‘Design Challenges in Indian Cities’ – a panel discussion.

ADI_Pune Chapter is launched.

Varied panelists, 60+ attendees and a very participative discussion.

The celebrations of World Industrial Designers Day in Pune and the launch of the Pune chapter of  the Association of Designers of India (ADI) , was followed by a serious discussion on how design can and should change, add value and be integral to a city. Designers, architects, urban planners, people heading NGOs all stepped up to give their views on the topic ‘Design Challenges in Indian Cities’.

On the panel were renowned Architect & Designer Shrikant Nivasarkar, who was chairing the discussion, Textile designer Chandrashekar Bheda, who had from Delhi to be part of this session; Architect and industrial designer Anand Belhe; Janwaani Director Kishori Gadre, Industrial Designer Pankaj Sapkal and Architect Shirish Kembhavi. Their discussions were further given another perspective by Industrial designer Satish Gokhale; and Satish Khot, President-NSCC, Pune.  Designer Nachiket Thakur was co-ordinating the entire session.

The panelists

IIID_Pune Regional Chapter supported the event, because of which there were many architects and interior designers present in the audience leading to different viewpoints from fields apart from Industrial Design.

Viewpoints of the Panelists:
Shrikant Nivasarkar:

• It is important to form a collaborative team and take the design activities further.
• Design, planning, interventions….all of this or rather design should come from within if we want to do something for the city- a sense of participation and ownership is required.
• When we talk of ‘creating an image of a city’… globalisation will bring dynamic changes in emerging cities, is design or are designers ready for these changes?
• Quoting Kumar Vyas, “Chandigarh and NID were good initiatives and great intentions, but went on different tracks- they never came together”.  How do we safeguard or work towards sustaining great initiatives?
• India’ strength lies in its diversity. How do we maintain that diversity/individuality?
• Context to People and Context of Environment- both are key issues for designers.

Kishori Gadre:

• Design interventions are needed for different projects and places within the social fabric of the city. And these interventions are required right from the household level to that of the urban scale.
• Case study – Garbage disposal, zero garbage zones which required industrial design help, provided by Onio Design.
• In cities, the ‘pain’ is divided into large numbers and therefore no one knows what they want.
• Designers need to come forward and work on different issues.

Shirish Kembhavi:

• There is ‘design’ at every step in an urban environment or space, but does it really contribute?
• A space can be turned into a place only thru design interventions.
• There is a need to demonstrate a ‘design value’.
• Housing is very important…can we create a house that costs under a lakh of rupees?

Pankaj Sapkal:

• Awareness needs to be created foremost.
• Some systems cannot be changed easily- change needs to start at individual levels.
• A food and water crisis is being predicted and is imminent and that we need to prepare for it right now, at the individual level.

Chandrashekhar Bheda:

• Regional identity is being forgotten.
• People are working in isolation, macro level thinking and working needs to be done.
• Newer idioms can be formed through collaborative efforts.
• We are in a hurry to become ‘global’,  but we are forgetting to be local or regional.

Anand Belhe:

• What makes a city?
• Mixed usage of city areas/Migration/Systems/Planning
• Adaptability/ Flexibility to change
• Human scale- is it comfortable?
• No planned approch – all individuals are looking at their own work.
• Permeability within a city?
• Is the city for cars or for people?
• Carbon foot prints? -Ac environments everywhere, causing more damage- and this is only because of architects.
• There is a disparity between the rich and the poor.
• Growing local food is a necessity. – Half of the food going to Mumbai is wasted. Why? Is it bad transportation or packaging?
• How is the movement in a city?
• Can we standardise certain elements to improve productivity and economic conditions? China is a good example of standardisation.
• Design and architecture are basically very similar, with same principles.

Expert comments:
Satish Gokhale:

• Sometimes design may work successfully as a stand-alone product, but might fail when taken in consideration with a larger context.
• We need to create products keeping in mind the larger picture and who/what/how it affects our immediate environment.

Satish Khot:

• It is important to create awareness of design at the general public level.
• Can we create something aesthetic that allows every homemaker to create a zero-garbage disposal system at home itself? Perhaps a planter which can also recycle all the waste into manure.

