Category Archives: Books & Films

Architecture, Books & Films, Contemporary Practice

Book: BLUEPRINT

January 8, 2021 Matter Leave a comment

Blueprint is a narrative of Gautam Bhatia’s work juxtaposed on his larger cultural projects, and his experiments with complexity and context.

The Building as a Metaphor

A chronicle of work can be many things – a catalogue, a celebration and a critique. This one is an uncanny montage of ideas and images: a personal retrospective into the architectural journey of one of the sharpest spatial thinkers in India.

The architecture of Gautam Bhatia is difficult to reconcile for a casual observer. What are his concerns? What is he trying to achieve? The work itself – as evidenced by the book – is eclectic, diverse and seemingly inconsistent. The projects themselves deal with an array of scales, programmes and situations moving from historic preservation and rejuvenation projects to urban design; From the ‘Palace’ to the ‘Mountain House’.

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Architecture, Books & Films, Discourse, Lectures, Modern Heritage

Doshi: The Master of Elastic Time

June 30, 2020 Matter Leave a comment

Lecture and Text: Bijoy Ramachandran
Film: Cinematographed, Edited and Directed by Premjit Ramachandran; Conceived and Researched by Bijoy Ramachandran (© Hinterland Films)

In this lecture, Bijoy Ramachandran articulates his reading of the works and thoughts of Pritzker Laureate Dr Balkrishna Doshi through the multiple encounters with his buildings that include the seminal IIM Bangalore, NIFT Delhi Campus and the Diamond Bourse. The talk also outlines the influence of the numerous interactions Bijoy has had with Doshi over the years.

In 2009, Bijoy collaborated with his brother and filmmaker Premjit Ramachandran to author and produce ‘Doshi‘ – a film on the celebrated indian architect. In 2019, and with a gap of ten years, they collaborated again to script and produce the second film ‘Doshi: Return to Formlessness‘ – an intimate portrait of the architect with immersive and enduring glimpses of some of his celebrated buildings.

Images and Film: Courtesy Bijoy Ramachandran and Premjit Ramachandran. The talk and the film were presented at the FRAME 2019 conclave ‘Modern Heritage’.

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Architecture, Books & Films, Design Thinking

Book: ‘Plastic Emotions’ reviewed by David Robson

May 22, 2020 Matter 1 Comment

David Robson pens a critical review of a recent book by Shiromi Pinto that creates a fictional story based on a relationship between celebrated Sri Lankan architect Minnette De Silva and global architectural icon Le Corbusier.

Book by Shiromi Pinto
Reviewed by David Robson

PLASTIC TRUTHS

The writer Shiromi Pinto has recently published her own fictionalised account of the life of Sri Lankan architect Minnette de Silva under the bizarre and inexplicable title ‘Plastic Emotions’. Apparently, in this Trumpian world of fake news and casual lies, it has become acceptable for writers to take the lives of real people and re-cast them to suit their own purposes. But can such cavalier distortions ever be justified if, along the way, the personality of the protagonist is distorted beyond recognition, if the people who surrounded her are pilloried, if her achievements devalued and her ideas misrepresented?

Minnette de Silva, St. George’s c.1952, LASWA

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Books & Films, Contemporary Practice, Design Thinking, Discourse

In Focus: The Architecture of Didi Contractor

December 3, 2019 Matter 3 Comments

Resonating with the mindfulness of architect Didi Contractor’s approach to her work and life, Joginder Singh’s book ‘An Adobe Revival – Didi Contractor’s Architecture’ and the documentary ‘Didi Contractor – Marrying the Earth to the Building’ by Steffi Giaracuni, together encapsulate the unique sensibility with which Didi diligently continues to pursue an architecture that is embedded in a holistic sensorial experience.

The film unassumingly opens with the architect seated at her drawing board, sketching while deep in thought in the comfort of her warm mud abode amidst the stunning views of the Kangra Valley. Born to Expressionist Painters associated with the Bauhaus group of the 1920s, Didi pursued an education in art although keenly drawn towards architecture and design. Having moved to the hills, she set up a practice much later in life with a core ideology rooted in the understanding of local material and construction techniques. Continue reading In Focus: The Architecture of Didi Contractor →

Architectural Education, Architecture, Books & Films, Design Thinking, Discourse

Book: The Structure: Works of Mahendra Raj

February 14, 2019 Matter Leave a comment

‘The Structure: Works of Mahendra Raj‘ is an elaborate account of the significant career of one of the predominant structural designers of India – through an archive of images, drawings and writings on the prolific structures envisioned by Mahendra Raj.