A city apartment has always been very different from a suburban house and the biggest difference comes in at the outdoor space one may enjoy. With a personal outdoor space comes the advantage of a private garden which never fails to replenish the spirit every moment it is experienced. Most city dwellers however have to make do with indoor plants and a public park to compensate the difference. But, when one talks of a penthouse then the lucky individuals who own it seem to have the best of both worlds.

Light weight accessories, a breakfast table and sweet smelling plants are all part of this composite penthouse garden.

A penthouse in Sydney, Australia  was commissioned to the award winning firm, Secret Gardens of Sydney which not only designs and constructs gardens but also maintains them. The firm presently employs a team of over 35 qualified, experienced and passionate landscape architects and designers, construction specialists and horticulturists to bring every garden to life.

A veritable viewing gallery of the beautiful city of Sydney, it provides the owner a perfect venue for not only private relaxation but for entertaining friends and relatives as well.

Spanning three levels the outdoor terraces were unattractive and not being used when Secret Gardens of Sydney was briefed. “Our client was unable to access the external top entertaining level from his apartment, he had to leave his apartment and go through the fire escape. This level had no connection to the other external outdoor areas or the apartment. With stringent building codes on what we could and could not do, Secret Gardens worked with the building management to ensure that the design and construction could meet the client’s brief.” Says Rochelle Abood the firm’s general manager.

The garden design which had at its centre a floating structure was broken down and made modular, each piece measuring no more than 2m by 2m, as everything had to be brought up in the building elevator. The added advantage with such a plan was that in the case the client moved, along with his other belongings he or she would literally be able to pick up the garden as well and leave!

Restraint, elegance, comfort and accessibility are the highlights of this outdoor space.

A rejuvenating garden encompassing ‘the works’ was created, it has everything, wood decked lounging areas, a hot tub, a fountain, a shade structure, a water body with fish, outdoor lounge chairs,  a little breakfast table and above all little bridges making connections with all of the seating areas. Where the planting is concerned, restraint and a clever selection of plants resulted in a chic and scented environment. The custom made planters, the well selected bric-à-brac, along with a superbly executed design displays the director Mathew Cantwell’s master touch aptly.

A charming pond, part of the client’s brief, artfully interwoven into this roof-top garden’s plan by the director of the firm Mathew Cantwell.

They say roof terraces are like stage sets as you normally view them from only one side, but in the case of this roof-top garden its different levels afford a quality of mystique, to be discovered and relished part by part.

“A spiral staircase was constructed on site to connect the two main garden levels, the middle and top external levels and allow the client to access these without using the building’s fire escape” explains Rochelle.

A view of Sydney’s opera house sitting in your own hot-tub amidst stylish furnishings and plants – a veritable dream come true.

Amongst the star attractions of the city of Sydney is the firework display on New Year’s Eve, I am certain what this proud owner of this rooftop garden would be doing every 31st December – but of course entertaining his lucky friends!

Text By Mala Bajaj
Photographs Peter Brennan

Contact
web: www.secretgardens.com.au

]]> http://www.home-review.com/2013/05/the-private-theatre/feed/ 0 http://www.home-review.com/2013/05/woven-diplomacy/ http://www.home-review.com/2013/05/woven-diplomacy/#comments Wed, 15 May 2013 06:06:20 +0000 admin http://www.home-review.com/?p=6135 A collaboration between the National Institute of Design and various African nations is changing the lives of hundreds of rural women through improved design and marketing of traditional African basketry – now magically morphing into everything from beautiful lampshades to strong storage containers.

Two years ago, at the second India Africa Forum Summit in Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced several collaborations between India and Africa. One such project, the first of its kind, was for the National Institute of Design (NID) to train rural craftswomen from various African nations to create and design traditional crafts with an eye to selling them in the international market.

With the motto “Crafting a Better World through Design”, this ambitious project focuses on empowering the artisans (currently from rural Zimbabwe, with four other countries in the pipeline) by using “design as the tool for capability building”.

Tradition meets contemporary in this ‘Cage Lamp’.

Two groups of Zimbabwean artisans – from Honde Valley and Masvingo – went through three training programmes along with a team from NID. Two of these workshops were held in Zimbabwe and the third at the NID campus in Ahmedabad.

The NID team, led by Shimul Mehta Vyas, Activity Chairperson, Outreach Program, trained twenty-five women to use their traditional basketry skills to create new and innovative products such as hanging lamps, multi-coloured baskets in various shapes and unusual containers that have a global charm. The team used only locally available materials – fruit, tree bark and roots to create natural dyes for the colourful baskets.

The bamboo and sisal from the interiors of Zimbabwe have long been used for commercial purposes. While the bamboo was mostly used for packaging material, the sisal was used to create “crude trays” for local use. The learning curve was steep – from being used to creating flat weaves, the artisans were trained to create taller and wider objects like lamps and stools.

From weaving baskets for storage, the African artisans now create contemporary products for high-end retailers in Africa and soon, in other countries including India.

The gorgeous finished goods are contemporary in design but do not shy away from their roots – they are unabashedly African in design.

The NID recruited expert weavers, professors and design students to conduct the workshops in design and product development. The endeavour of the project is to give these products an international market and to break the poverty cycle of the region.

The unusual and very modern black and cream palette of the baskets is a refreshing change from the pale look of the traditional weave.

The participants were specifically chosen for their leadership qualities and they could, in turn, train hundreds of other women in the future, thus generating tremendous income-generating possibilities for rural Zimbabwean women. The group of twenty-five came to India in 2012 and visited various entrepreneurial organisations involved with hand-made design such as Fabindia and Sewa.