The audiences’ viewpoints:

• This is a good initiative, and perhaps ADI can be a body that solves issues at the common man’s level.
• Why can’t designers be on the administrative levels in a city? When we can have city engineers, why not a city architect or designer?
• There is a lot of work that is being done at an individual level, which needs to be acknowledged, learnt from and also shared.
• Issues like garbage disposal do not always require Industrial design. If we can come out with solutions wherein the garbage does not leave the society but gets converted into useful manure, then the process of having these garbage bags collected to bringing them into a truck and then offloading can be deleted.
• An identity of a city can be created through simple means also- eg: Jodhpur, with an all-white scheme for its housing.
• Need to educate people on design.
• It is time that design is not looked as something that needs to come as an afterthought or at the end of a product cycle or for finding a solution to a single problem.  Design needs to come at the beginning, especially for social and city-level projects.
• There is a strong builder lobby in Pune- they need to come for such forums and together proposals should be created for the city. Ditto for administrative personnel.
• Need to increase public utility services and come together to work on finding solutions for the city.
• Case studies need to be created that demonstrate design values, which could be showcased to create awareness. Start small so we can learn from the experience.

One of the highlights of this Panel discussion was the fact that Shrikant Nivasarkar, who is also the President of the Pune Construction Engineering Research Foundation (PCERF) has offered a space for design and good case studies, in the interest of the city, to be showcased during the CONSTRO exhibition in January 2012, in Pune.

The audience and the panelists took back a lot from this event- great insights, motivation to think, to do and make it happen, understanding the need for collaboration and identifying areas to work in… apart from an interesting bookmark in stainless steel from the ‘oneliner’ range by Sarvasva Designs, books from CMYK and an event sponsored by LUXUS.
Compiled and written by Darpana Athale, Sarvasva Designs.

Simplify.

I often wonder if we live according to the way we design.

Simplify through design is Sarvasva’s byline. When we are designing a product or a system or even a process, the aim is always to simplify the end result for it to be understood, and to make it interactive/communicative – basically to connect. We look at complex ideas and break it down to something that is easier to comprehend.

In fact most of the great designs of the world have always been simple, or at least seem simple at first appearance.

Then, do we designers live as simply as we design or think? So often, in relationships, in public and social life, we as humans within a society tend to do just the opposite- make a simple aspect into a complex web of ideas and thoughts. Compounded further by our feelings. And most often than not, this only adds to complex issues, competitiveness, negativity.

Our professional and personal lives are not really mirror images of each other. Is it not time to de-stress ourselves and go for simplification?

- Darpana Athale.

We are part of the WordPress Post-A-Week Challenge

We love blogging. It helps us to express and connect on a larger scale with people.

So we have decided to be part of the WordPress PostAWeek challenge all through 2011.

Which might be tough but certainly not impossible. It might be also be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similiar goals, to help me along the way, including asking for help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.

Would love the encouragement from you all, through comments and suggestions for topics and ideas.

Warmly,
Darpana

Beam up Scottie!

Just got back from seeing the works of legend Richard Meier, showcased at the JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai. The exhibition and lecture was organised and got to India by Indian Architect & Builder (IA&B), the leading architecture and design magazine in India. With Essar Steel being the patrons.

Exhibition Hall at JJ.

Exhibition poster

Wall of Projects timeline.

The work exhibited, though less in quantum, was well displayed and what I loved especially were the neatly finished models in the precisely made acrylic boxes. Talk of great finish!

Jublilee Church Model

Even the inner seats of the Church were made in the model

Neugebauer House details

Getty Center Model

Getty Centre model1

Also the sketches… I love seeing sketches made by master architects- there’s a certain quality that awes even through a scribble.

Getty Center Sketch

Sketch of Jubilee Church

On a personal note, I prefer Richard Meier’s older work as compared to the newer ones. There’s a definite sense of composition, play of light and inter-relation of mass and void. Like my friend Ruta and I were discussing, whilst in college we liked the work, but never really looked at it as having that wow factor. But now, as professionals, when we see the work, we can sense the way the mind thought then; in a deliberate and focused yet seemingly casual attempt at creating architecture.

Where the design is clear and also minimal, but great thought has gone behind even the slight angle of a certain mass, or the placing of the different elements, which then sets the structure apart from its contemporaries. Every dot, line and shape has been carefully worked out in context with each other. Nothing is without thought, or clarity of thought… Seeing the work took me back to college days and basic design, wherein we were taught the fundamentals of composition.

I especially liked the Jubilee Church. And the way light filters in from all over, especially behind the main altar. Would love to experience that space!

Jubilee Church

Altar inside Jubilee Church

The other interesting projects were the Arp Musuem and the houses- Neugebauer and Malibu. And of course, the Getty Centre.

Arp Museum wrt the Station building in front.

Neugebauer House

Neugebauer House

Malibu Beach House

Malibu House

Getty Center

Getty Center

The lecture:
Since Richard Meier was not able to come thanks to a surgery, his partner from New York, Scott Johnson took over the presentation. He was introduced on stage by Shekhar Ghanti, an architect who has been working with Meier for the past 11 years.

