project "" developing the retail identity for Khalil Al Sayegh, a high-end jewellery chain of stores in Dubai.