‘The New Basket Workshop’ is an African NGO that is involved with restructuring the lives of African women through basket weaving. It collaborates with South African designers to develop traditional basket-weaving techniques and sell products to high-end retailers.

Styles specific to various regions which were in danger of dying out are now being revived. An exhibition in Harare called ‘The Basket Case: Traditional meets Contemporary” (2010) received international media attention, thanks to the innovative designs.

Earthy African colours come to life in these new-age baskets made with traditional design and contemporary weaving techniques.

Since the summit, the project has come a long way. ‘Basketry Dialogues: Connecting Cultures’, an exhibition showcasing the project and the products that the women have created was held in New Delhi.

For India, this has been a unique opportunity to influence lives in another nation, another culture. But for the women who had difficult lives and faded dreams, this project has been an eye-opener and an adventure that brings hope and the promise of a secure future.

Text By Chryselle D’Silva Dias

Contact
email: info@nid.edu
web: www.nid.edu

]]> http://www.home-review.com/2013/05/woven-diplomacy/feed/ 0 http://www.home-review.com/2013/05/bound-by-design/ http://www.home-review.com/2013/05/bound-by-design/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 06:30:49 +0000 admin http://www.home-review.com/?p=6109 Being the daughter of a leading jewellery manufacturer in India, I have grown up in an environment of jewellery design. This I must add definitely acted as a stepping stone in choosing industrial design as a profession.

I received my professional education from Raffles Design International in Mumbai, following which I established my brand Fenny G. As the ‘master designer’ of brand Fenny G, I explore various materials and technologies and inspire the design principles of the products developed under this umbrella.

Fenny Ganatra

Though design is a judicious mix of form, function and technology that enhances the experience of users, at the beginning what exists is a concept first it is in two dimensions and then it evolves into a third dimension; yet as a designer one has no clue how the concept will translate physically in a tangible manner. This process is tedious and challenging.

Taking the example of Bounce, my debut creation, first I had decided that I want to use silicone to create a new seating experience which was hyper-experiential. It then took several renderings and prototypes to finalise the look of the product, which would simultaneously serve the purpose of seating comfort.

Bounce – First Edition
Bounce takes the shape of the back without the use of any mechanical parts, and once you get up it comes back to its original position immediately.

Bounce as a seating innovation introduced a new experience. It is made of a polycarbonate base and uses silicone for the seating surface – on sitting the silicone takes the shape of the back without the use of any mechanical parts, and once you get up it comes back to its original position immediately.

The inception of Bounce is a story in itself. After the basic design was finalised there were several things to be done, such as choosing the right kind of silicone, deciding the material for the base, running simulations to check the feasibility of design, engineering the required moulds, deciding the colour schemes, sourcing the inventories, finding a factory that would translate it best, finding the balance between volumes, cost and efficiency, optimising for transportability, setting the manufacturing process, setting the quality control parameters etc. These are only few of the details that formed the design process.

Bounce – First Edition
The form of Bounce is minimal but when you sit on it the elements of form, function and technology come togething adding to the feeling of levitation

Bounce was well received following which I decided to enhance the design further – this gave rise to the second edition of Bounce. Attributing its inspiration to `Biomimetics’ – a trend that examines nature, its models, systems, processes and elements to evolve into modern contemporary design, the new model of Bounce is a definite tribute to the most natural human organic system, that of breathing.

If the first edition had webbings, this edition of Bounce has pores, like those on skin, that help in its breathing and the transpiration process. It has a more organic feel. Like natural corals that evolve gradually in the ocean, the new model is completely silicone-based around a sturdy steel frame.

In designing the second edition of Bounce the most challenging part was to develop a customised ‘Insert Injection’ silicone moulding process that would be utilised exclusively for manufacturing the end product.

Playing solo has helped me evolve my horizons of creative endeavour so far, but I must add a like meeting of creative minds would only make the process merrier.

I believe collaborations, will explore unconventional use of materials, which will transgress seamlessly into the world of virtual reality, explore manufacturing processes that will head more towards 3D printing which will make designs more easily executable.

Bounce – Second Edition
The second edition of Bounce is completely silicone-based around a sturdy steel frame.

Like other professional’s, designers too need creative gratification, we recently received an Honourable Mention at the Red Dot Award for Bounce. However, I think the best recognition is the fact that Bounce is available in 14 countries across the world, through our distributors, within less than 6 months of launching the product for the public.

Contact
web: www.fennyg.com

Originally a settlement by the name of Gastown that came up around a sawmill, Vancouver was incorporated as a city only in 1886. It had a large natural seaport and in 1887 the transcontinental railway was extended to it. This combination made Vancouver an important point in Canada’s trade route with other parts of the world and led to its rapid growth.

When

By Canadian averages, Vancouver enjoys a temperate climate. The period between July and October sees the best weather of the year with sunshine and minimal precipitation. Winters are gloomy and wet but temperatures rarely dip to freezing point. Rains are likely to play spoilsport starting from October and can stretch for long, continuous periods.

Why

For over a decade, the city has ranked as one of the world’s most liveable cities. Its scenic beauty and a mix of architectural styles from Art Deco to Edwardian to modern give it a picturesque appearance. The city’s commitment towards quality amenities for its inhabitants and planned development, adds to its appeal.

A Work Of Art

It is not unusual for a hotel to showcase art on its walls and sculpture in its passages and corners but very rarely does a hotel put up walls and create niches to showcase paintings, sculpture, ceramics and other artefacts.