Ghanti recounted few anecdotes that gave a good insight to Meier as a man, architect and boss. And it would have been great if the presentation was also given by Ghanti… Scott Johnson was either too nervous or was in a hurry to get some place, because he rambled through the entire presentation of works, with a continuous clicking of the ‘forward’ button which didn’t give us much chance to even see the slides properly. He unfortunately tried to show a entire life’s work in an hour… which obviously failed to get through to the audience.

With Meier not being in town, and hordes of people coming from all over to actually hear him, it would have made sense for Johnson to show limited works and explain them in depth. So that we understood the process of the thinking, the persona of the man and the details of the project, which would have softened Meier’s absence to a great deal. What Johnson spoke was something we could pick from magazines or online. What was very crucial was the fact we didn’t get a chance to know Richard Meier, expect for the few stories told by Ghanti.

And I really felt like saying, ‘Beam up Scottie or beam me up!’ But beam he should, because the work that has gone into the display as well as the general feedback, inspite of a rather lacklustre talk, has been great! Most people, including me, went back home feeling very slightly disappointed, but more happy to have experienced this event nevertheless.

So Richard Meier, hope you recuperate very soon. And come to India when possible so that we can have that chance and honour of seeing a legend live in action. À votre santé!

Pecha Kucha Night, Pune. Vol- 1. A review.

Pecha Kucha Night Pune – Vol 1.

Couple of hours to go before the first Pecha Kucha Night in Pune, and all of us at Sarvasva Designs were going crazy over looping all presentations and checking, rechecking the same. Mukund, my co-Director at Sarvasva was at the venue with Manasi and setting up the screen, checking the sound system and getting the venue ready.

I for one, had not been nervous till the D-day had dawned. We had everything in control, or so I thought, completely focusing only on the presentations, while my team ran around working on the rest of the event details. Of course, later on, my excitement and nervousness combined became a potential time bomb ready to explode.

We had a surprise guest that day, an experienced Pecha Kucha Nighter… all the way from UK – and who had his presentation ready to showcase again. So we thought, why not?! Let’s begin with his presentation as a prelude to the actual Pune PKN. Which is why, Supriya from our office, was on her way to pick up the presentation. All of this, just few hours before 20:20pm, the scheduled time.

When we reached the venue, we were actually pleasantly surprised that people were on time. In India, we joke about the IST (Indian Standard Time), which can differ from a mere 5 minutes to couple of hours from the actual scheduled time. In this case, things were on time. So began our first PKN in Pune.

Our basic round of introduction was short and sweet because Mark and Astrid and the Tokyo team had created a wonderful video on PKN that made my job easier. And what was lovely was the personalized touch. It had “Hello Pune!” all over it, making us very welcomed, and very much part of the large family PKN is.

The prelude of course began with our surprise guest of the evening- Sunand Prasad. A well-known architect and founder of Penoyre & Prasad, UK; Sunand is also the ex-President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and we were glad to have him present because it set precedence for the next 11 presenters, of how to actually speak in 6m.40seconds. His presentation was that of an ingenious concept he had thought of – the recreating and setting up of the now non-existent, but still famous Crystal Palace.

We then officially declared the first volume of Pecha Kucha Night –Pune as begun.

Taking the cue from Sunand, next spoke Shrikant Nivasarkar- one of the most influential architect and designer from India, and also the first Indian to become the President of the IFI (International Federation of Interior Architect / Designers). He talked about the process of creating an ergonomic and eco-friendly chair through his topic, ‘The Story of a Chair’. His in-depth knowledge and also passion for furniture design came across through his brilliant work.

Our third presenter for the evening, and arguably one of the most atypical kinds of personalities we had that evening was Pankaj Sapkal. An industrial designer by profession, Pankaj has great know-how of many things under the sun…one of which he shared with us. His topic being ‘Diet & Creativity’, which had the audience hooked on, amused as well as curious.

Falguni Gokhale, our next presenter, is a well-known graphic designer. But she is an equally good or better painter. And her presentation took us through her journey as a painter, amidst various colours, textures, styles of painting…one better than the other. She didn’t speak, she didn’t have to- her paintings spoke more than enough.

Completely different in nature of topic was that of our next presenter. Suhas Deo, an architect, left the audience spell bound through his presentation on ‘Orchids’. One would never have thought that there could be such a large variety, and growing right here in India. And Suhas’ love for the plant shone through, allowing us all to be absorbed in that magic.

Our first poetry session began with Nidheesh Tyagi, editor of a well-known local newspaper. His timing was accurate- just three seconds before the allotted time limit, Nidheesh finished the last of his poems- which he had dedicated to his daughter.

Another senior journalist, and senior editor of a renowned newspaper, Sunanda Mehta took us along with her on her journey to ‘Greenland’. It was wonderful seeing the beautiful icescapes, the small little witty notes that Sunanda had posted about her trip, and the overall beauty of a country very different from our own.

