A discussion with Vishwa Shroff, an artist based in Mumbai, this episode dwells into the virtues of a slow-practice that involves looking at things with intent. The conversation outlines the power of drawing and observing for drawing as a tool to document the environments one inhabits.
Vishwa’s work is a record of the memories and presence of human endeavour in the built environment. The drawings enliven and extend the space they represent, thereby framing a cognitive record of the way we encounter place in public and private domains, extending Vishwa’s role as a cartographer of memories in a practice of recording.
Composed currently of seven products – Lounge Chair, Footrest, Chair, Dining Table, Low Footrest, Low Armchair, Low Table – elements in KADALUM arise from custom moulds and extrusions developed for furniture applications. The manufacturing process is a philosophical extension of the studio’s industrial design ethos.
A custom high-stability aluminium extrusion was engineered to echo the refined profile and elegance of the Kadam collection while simultaneously outlining structural lightness and outdoor durability. Achieving the requisite precision led to the integration of machining to ensure a crafted advantage for foldability, mobility and versatility for sustained outdoor usage.
An editorial project by Matter in partnership with Şişecam Flat Glass, PRAXIS investigates the work and positions of diverse contemporary architecture practices in India.Field Architects, led by Faiza Khan and Suril Patel, is an adaptive and itinerant practice. Based out of Ladakh and Ahmedabad currently, the practice is simultaneously nomadic and rooted, allowing architecture to emerge through sustained engagement with place, climate, and lived experience. Formed through early exposure to rigorous studio cultures and materially-positioned site practices, their trajectory gradually deepened into a critical engagement with Ladakh’s ecology, cultural, and temporal dimensions. Within this fragile and potent landscape, characterised by environmental extremities and cultural continuity, the studio has developed a process-oriented, handcrafted language that is both technically rigorous and contextually aware. At the core of this approach lies a triangulated, interconnected landscape of three practices: Field Lab, a workshop, and the architectural studio. Collectively, through teaching, research, and construction undertaken in collaboration with local institutions, communities, and students, the studio has assembled a framework rooted in sensitivity and feasibility, closely aligned to its immediate conditions. Architecture here becomes a cumulative act – iterative, collaborative, and embedded within cycles of learning and production.
In conversation with the master carpenter with experience in making everything from the smallest peg to a building in wood, the podcast explores the ideas and the philosophical underpinnings of a practice deeply engaged in the idea of making.
For years, Jeevaram Suthar has mentored a generation of craftsmen and collaborated with some of the most celebrated architecture and design firms in India to produce work of integrity as he shares his thoughts on tradition, livelihoods, learning, and the dignity of working with hands.
Originally featured in [IN] SIDE, Volume 02, Issue 02.
With three decades of prolific experience, Matra Architects led by Verendra Wakhloo is a practice based out of Delhi. Verendra Wakhloo writes about architecture as an ever-evolving paradigm – as an institution of values and exploration that is ideologically oriented to many identities and forces. He offers an insight into the ethos, relationships and principles that are essential in conceptualisation and realisation of the ecology of architecture, practice and people of Matra.
The Wood House (2013) located in the hills of Uttarakhand is designed in harmony with its context. It’s a homage to the client’s origin and expresses their bond with the mountains – an association they cherished since their childhood
DESIGN AS A JOURNEY
“Architecture is not created by one, it is by many. And not only dealt by many, but constructed by many, also thought through by many. An idea emerges through a process, a dialogue which we open up,” acknowledges Verendra Wakhloo. A dialogue that Matra Architects has been trying to initiate for three decades under his guidance.
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