The Listel Hotel is one such hotel, so much so that it is popularly known as Vancouver’s most artful hotel. As you step into the foyer of this hotel you would not be the first one to step back and re-look at the signage to see if you had stepped into a museum of modern art.

From the little Buddha in the courtyard to the spring-like sculptures in the foyer and pyramid-like installations in the lobby, an artistic surprise awaits around every corner.

Unlike most hotels which house art collections in the general areas, at the Listel Hotel, the art museum concept continues into the rooms as well. The rooms on the Gallery Floors are curated by one of Vancouver’s most important gallery, Buschlen Mowatt Gallery. Each room has been treated as an individual gallery featuring original and limited edition works of a single artist. The rooms on the Museum Floors are dedicated to original British Columbian art and feature some of the finest from the region.

The Listel Hotel’s artsy ambience takes it beyond a hotel just to sleep and rest. It offers an experience to be savoured and carried away to the onward journey.

Set Sail

Five sails stand tall against the gusts that blow in through the inlet. They look ready to sail away into the sunset but have been standing at the city’s pier since their construction in 1986.

Originally an old cargo pier, the site was redesigned to make the most of Vancouver’s beautiful harbour area. Besides being a cruise terminal, Canada Place also houses a luxury hotel, a convention facility, offices, shops and other attractions. The white sails have given the Vancouver pier a prominent spot in the city’s skyline.

You’ve Been Served

Classic French tile work on the floor combines with natural wood, exposed brickwork and industrial fixtures combine to create a welcoming atmosphere in this erstwhile jail. But the visitor to the restaurant L’Abattoir need not worry about serving time, all that is served here is innovative cocktails and French-inspired food.

L’Abattoir offers a variety of settings to its patrons from the casual bar and sunlit atrium at the ground level to the elevated dining area. Recently voted ‘Best Casual’ in Vancouver’s Magazine Restaurant Awards, this is one prison you would pay to do time in.

Keep The Faith

While everyone is ringing in the new and ringing out the old, comes Old Faithful Shop, a shop that positions itself as a general store but delivers much more. High ceilings, flooded with natural light, an open space and an uncluttered layout pull passersby in, and the cool inventory keeps them there. A display house fashioned out of cedar fence panels takes up one corner of the store and vintage wooden boxes dot the window display. Everyday items like coffee pots and glassware vie for space with indulgences like perfumes and leather wallets, with high quality being the common thread.

Text By Himali Kothari

Another watering hole in the pub capital of the country? In the booming hospitality sector one often wonders what differentiates one from the other for the customer. Besides good food, design, one might argue. The Arbor Brewing Company, Bangalore’s newest entrant on the beer scene certainly seems like one that will create a mark on the map of the city’s beer pubs.

The Arbor Brewing Company, a well known boutique brewpub in downtown Ann Arbor in the United States was setting up its first Indian presence in Bangalore. Owner Gaurav Sikka, a frequent patron of the brewpub while he was a student in the Univ. of Michigan approached interior designer Shruti Jaipuria, to set up what he had long set his heart on.

Located in the heart of the CBD of the city in a glass façade commercial building on a higher floor, the challenges were many for Jaipuria. She chose to first open up the large longitudinal space and “let the space breathe” as she says, by removing the road facing external front facade glass panels to create an outdoor balcony space. A large glass fixed window was created on another external wall side to allow for a stunning tree top view of an old tree.

Windows were closed along one edge to shut out unwanted views. These external interventions then allowed external light to filter into this otherwise mundane commercial space.

Armed with a freehand in the design, Jaipuria’s design intent for the interiors was to set “an industrial chic” tone in this microbrewery. On entry, the immediate view is of the large stainless steel brew tanks encased within a glassed partition. The decision to expose them, Jaipuria explains was to create an industrial art installation of sorts and form a focal drama point within the space.

The loft style space then unfolds with a grey cement floor, exposed wiring on ceilings and free style seating combinations, all in one large expanse of space.

“With an emphasis on a community building style and interaction, the multiple beer garden type benches enable customers to interact and engage with one another – something integral to our vision for this project.” Shruti explains of the seating combinations which include picnic benches, single chairs and smaller tables that are juxtaposed with leather armchairs, poufs and sofas in the bar area.

The highlight in this area facing the bar is the long community table with a bench, above which hangs a stunning custom made lamp. Many zero watt bulbs encased in individual wooden cubes are suspended by link chains, creating an ethereal glow in the bar area.

A simple textured wall opposite the bar, achieved by combing concrete with tile adhesive instills an industrial grunge look in the bar area. “Beer brand logos have been hand painted directly onto the wall by artists to give it a street style artisanal look,” Shruti explains.

The philosophy of the original ABC brew pub promotes sustainable business practices and  environment responsibility, principles Shruti herself endorses in her design mantra. She has thus explored several low cost and local material options in the interiors.

External glass panels were reclaimed and reused as the back panel in the bar. The industrial look was further heightened by the use of exposed metal and distressed wood finishes. Mango wood, a very sustainable wood, stained and distressed in finish was used as table tops and chairs.

Well designed bar stools with a mango wood seat and a metal base with exposed rivets enhances the raw appeal of the industrial look of the bar. Rusted chain link mesh shuttered storage lines one wall of the beer tasting area, where the beer is aged and kept, as in a cellar.

Appealing are the custom lights designed by Shruti for different areas. Above the brew tank area are interesting used upturned bamboo baskets! A long khadi lampshade suspended by metal chain links hangs low above the beer tasting table, adding a subtle factory-like raw look.

