Architecture Brio | thinkMATTER

An editorial project by Matter in partnership with Şişecam Flat Glass, PRAXIS investigates the work and positions of diverse contemporary architecture practices in India. The episode features Robert Verrijt and Shefali Balwani, the founding partners of the Mumbai- and Rotterdam-based practice, Architecture BRIO. Through strategic designs, their studio places experiential architecture as a background for the surrounding context. Outlined in this conversation is a glimpse into their process and the thinking behind the studio’s spatial, textured and meticulously detailed portfolio of work – furthering an understanding of facets such as materiality, technology, changing landscapes and the found terrain. The discussion also touches upon the executional, operational and economic workings of the practice in discussion with Rohit Mankar, Associate Partner, and Mimo Shirazi, Business Head at Architecture BRIO.

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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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