All posts by Matter

Dialogues, On Photography, Visual Culture

Niveditaa Gupta: On Architecture Photography

1 Comment

In conversation with Niveditaa Gupta, we discuss the various narratives that drive a contemporary photograph, along with the values and potential of architecture photography in India.

The following text is the edited transcript from the conversation with Niveditaa Gupta, conducted on December 13th, 2021

CHAPTER 01: ORIGINS [00:25]

Part I – The Theory of Photography [00:39]

I never anticipated that I would get into photography. I was not interested in photography as an amateur passion that you pick up while you are in architecture or design school, because we had a lot of photography exercises, but I never felt that I could use the camera to photograph things which I might be architecturally interested in. As part of my dissertation, I wrote a paper on architecture photography. In the fourth year of architecture school, everybody had to write a research paper, and so I went through the archives of architecture photography all over the world, to study just how the evolution of photography happened over the years.

Continue reading Niveditaa Gupta: On Architecture Photography →
PRAXIS Initiative

PRAXIS 23 | Put Your Hands Together

Leave a comment

An editorial project by Matter in partnership with Şişecam Flat Glass, PRAXIS investigates the work and positions of diverse contemporary architecture practices in India. In this episode, Areen Attari of Put Your Hands Together introduces the idea of owning ‘bio-architects’ as the appropriate preface to the work they are pursuing. He cites collaborative influences, former partners, friends, and colleagues, underscored by their shared interests as a means of exploring and drawing attention to an architecture that finds a tacit relationship with natural materials. Through the discussion, Areen portrays the multi-modal approach of documentation, and teaching engagements to embrace the kind of imaginative play and intimacy that is essential to this practice and developing its details and systems. He believes he wants to create spaces that heal, spaces that make one slow down, and feel at peace with themselves.

Continue reading PRAXIS 23 | Put Your Hands Together →
Architecture, Contemporary Practice, Discourse, Essays, Studio

HIREN PATEL ON ‘MAKING’

2 Comments

Hiren Patel, Principal and Director, Hiren Patel Architects writes about an approach to architecture where the question of thinking in detail is central to the idea of a project and the work reaffirms this belief when it endures inhabitation over a large span of time.

The semi-covered veranda: pavilion in the middle of the site for a Village house project: structures that promote outdoor living and bear a better relationship with the natural context.

DESIGN

For me, designing a building is like creating a painting on a canvas. Growing up, I always had an inclination for the arts. As a student, architecture opened up a whole new way of looking at art and design. This, I think, in some way influenced my approach towards architecture. Continue reading HIREN PATEL ON ‘MAKING’ →

Praxis

Praxis 22 | Varna Shashidhar Landscape Architecture

Leave a comment

An editorial project by Matter in partnership with Şişecam Flat Glass, PRAXIS investigates the work and positions of diverse contemporary architecture practices in India. This episode features a discussion with Varna Shashidhar of Bengaluru-based Varna Shashidhar Landscape Architecture [VSLA]. The practice of VSLA develops from a contextual ethos of approaching and representing landscape from an integrated and multidisciplinary perspective. Through projects and research that traverse scales, their work centres around “beauty in the ordinary”. Varna elaborates on envisioning designs that develop over time and terrains and working in harmony with endemic ecosystems that form an underlay to their process. To advance collaborative cultural production, she also speaks of founding Design United to enable dialogues and a palpable sense of collectivity.

Continue reading Praxis 22 | Varna Shashidhar Landscape Architecture →
Architecture, Books & Films, Dialogues

Dialogue: Peter Zumthor and Bijoy Ramachandran

Leave a comment

A CONVERSATION ACROSS CULTURES 
Swissnex / SwitzerlandandIndia75 

JN Tata Auditorium
Indian Institute of Science1
Bangalore / 22nd February 2024

Swiss architect and Pritzker Prize Winner Peter Zumthor in conversation with Bengaluru-based Architect Bijoy Ramachandran. 

Swissnex in India, in collaboration with SwitzerlandIndia75, hosted the two renowned architects to discuss bilateral perspectives on architecture in an open format. This was a rare opportunity for architects and architecture enthusiasts to witness a cross-cultural exploration of ideas. As Switzerland and India celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations, this conversation was a significant milestone for Bengaluru’s design scene, fostering cultural exchange and collaboration in the field of architecture. This was an evening of intellectual discourse as these two architects wove a tapestry of diverse influences that shape the world of architecture. 

Continue reading Dialogue: Peter Zumthor and Bijoy Ramachandran →