The booth style seating area has a large circular metal chandelier.

“Metals, metal meshes, beaten wood, crate wood, cork, khadi fabric, canvas, metal chains and exposed bulbs are some of the materials used in different contexts.”  Shruti explains of her well amalgamated material palette, which she has exposed for its textural quality.

Having achieved an interesting and chic industrial design for this microbrewery, that is already well received by its patrons, Shruti Jaipuria has proven her young design firm Maia Design established in 2011 has much to look forward to!

Text By Shibani Amin Rangaraj
Photographs Sandesh Ravikumar Courtesy The Designer

Contact
email: shruti@maiadesign.in
web: www.maiadesign.in

When you think of celebrated art or design, manhole covers and dustpans rarely come to mind. Yet, artists and designers like Giulio Iacchetti are increasingly creating works of art out of the mundane and utilitarian objects around us.

Tropico Lamp

Born in Cremona, Italy in1966, Iacchetti has been an industrial designer since 1992.  He has worked with some of the world’s leading brands and has won several accolades for his work and his art direction with Coop.

Joe Bowl

Iacchetti began his innovations early on in his career. In 1997, his ‘Joe’ bowl for Progetti is an excellent example. ‘Joe’ is a folding basket made out of three bands of curved wood held together in the centre. The pieces of wood swivel out to become a bowl and can be folded back into place when not in use.

Spazio System

The ‘space-saving’ ideas have continued over the years with the Spazio System, a foldable frying pan (1998); the ‘Bamboo’ multi-purpose cutlery set (2000) where the fork fits into the knife’s body; the award-winning Moscardino (2000), a tiny disposable spoon where the handle doubles up as the fork; the ‘Feed Card’ (2004), a credit-card sized plastic pocket cutlery set and the ‘Batol’ jug-vase-humidifier (2006).

Moscardino

The ‘Buonanotte’ bedside lamp (2007) that also masquerades up as a bookmark/place holder; the ‘Lumen’ (2007) candle holder that comes together when two metal sheets are joined together; ‘Molletta per Bucato’ (2008), a stunningly elegant plastic peg holder that resembles a flower; the ‘Tuboom’ (2010) coat-stand which is really just a simple pipe that splays into strands at the other end (bonus: it is available in 190 colours) and most recently, the ‘Pulivo’, a complete set of brooms and brushes to handle a household’s trash (2011). The handles of the ‘Pulivo’ system fit into each other thus helping with storage as well.

Molletta per Bucato

Giulio Iacchetti’s work is also consistently laced with a lot of humour and irony. The ‘Bye Bye Fly’ (2007) is a fly swatter that replaces the traditional net with the map of Milan! The designer was “inspired by the swarms of mosquitoes and flies that usually invade the city’s summer nights”. The swatter doubles up as a fun souvenir too.

Tuboom Coat-stand

In 2006, Iacchetti designed an ice-cube tray that moulds cubes to mimic a gold bar. The idea was to communicate that water is as precious as gold. The chunks of ice have ‘Cold’ embossed on them and in a suitable light, that could easily read as ‘Gold’.

Bye Bye Fly

The fun continues with the ‘St Peter Squeezer’ (2007), an irreverent juicer that reproduces the shape of St. Peter’s Square in Rome very nicely. The name and the idea is an ironic reference to the 8% tax that the Church takes from the people of Italy.

Lingotto Ice-cube Tray

Continuing with the fun design ideas is ‘4occhi’ (2008), a double glasses frame for the myopic or for those who cannot be bothered to carry separate pairs of sunglasses and eye-glasses. Just flip your glasses over and voila! you have a different pair.

Sanpietrino Spoon

The 2009 ‘Sanpietrino’ spoon is another nod to the designer’s Italian heritage where the stainless steel teaspoon has a key on its end (“key to Paradise”) which supposedly can reach to the bottom of the cup and “unlock the coffee aroma”. Sounds divine!

Tancredi e Bartolomeo

The ‘Happy’ Dice (2010) will make you smile when playing a favourite board game. The traditional dots are replaced with faces instead. You’ll spend hours trying to get your favourite face the right way up.

St Peter Squeezer

Besides products for the kitchen, Iacchetti has also designed linen (the ‘Ghost’ range of bedlinen in 2010), humidifiers that look like factories or vases (‘Fabbrica’) and a contemporary range of sanitary ware that has simple, unpretentious lines and saves water too (‘Olivia’, 2010).

4occhi Glasses

In 2006, Iacchetti collaborated with the Montini foundry to design drains and cast-iron manhole covers for public and private spaces. The design is not merely decorative, but serves to inform as well. Every manhole cover tries to tell a story – the ones made for the parks have ‘bird feet’ on them, instead of the traditional dashes. There are covers with optical illusions, or those that resemble tyre tracks to show how such covers “endure urban traffic”.

Happy Dice

In November 2012 Giulio Iacchetti launched his most recent project – ‘Internoitaliano’, the “factory network” made up of many several workshops and manufacturers that “provide the quality and technical know-how of traditional Italian craftsmanship to products that are sold exclusively online”. Authentic Italian design doesn’t get any better than this.

Text By Chryselle D’Silva Dias
Photographs Courtesy Giulio Iacchetti

Contact
email: studio@giulioiacchetti.com
web: www.giulioiacchetti.com

The designer duo Rahul Gore and Sonal Sancheti at the helm of Opolis Architects approach all their projects with one basic philosophy: KISS – Keep it Simple, Stupid! “When we design a space, we believe in creating the shell and then leaving it to the client to take it further.

