All posts by Matter

Architecture, Design Thinking, Discourse, Essays, History

Andrew Boyd and Minnette de Silva

March 4, 2015 Matter 9 Comments

Two Pioneers of Modernism in Ceylon

David Robson pens an empathetic memoir outlining the life and works of Sri Lanka’s two pioneering architects – a man by the name of Andrew Boyd and a lady by the name Minnette de Silva – in an attempt to restore their well-deserved place in the history of Modern Architecture from Sri Lanka and to bring into light their exceptional merit.

Andrew Boyd

Born in Cornwall in 1905, Andrew Boyd was the son of an Indian Circuit Judge and experienced a typically dislocated Raj childhood, spending part of his childhood in India and part of it at school in England. His father encouraged him to join the tea business, and in 1927 arranged for him to become a tea taster with Liptons in Ceylon. There he was befriended by the photographer, Lionel Wendt, and moved in a circle which included the painter George Keyt and the poet/diplomat Pablo Neruda. Wendt kindled Boyd’s interest in photography and this in turn led him to architecture. Continue reading Andrew Boyd and Minnette de Silva →

Architecture, Design Thinking, Dialogues, Drawing to Find Out, Interviews, Studio, Visual Culture

Hundredhands: Bijoy Ramachandran

February 3, 2015 Matter 3 Comments

Drawing to Find Out [01]

In an attempt to decipher and understand the relationship between the culture of drawing and production of architecture at Hundredhands, we look into their drawings to search for synapses where they represent ideas that eventually translate into architecture.

Sketch for Centre for Hope, Tiruchchirapalli, India.

Continue reading Hundredhands: Bijoy Ramachandran →

Architecture, Contemporary Practice, Design Thinking, Dialogues, Discourse, Lectures

In Conversation: Charles Correa + Jyotindra Jain

February 1, 2015 Matter 1 Comment

A conversation between architect Charles Correa and Art Historian Jyotindra Jain was organised on November 30, 2014 at the ISC Auditorium in Bengaluru. The event also hosted a screening of Sankalp Meshram’s film ‘Into the Unknown’ on Charles Correa’s Champalimaud Centre.

This conversation was dedicated to the memory of Vimal Jain – an architect and founding partner to a Bengaluru-based firm Architecture Paradigm. He passed away in November, 2013, succumbing to injuries sustained from a fall at a project site.

Architecture, Contemporary Practice, Projects, Studio

Brick House: iSTUDIO architecture

January 13, 2015 Matter 2 Comments

A mélange of materials composes the eclectic spaces of the Brick House – a 2500 square feet outhouse set within the landscape of Wada near Mumbai. Designed by Prashant Dupare, Shriya Patil and Amit Patil of Mumbai-based firm iSTUDIO architecture, the house invites an inquisitive mind to explore alternative building ideas and question conventions through an architecture that is derived through explorations of form and construction processes.