‘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.

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… )

Spreading good design.

A person’s passion, dedication and greatness can be often seen and need not be spoken for. In fact the respect that is seen for someone is more evident when that person need not shout to be heard, need not speak to be asked, and need not order to get things going.

I have the privilege of knowing few such people. And also having met some great masters who were similar – Geoffrey Bawa and Laurie Baker. And what a coincidence that today’s presentation was done by one such person, who also happened to show work done by Bawa.

In fact, I was invited for two presentations today. One by a person for whom I have tremendous respect, which keeps growing by the day. I’m talking of Shrikant Nivasarkar, who was wonderful enough to invite me to come see his presentation and that of Ambrish Arora’s (the second presenter). I consider myself lucky to be at an event which was closed doors and for select people only.

Over the past few years that I have known Shrikant, I have only learnt and kept learning. One can sit and listen to him for hours, because he makes so much sense, and has such tremendous knowledge on most subjects. Whether it has been at project meetings, Pune Design Foundation events, IIID programs or general interactions, we’ve (and I speak for Mukund too) got great insight into architecture and design through him.

At heart, he’s a furniture designer. And a very good one at that. But he’s more renowned as the first Indian to be the President of the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI) and Executive Board Member of International Design Alliance (IDA); also the Immediate Past President of the IIID, India.

In many ways, he’s an idealist. But someone also who is ready to be in a system, understand it well and then try to change it if need be in his own soft spoken way. For a long time, he has been propogating that all design disciplines must come together on one platform, and not be so disconnected as they are here in India. And I believe in some parts of the world too. In fact, he has been the strongest propogator of good design, and one that is complete in all ways. One that comes from the core of the person, and as a responsible response to people’s need. And I very strongly believe that Shrikant is one such person who has actually understood design in its true form. And who is also ready to share it with whoever is ready to listen.

He talked today of reworking and thinking long term for the education system in India. But what he presented also applies to designers and design firms. He spoke of humanising spaces, and in this ‘space’ means the context or environment, rather than the physical space itself.

His respect for the field was evident, when he kept emphasising on how the profession we are in is a never ending journey of service to people. He quotes, ” Our profession is a service. We should never forget that. And that’s when our focus changes…we can never be careful enough in understanding the needs of people. And it is through design that one expresses this service- to people and to society. Development of society depends on our value-based approach to work.”

As he rightly pointed, “New materials and technology will always impact our profession. And this will further complicate the different kinds of design disciplines around. What we do is a responsible service to society, and we (architects/interior designers/product designers) are but one part of the entire canvas; there are other fields also working at the same time. And we should never forget that.”

I’ll briefly touch upon what he spoke today.
1. Understanding of total space: Understanding of inter dependency and inter connectivity of different disciplines in spaceto emotion
2. Relationships of Space to Life: Understanding the relationships of physical & emotional space of various kinds of people in various situations.
3. Hands on Experience: Developing knowledge of materials, technology and skills.
4. Lack of observation skills: Need to align exercises with active participation. Developing the ability to observe, in order to develop the ability to analyse.
5. Have a ‘Research Attitude’ : need to encourage working on multiple options to design solutions.
6. Values : Appropriateness of exercises and assignments.
7. Communication skills: Methods of making detailed drawings. Also understanding differences of scales of various design disciplines.
8. Management: Need to understand value of man hours spent on project and the management.
9. Methods: Process driven working methodology. Rational and Intuitive.
10. Action needed: Understanding of context, resources, technology and responsible design.
11. Context of education: Need to envision big and long term.
12. Content & Methodology: Larger understanding of a creative profession. And project evaluation. Catering to pyschological and emotional needs.

Again going back to what I had mentioned earlier – the spreading of good design. It is so important to be able to share your knowledge and understanding of certain ideas, values, systems and even fields in order to spread the word in the correct method. And in order to promote the growth of good design, values, people and society.
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And since I did mention I was fortunate to see two good presentations, let me also talk about Ambrish Arora; whose work I have followed through the years.

He presented about 12 projects of his… each very different from the other, except for the underlying commitment to think beyond the brief and to be totally dedicated to the project and its context. And if this meant persistently bulldozing clients to see reason, or spending one’s own money to make prototypes and experiment; then hey, that is part and parcel of the work. And it was a brilliant showcase of work.

I liked a line in his presentation. It read, “… designing a space offers the opportunities to build in layers.” And for many of us doing everything in a space and not being able to tell someone what it is that we ‘exactly do’; because they might think we do not ‘have focus’, this is a great line to use. Like I always tell people who ask me, “We provide solutions through design- and these solutions differ according to context and space.” We live in a world that is going back to where design started of, being holistic; when each architect was also a designer, an engineer and an artist. Where the potential to design is tremendous and varied. So why be stuck with a label?!

Anyway, back to Ambrish. Like Shrikant, Ambrish’s passion for his work and field shines on his face. And the fact that in each of his project he’s tried to come out with wonderful, innovative solutions through use of limited and local materials and technology is what sets his work apart. It’s a classic case of conserving the old by using it, and also changing or developing it to suit modern contexts, bringing out a new defined vocabulary. It’s not about being modern for the sake of it. But being able to understand the context, the material, the technique, the need of that particular project, client’s brief and being able to balance them all with our own design sensibility and knowledge.

What was most important, in both presentations, was the understanding and acceptance of who they really are. And also to be able to be afraid, make mistakes and rise above them. It is this honesty that showed through their work and made these two presentations so worth watching.

PS:
When Ambrish’s presentation ended, most people were spellbound and astounded. And began asking questions and commenting. That’s when I was surprised. Because the kind of questions or comments that came forth were from architects and designers alright, but who also, it seemed, had not stepped out on a site for years. For most of them, what was shown was something they had either never seen or never considered as a design option.

And then came the sad realisation that we expect our young generation to know and use new technologies, practices and methodologies, and also to grow to become responsible designers… but we fail in the very basics of teaching them because we are not learning/ empowering ourselves first. We cannot teach them wrongly and then condemn them when they go wrong, because the fault lies with us to begin with.