Thus, the space must be designed in a manner that makes it possible for the client to experiment with it and make it their own,” says Rahul.

It is important for architects to be in tune with the clients’ expectations and the client brief for this South Mumbai flat was precisely detailed. “It was for a nuclear family with two young kids. The couple had travelled the world over before they decided to make their home in India. During their travels they had collected a lot of art which also needed to become a part of their home”, says Sonal.

As the Opolis team interacted with the clients they realised that their tastes were elegant yet down to earth. A good flow of natural light and fresh air was important to them. The team also had to find a balance between keeping the house kid-friendly and at the same time make it appropriate for the occasions when the couple entertained.

Says Sonal, “We had to do some internal planning to ensure that the home was everything the family envisioned it to be. The original layout, as it was planned by the builder, was altered significantly.” The larger bedrooms have been converted into the master bedroom and the children’s room.

“Concrete walls make spaces inflexible and both contracting and expanding spaces becomes a challenge,” says Rahul. In a city like Mumbai that is cramped for space, the flexibility in the use of different spaces can be a big bonus. A rarely used guest room would take up valuable space; so instead a study and TV room that can be turned into a third room on a need basis, has been incorporated.

Cleverly configured sliding and folding doors close in when a third room is needed. Otherwise the doors remain folded out adding expanse to the living and dining areas. Rahul says, “This sliding door is one of my favourite elements in this house because it is interesting how it conveniently opens up the space.” Extending the aspect of multi-purpose spaces further is the bar on the deck which stays snug against the wall when not in use but can be easily slid out when the couple is entertaining.

A floor-to-ceiling ‘black box’ forms the core of the house. Covered with black wallpaper in its entirety, it houses the master wardrobes and an ornate guest bathroom.

Another interesting element is the little study provided for the lady of the house who works mostly out of her home. “The location of the study was important. It had to be a place which would allow her to work in peace but at the same time be centric enough to be able to keep an eye on her kids and the goings-on in her home”, says Sonal. Its position within the TV room takes care of all these parameters and the tall façade of the desk ensures privacy and hides the clutter.

An exposed concrete wall takes up one length of the living room. This does two things. One, it provides an ideal backdrop for some of the clients’ art collection; and two its continuation into the deck blends the inside with the outside. Natural light plays an important role in the wellbeing of a place and giving it the correct energy. This concrete wall extends the inside and also pulls the natural light inwards.

In the design of this apartment, Opolis Architects manage to design a home that expands and contracts as desired; a home that endeavours to fulfill all the requirements of its occupants in a complete and elegant manner.

Text By Himali Kothari
Photographs Prashant Bhat

Contact
email:  info@opolis.in
web:  www.opolis.in

]]> http://www.home-review.com/2013/05/the-evolving-house/feed/ 0 http://www.home-review.com/2013/05/shroffleon-uncovered/ http://www.home-review.com/2013/05/shroffleon-uncovered/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 05:59:46 +0000 admin http://www.home-review.com/?p=6044 The Mumbai-based design firm, ShroffLeón likes to work on a non-frilly canvas. Its projects are defined by their simplicity of style and form and an acute understanding of the projects’ demands.

Most design and architectural projects are deeply collaborative efforts, with every participant infusing a distinct trait to the final product. But it takes a big pinch of generosity and humility to acknowledge this meeting of minds and labour.

Mumbai-based ShroffLeón, founded in 2008, highlights this point of “holistic” involvement whenever explaining its own approach, and with that subtle understanding, sets itself apart. Adding to this effect is the firm’s commitment to building “fluid exchanges between inhabitants and their environments”.

The style of ShroffLeón, a portmanteau of the surnames of the two principals, Kayzad Shroff and Maria León, is to stride on the more subtle side of things. Mad flashes are rare in these projects; instead there are warm streaks of mood lighting and polished wood.

The firm’s work ethic involves extensive research and a deep respect for the intellectual contributions of young and old team members alike. These facets reflect well in its mature treatment of every demand a client makes.

Poco-Loco Mumbai

Loco Poco the Spanish Tapas Bar in Bandra demanded a laid back demenour, ShroffLeon was commissoned to turn a older dilapidated establishment into a contemporary eatery.

With characteristic restraint and a deep love for the shade of gleaming wood, the firm re-invented the space – by engineering a careful seating arrangement and introducing a superb flush of natural light. The eatery today is a happy place that seems ready to welcome fun-loving guests.

With the Mediterranean-style standing bar, the chalk board, a wall with uneven wooden slates into which bottles do the ostrich, and a walking area that offers a little more than squiggle space, but many opportunities of bump-ins, this place screams informality.

In modelling Poco-Loco like a large, modern kitchen-and-dining space instead of a Spanish prop-laden sprawl, ShroffLeón achieved something distinct. This is a place where guests can sit, chat and eat without being constantly reminded of being in a Spanish rip-off set-up.

The inspirations here are subtle and refined – one will need a keen eye to pick out the hand-crafted traditional tiles and how well they fit into the larger design scheme.

House In Kashid

This project by ShroffLeón was picked as the entry from India for Backstage Architecture, a collection of projects names and contacts of architects under 40 from forty-five different countries. It was exhibited under the ‘Architects meet Fuori Biennale’ that took place in Venice in August 2012, parallel to the Venice Biennale inauguration, as well as at the annual architectural convention ‘Architects meet in Selinunte’ in Sicily in March 2013.

With all the accolades it received, it will be easy to assume that this is some extravagant project of eccentric grade. But the fact is that this beach-facing house’s success is in its simple application and inspired mild detour of a well-established principal – Charles Correas’ HUDCO courtyard housing unit.