BEEEEEEEEEEEER BREAK! Which was opposed by many- but we told them that we had to break- we must follow rules! So we had a short ten minute break to allow people to relieve their legs and whatever else, meet up and interact and also check out the venue and drinks (which incidentally was not beer).

But as quickly as they had dispersed, the audience was back on their seats to take some more of Pecha Kucha. Which started off with an interesting presentation on ‘Chinese Gardens’ by Varsha Gavandi, a landscape designer. Details of materials, planning, water bodies and more were introduced during this talk.

The next presentation was a splash of colour, text styles and great Indian music. Sanjeev Joshi, architect and artist, showed his calligraphy and water colour paintings, on the soundtrack of Vande Mataram by A.R.Rahman. It had the crowd going oohing and aahing and asking Sanjeev to take workshops.

Priya Sarukkai Chabria is a poet and novelist, and also was our ninth presenter of the Pune PKN (not including Sunand). She recited few of her poems before putting on a soundtrack of a beautiful poem called ‘Spirit of Water’, which had music playing in the background of the poetry recitation. There was a complete hush in the venue as this track was played, creating a very ethereal and uplifting feeling to the evening.

Our host of the evening was Christopher Charles Benninger, a renowned and extremely respected architect in India. It was his office courtyard that was turned to become the venue of our PKN. We had actually gone to invite him to be one of the presenters, and a talk on venues, or lack of them, with Ram, the Managing Director at CCBA- Christopher’s firm, got us this beautiful space as the very befitting venue for the first PKN in Pune.

Christopher was the next presenter, after Priya. And he showed a very crisp film on building a ‘green’ and sustainable architecture, city and life.

Our last presenter or rather presenters, as there were two of them, were young Kathak exponents- Kaveri Agashe and Sheetal Kolwalkar. Kaveri spoke about the nuances of the dance and then they both gave a brilliant performance, marking the end of the night with a big bang.

When I thanked the audience for coming and bid them goodnight, I could sense the imperceptible disappointment of the crowd because the night was over. But overriding that was the buzz of anticipation for the next PKN, as well as the joy of experiencing the first here in Pune as well as the variety of topics.

And finally, that was all we wanted… for everybody to enjoy this first PKN and support us for all the next ones to come- which was evident through the comments left by the guests… Yeh Dil Maange More! (This heart wants more… )

Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!

Since we moved to Pune, we’ve installed a permanent Ganpati idol at home, and every year I make a small idol that we pray to and submerge (in a bucket outside the door). Being environment conscious, our Ganpati idols have always been ‘green’ and made of clay, wheat flour,etc. This year, we have consciously decided to use all the ‘raddi’ (old newspapers) and make a recyled Ganpati.

The only thing used in this Ganpati, apart from the newspapers and a little bit of water, is glue to stick the various parts. We have made many of these to give out to our guests who come home for the darshan.

The ‘Inno Cell’ launched by Pune Design Foundation.

This is to report the successful inauguration of the “Industrial Innovation and Design Cell” on the 26th June 08 – a collaborative initiative by the MCCIA and the Pune Design Foundation.

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The Inaugural event was a workshop targeted at the the Electronics Industry, held at the ICC towers, Pune. The chief guest was Mr. Sohan Chordia of GIC – a senior and pioneering industrialist from the electrnics sector. It was also voluntarily attended by veteran academician Dr. Kolaskar – displaying a commendable seriousness in his endeavour to enter the field of design education.
Attendees consisted of primarily of senior and upcoming electronics manufacturers, electronics professionals of various types, as well as Design professionals, design faculty and students.

The event was covered by the press, and it was quite heartening to see the precise purpose of the workshop being fulfilled – manufacturers showed an active interest in interacting with designers, asking for advice from the design community and distinctly displaying a desire to engage the designers in professional projects. The students also expressed a good satisfaction at being able to get such valuable (and rare) exposure from so many prominent designers, as well as acquiring a first hand experience of seeing senior deisgners interact with the electronics industry and address their voiced needs.

Presentations by all four design speakers (Satish Gokhale from Design Directions, Bala Mahajan from Ticket Design, Prakash Khanzode from Onio Design, Nachiket Thakur from Mahindra Composites) were superlative and clearly made an impression on the attendees from the electronics industry.

Our next workshop will be held in approximately the first week of Aug – kindly send in your expression of interest for being a design speaker for the forthcoming InnoCell workshops of 2008.

(Excerpted from Pankaj Sapkal’s mail to the Foundation, giving the post-event details)

Both Directors of Sarvasva Designs are the founding and executive board members of the Pune Design Foundation.