Category Archives: Praxis

Models & PROCESSES BY NURU KARIM (NUDES)

‘NUDE MODELS’ by Nuru Karim explores the structure within
natural systems using technology and processes.

Evolutionary tools in model-making have enabled the translation of concepts of abstraction and coexistence from nature to built environments. NUDES, a Mumbai-based contemporary practice thrives on this process of model-making, while acknowledging the extent of design articulation that is possible with the implementation of these tools.

Architectural models, historically, are approached as tools that guide design thinking. Apart from their role in the essential act of communicating design, they have evolved over time to represent conceptual underlays in the design process. The fascination of Nuru Karim, Founder and Principal, NUDES, with model-making processes goes back to his undergraduate years. The practice of creating three-dimensional objects at NUDES is intrinsically connected to the design processes that generate buildings and ideas. The studio, that spans their practice across diverse spectrum of architecture, urbanism and public art, employs the idea of evaluating design through perceptions and imaginations at the human scale through these models.

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Architecture BRIO: Critical Tools

THE DESIGN PROCESS THROUGH DRAWINGS AND MODELS

Architecture BRIO, one of the most versatile amongst emerging practices in India, has been able to create projects with a refreshing sense of newness and surprise. This piece is an attempt to understand the key ingredients of their design process with an emphasis on the act of drawing as a negotiator of ideas.

In 2006, Shefali Balwani and Robert Verrijt established their practice – Architecture BRIO after returning from Sri Lanka where they worked with Channa Daswatte. Their initial projects were designed for Magic Bus – a non-profit organisation and entailed very efficiently resolved simple structures that enable ideas of play and interaction to manifest. Since then, their practice has engaged with works of various scales and typologies with sites in the peri-urban region of Mumbai, across India and South-East Asia. The portfolio is significantly diverse with the common themes that concern tectonics of site, formal and spatial explorations of architecture, critical reading of the programme, systems thinking, and clarity of material and detail that have characterised their work. 

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Design & Décor

With Canna Patel (HCP Interior Design Pvt Ltd),
Sandeep Khosla (Khosla Associates), and
Ambrish Arora (Studio Lotus)

This three-point discussion sought perspectives and viewpoints on the perceivable aspects of interior design and the emerging tangential domains of the discipline – interior decoration / visual décor and styling.


01.
INTERIOR DESIGN PRACTICE IN THE CONTEXT OF INDIA

Canna Patel:
An interior design practice when placed in the Indian context gets tied to not just our culture and aesthetics but more importantly, to how it is practised. In India, interior design has not been separated from architecture as a result of poor or no legislative or licensing control. It has, therefore, become a profession that architects adopt to create liquidity more often than not – an intermediary ball to keep rolling between architecture projects.

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STUDIO: Nataraj and Venkat Architects

Studio culture – as with all manifestations of the human intellect – is the embodiment of a pattern of work that nurtures the craft of building. Architecture workspaces are especially readable in this context as architects are, in this case, designing for themselves. With every workplace as distinct and specific as the work it produces, the people who design and work in these environments reveal their ideas in the space.

In this edition of the STUDIO series, we enquire about the early beginnings and work ethics of a long standing studio-culture of the Chennai-based practice Nataraj and Venkat Architects, founded by V S Nataraj and A Venkat in 1984.

Entryway: Studio NVA

A quiet pathway trails into the studio space, where dappled sunlight gently wraps its facade forming an interplay of shadows, materials and textures. Chennai-based  Nataraj & Venkat Architects [NVA] is a 30-year-old design practice, and is among the city’s pioneering firms renowned for their contemporary vernacular architecture. In a brief conversation with ThinkMatter, Principal Architect A Venkat discusses the making of a successful practice with a philosophy rooted in collaboration, competition and consciousness. Continue reading STUDIO: Nataraj and Venkat Architects

Material Immaterial Studio

Founded by Nitin Barchha and Disney Davis with their shared passion for design, the Mumbai-based practice ‘Material Immaterial Studio’ indulges in the sheer joy of crafting and the process of experimenting with the character of materials. The studio forges unconventional handmade curiosities which appeal to the architectural intellect as reductions of spatial scale by “exploring the bare beauty of materials”.


Every once in a while, one entertains an idea of a peculiar venture; the grounds of which tend to be less pragmatic and more whimsical. While these ideas end before they take off, Nitin and Disney fostered their fascination with materials into a unique endeavour which celebrates craftsmanship. Continue reading Material Immaterial Studio