With the courtyard as the axis point, the all-important kitchen is afforded the pride of the place and superb inter-connectivity with the rest of the sections of the house. This was a precise demand by the client and was duly fulfilled by the design firm using the MIG-1 typology as the base.

Conceived and implemented causing minimal disturbance to the existing contours, this house offers brilliant views of the sea, while its infinity pool extends this view.

J Terrace Mumbai

The biggest salvo in ShroffLeón’s favour here is the team’s firm grasp on the idea of simplicity and, never losing sight of the priority list of the home’s spaces.

ShroffLeón has made it a habit to accommodate the quirkiness of specific sections into other spaces of a project. So when this house demanded a multi-purpose outdoor deck that could morph into a yoga practice corner and a party pad on command, its LED cubes of dim lighting spilled over to the more genteel segments of the house too.

The multi-coloured chequer boxes of illumination are stand-out elements of this project, whether they are on the side-wall or the ceiling or on the floor.

Uneven and bold, these fixtures give the 350 sq ft space a sense of constant movement. Its reflections and replications across a range of hues look like a giant game of Tetris playing out amongst no-nonsense couches. In the firm’s arsenal of the sublime, this is an unabashed succumbing to the funky.

Text By Shruti Nambiar
Photographs Courtesy The Designer

Contact
email: info@shroffleon.com
web: www.shroffleon.com

Before you start hallucinating about the genre of Art- Papyrus’ expertise let me add that the firm designs exquisite products out of paper.

I am at the Old Delhi Railway Station in Hamilton Road and the heat has weighed me down so much that the only thing on my mind is a cold beer. However, as I step into a cool cab, the journey turns out to be more comfortable than an ordeal.

On the way to my destination I get to see India Gate, Khan Market and a glimpse of Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station and about 25 minutes later I am sheltering myself inside the cosy Art Papyrus office located in the N-Block Market in Delhi, and for company I have Savina Sharan, one of the founders of Art Papyrus.

“Art Papyrus offers a unique blend of functionality and design, bringing forth a special collection of wedding invites, basic boxes, gift packaging boxes, papers for various occasion, photo products, home decor, and jewellery boxes, in short Art Papyrus is a single stop for the best paper artifacts and it’s no wonder that our products adorn a lot of well known lifestyle stores,” shares Savina Sharan.

A textile designer by profession, Savina was the creative head of Artifacts India, her previous venture. In her role as the Creative Head she designed an assorted basket of unique products following which international labels like Louis Vuitton, WH Smith, Barnes and Nobles, Harrods, Asda, Calvin Klein and Target became her clients.

As time went by Savina and her husband Ravi (the astute business sense behind both the enterprises) thought that the time was appropriate to target the Indian market with similar products and that led to the inception of Art Papyrus.

Savina believes paper is the purest form of expression to share moods and feelings via its colours, textures and words. “Paper is probably the most inexpensive, innovative and easiest medium that can be used to express, decorate, innovate, store and cover. At Art Papyrus we offer a very unique mix of invitations, gifts and packaging products at various price pockets”.

At this moment there is a knock on the door and a cup of Cappuccino and Darjeeling Tea lands on the table with a plateful of cookies, as I take my first sip of the aromatic tea, Savina responds to my previous query regarding empowering women in her organization with a trace of feministic fervour, “Art Papyrus and the parent company Artifacts have been promoted by a woman! We firmly believe in their power and the immense strength and talent they have. We have women supervisors and workers in very crucial areas of our work. They are more reliable, stable and focused. Our lady colleagues feel secure, proud and satisfied. From cardboard making to manning a guillotine, from binding to printing, our women workers have breached many a male bastions!”

Art Papyrus employs talented fellow Indians (read karigars) to manufacture their end products. Ravi and Sharan have been involved in the business of design exports for the last 20 years and their cumulative design sensibilities help them stay clear and focused. The duo channelise the design expertise and abilities of traditional craftsmen so that their end products are contemporary and suitable for world markets.

This unique partnership has brought money to the dying arts and practices to the furl. Says Savina, “Our artisans have a lot of freedom, and at the same time we discuss and make plans together. The karigars are talented, but their raw energy needs to be balanced and modulated to achieve functionality with beauty, and of course quality”.

The firm has two workshops in Delhi. The larger workshop where the raw materials like cardboard and paper is processed is in Kundli whereas the workshop where the artisans work is based in Mayapuri.

Art Papyrus has participated in a number of fairs and won numerous accolades. Savina’s designs have also been certified and selected by a German Design Council – Rat Fur Formgebung.

Talking about her German experience Savina adds, “Participating in the German fair was an enriching experience; our products were judged along with the world’s best. The Jury was awe-inspiring but very fair and encouraging. The moment of pride was when they wanted to keep many of our designs in their archives”.

Text By Vikas Bhadra

Contact
Art Papyrus
N-16, N-Block Market,
II Floor, G.K-I, New Delhi
mob: +91 11 29231999, 41019244
email: sales@artpapyrus.com
web: www.artpapyrus.com

His work is not ‘in your face’ Indian and that’s because he firmly believes his Indian origin is not for appearance sake but is a pure fact which doesn’t need validation. You will find a balanced synthesis of technology, materials and techniques in his work which creates a poetic dialogue and engages the end user. Mr. Pakhale prefers being referred to as a cultural nomad as he strives to break conventions and try something new each time he sits at his drawing board.

A one-on-one with the man himself throws light on the deep rooted passion he holds for his work and everything around him in general. And a perfect example of his sheer perseverance is his Bell Metal horse chair which took him 8 long years to make it.

Here, he talks about his journey from India to Amsterdam, design dynamics across the planet, awards and recognition and much more.

Tell us something about your journey – from graduating from IIT-B to setting up a design firm in Amsterdam…

It’s mainly about dreaming, but to create work independently in any field for that matter, especially design is incredibly challenging. After graduating at IITB, I won an award that took me to Paris way back in 1992.

Within IIT there is an Industrial Design Centre which was set up way back in late 60’s by one of the faculties, Prof. Nadkarni of IITB. I was asked to participate in a competition, and I was one of the five winners. I met the man who designed the TGV, Roger Tallon, and I saw the then young Philippe Starck who was active from his studio at Bastille, Paris.

While I was in Paris, I got to know that I won a scholarship which got me into a very well known design school then called Art Centre College of Design. I worked with the firm Frog Design, which designed the first Apple computer and then after the Art Center College of Design I chose to work with another team called New Business Creation which was just started then by Director of Philips Design, Architect Stefano Marzano, who still is my great supporter today and we created some of the most pioneering designs.

In India we have lots of cultural qualities but one hardly sees it evolving or translating into contemporary design works in a refreshing way, maybe because of lack of imagination or courage.

For example, we are sitting in a lobby of a hotel which could be built anywhere, that’s sad because it doesn’t have an identity. Understanding that early on I decided to focus on culture of making things. Now in industrial society lot of things get artificially manipulated, so I wanted to look back and understand how things were done originally, and to do that I chose to go to an extreme remote part of our country in MP called the Bastar region.

These early experimentations and exploration led to lots of innovations. One project leading to another and then collaborations with high-end Italian manufacturing companies started and eventually I set up a design practice in Amsterdam.

How have your Indian roots influenced your design ideologies?

I have a very clean take on that, I am born, raised and educated in India. It’s a pure fact. Having said that, there has been an excessive obsession to manifest national identity. I think nationalism in that sense is somewhat chauvinistic and obnoxious. Talking about our cultural context, cultures are important, within our country even within one state you have micro cosmoses but you have to judicially implement them in your work and the bell metal project and the BM Horse is a representation of that, technically as well as culturally and anthropologically. It is not about just scratching the surface, it is really crucial to go deep and understand things thoroughly.

So my take on design ideology and therefore identity is that it has to come naturally as naturally as breathing. Having said that you should not try hard to deny it either. Identity in the plain sense has to evolve from the work rather than an agenda in mind.

One design constant that stands out is your ongoing quest for exploration, whether through different materials, techniques and technologies or the various mediums of design. What drives you to risk venturing in new territories?

It is mostly curiosity. Most important thing is to be able to engage. And I am curious about everything – materials, techniques, technologies, and different ways of living.

I know that’s not the norm where people cross the discipline but it’s all design eventually.

If you have a core understanding of an issue then the scale is not a problem. If you can create iconic objects, let’s say a vase, then it has to go in a surrounding, so you have to also understand the surrounding, so that gets into architecture. It has to fit in a system, therefore it has system thinking, so an object is never an isolated thing, it is a part of a system. So if you understand from that bigger perspective, you are not creating just an object, you are thinking about the entire context and when you are thinking about the context then the next step is obvious.

Form is an integral part of your designs; the Panther Multichair being a perfect example. How challenging is it to bring out the perfect marriage between function and aesthetics through form?

These are not separate issues for me. For me, design should work at all levels, it is not utility or form or manufacturing of it.

The example you mentioned Panther Multichair, in that case the sitting posture itself gives rise to the form. Form and utility are not divorced from each other, they are interlaid. Design in a true sense is all of it. And if all of it doesn’t hold properly then it is never a good design.

Is there a designer who has had a strong influence on you and your work?

Many … it’s never been one person; maybe my mind is too critical to make one person as the ideal. I do have lots of references in people which I admire. My mindset never allows me to think that this is what I have to do; finally one has to find his own way. I admire someone like Architect Ettore Sottsass who died in 2007 at the age of 90. I knew him very well; he had great fascination for India, in fact, he came to India well before the Beatles did in 60’s.

His work had great Indian impact in terms of the sensorial qualities – the colours, textures, materials that he used, but he did it in his own way, he never tried to emulate. He has done very many things, from objects to architecture, to products to electronics, arguably designed the first computer as well, when the computers used to be as big as a room.

There is another artist Isamu Noguchi, who was a Japanese American sculptor, I admire him for his universal perspective. I also admire his master, a Romanian sculptor who lived in Paris, Constantin Brâncusi, the consistency of his evolution is very powerful. That doesn’t mean the thinking stops there, these are more references which I admire, but not that one has completely to agree with them, I always have that critical point of view.

The Indian design fraternity is really proud of your achievements overseas. How is the response each time you visit your home country?

I was never truly gone, in the right sense. It’s been 20 years I have been abroad but I worked with artisans here, people know me here. Since you brought this question up, at the award function at IITB, I was told by the dean that I was the youngest ever to win this award. I didn’t expect that and it was humbling to achieve that. In fact, before coming here I got two very important emails.

Recently, I was one of the keynote speakers at CeBIT, a technology fair in Hanover. It was the first time it happened that a designer gets invited to the centre stage of the world’s biggest technology fair and I got an email from the man who designed the first Apple computer, Hartmut Esslinger to congratulate me. The Second email I got from Prof. Nadkarni, who was the founder of IDC. These are more cherished then just the awards, having said that, awards are critical to put things in perspective.

You have been associated with some of the most prestigious global brands, is the design approach generally more liberating or restricting?

I think the challenge of working with an international manufacturer is that they generally have a great heritage. Last year we did two projects where companies had their centennial celebration, one of them was Franke, a high-end Swiss Kitchen company. So there is a responsibility while designing for them but when you collaborate with big manufacturers with great heritage in design, it’s not a constraint in a classical sense, I think it is a challenge in a very beautiful way that designers can do innovative work.

And often if there are constraints, they are also challenging because that sets up the borders, so you know the parameters in which you need to work and come up with a best possible solution.

So for the Alinata Shelving System that we did for a high-end extrusion manufacturer from Bologna in Italy we decided together to create something that dissembles and assembles and can be shipped across the planet. Even though it is a large shelving system it has to pack as flat as possible but at the same time we had to make sure it doesn’t look flimsy and does not fall apart.

As for Panther Multichair, it was for the Golden Jubilee of Moroso and we had complete freedom to explore. These two examples illustrate exactly what happens when you set out with certain borders or when you have a complete free hand.

A look through your portfolio reveals it is anything thing but stagnant – the use of different materials and techniques provides it an edgy character. An example being your Roll Carbon Ceramic Chair, tell us something about it.

It has nothing to do with technology actually, there are a lot of preconceived notions about materials people have, they have notions about everything actually about culture, behavioral issues and the trouble is when you make presumptions you are not open to fresh perspectives, when you fail to see the possibilities you are the one to lose.

The possibility of ceramic as a chair by itself is a challenge. Ceramic is used for dainty brittle objects like ceramic ware. It has seldomly been used as a structural material so I wanted to challenge the whole perception and we succeeded in that.

When you talk about carbon fibre everyone thinks it’s a high technological material, formula one racing car etc. These notions are sometimes paradoxical.In reality if you have to work with fibre glass it is potentially manual work to really understand it. To create this kind of a paradox – ‘is it High-Tech or Low-Tech?” we decided to put the carbon fibre on ceramic which is not done either for technical reason or for better strength.

Both can work well individually if you think things through but when you put them together the question arises whether it is High-Tech or Low-Tech? It was a huge technical challenge; it was not something, which can be done. When we showed it at Design Miami Basel, Switzerland, everybody asked, ‘how is this possible?’ The intent of this project was pure provocation. I always say as much as we need an iPhone today we also need a hammer so we should not forget about it.

Everyone would love to know what Satyendra Pakhale’s current passion is. What’s currently on your exploration radar?

At any given time we are working on multiple projects, some are in initiation phase, some are in completion phase and some are in progress, so there are different things happening in the studio all the time. The main body of work is industrial design in the technological and manufacturing sector. We are also engaged with special architecture projects.

Most of these projects are presented at Salone – Milan Design Week, Milan, Italy or Stockholm fair in Sweden. Besides this every year we pick up a challenge, we set out to take a material – process and explore that to its maximum ability. So there is always curiosity about materials and techniques and that is quite fascinating and playful but also very intense, as you have to master the material and make things in a very articulate manner. Such projects become highly crafted edition pieces, which are presented at Design Miami Basel, USA / Switzerland or at PAD London, UK.

IITB has recently awarded you with the honour of the distinguished alumnus award. How does it feel to come back to your Alma Mater where it all started?

Great. The award was given by the former president Dr. A B J Kalam and he is very inspiring.  The whole staff and faculty, even people who retired were present…it was special. And they organised an interaction with students after the ceremony.

And how are our next-gen designers?

The curiosity is there. I think what we lack is critical thinking. It’s not that we don’t, we do, but sometimes the circumstances push you not to do. People are very curious, eager, want to engage and are quite committed and hard working. If they get into more critical thinking and IITs are all about that, then we have great potential to evolve into a much cooler place on the planet.

You have had a glorious journey so far…Was there one such proud moment which made you say “I am so glad I worked so hard”?

It doesn’t work like that. Working hard is not a guarantee to anything, more than that you should have something to say and when you have that you have to work towards achieving it. When what you create communicates certain emotions, like the Panther Multichair you mentioned, then that is enough. That’s making of a culture, that’s powerful, only hard work doesn’t give that. Hard work isn’t an option, it’s a necessity in any profession.

Any new Indian designer’s work that has come to your notice and have really liked…

This takes me back to what we started our discussion with – identity. Looking at the contemporary scene, there seems to be two scenarios: some are trying to impose very hard on a so called Indian identity, on the other hand some are mindlessly copying others, so I think to create work that has intensity one has to go much deeper and so far we haven’t seen many examples. One does see examples, which are done much more genuinely, those are the works of the artisans and there you see certain kind of quality across the country.

In terms of contemporary design, we were once asked to curate an exhibition but we could not because we couldn’t see the intensity. We think there are some missing links and we need to connect the dots. IDC is an institution where they could do more of that.

Since you have an astute understanding of the surroundings, is there a place where you can say ‘it’s good to be here’?

There are no public places across the country and that’s a very sad story of our nation. But at one point there were places, if you go to Agra and there is one abandoned site, though it is under Archeological Survey of India it is not really taken care of but if you go there you feel some odd connection. There is this poetic imagination which was there in those times. You will find a walking platform which is at an elevated level and mango trees run at a lower level along the walkway, so if you wish you can pluck the mangoes… so that was very powerful. But in contemporary sense I can’t give an example of that.

 Contact
email: info@satyendra-pakhale.com
web: www.satyendra-pakhale.com