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Giving wood an earthy feel

Design Matters | Navneet Malhotra — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:12:00 GMT

This is an inert natural mineral that is commonly found in most parts of the country. Its main job is to act as a wood primer and protective agent. It is quite similar to another product called multani mitti (Fuller’s earth), which is used in naturopathy and beauty treatments (such as face packs), but peeli mitti has a much darker, almost cadmium red colouring (despite its “yellow” name). Just the way multani mitti cleanses the skin, peeli mitti penetrates into the grains of a raw wood surface and protects it from fungal, bacterial and pest invasions. It is also responsible for the honey colour often seen in polished wood.

Peeli mitti is very cheap, with a price tag of Rs25-45 per kg. Though available in 25kg bags, it is often sold loose as well. A simple 7x3ft door shutter and frame can be treated with as little as 150-200g peeli mitti. It mixes well and quickly with water to become a slurry.

Shine on: Get the desired finish with polish or wax treatment.

This slurry is applied after the raw wood has been smoothened with a wood planer and sandpaper to remove its undulations and rough edges. The slurry dries quickly (30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on atmospheric humidity). The excess mitti can be removed using cloth rags or low-grade sandpaper. This way, only a small quantity of the clay, absorbed in the wood grain, is left behind, enhancing the base colour of the wood.

Polish or wax treatment can now be applied to the surface to achieve the desired finish (though peeli mitti protects its host from rot and disease like most primers, it is not strong enough to withstand the wear and tear of nature, and needs the further protection of harder surface finishes.These, in turn, will also require periodic refinishing).

Water-based ‘white glue’

Most water-based adhesives are good for joining wood. Unlike rubber-based glues or synthetically modified chemicals such as epoxy polymers, water-based glues have a longer setting time. This is actually a great boon for carpenters, who need to work with large surfaces (laminates, ply, veneers) without compromising the quality of workmanship due to quick drying or unequal bonding. Water-based glues also don’t stain the surface, which can be a problem with epoxy-polymer-based adhesives. In fact, water-based glues become practically transparent on drying, and are very effective for sealing joints or filling slight imperfections on the surface as well. Fevicol is one of the preferred brands.

Beeswax

Natural beeswax is highly recommended for a wax finish on wood. The only problem is sourcing it. Plus, owing to the organic nature of the product, it is difficult to evaluate and control the quality of the raw material.

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Brilliant Balconies

Neelam Sagar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:11:00 GMT

Dramatic Groupings

The translucent roof over this cozy space filters the warm sun. The wooden flooring is made of reclaimed railway sleepers. The turfed area outdoors is just the place to hang out with a cup of tea in the evening .

Click here to view a slideshow of pictures showing details of the Sagar bunglow in Juhu, Mumbai

Wooden furniture, planters, lamp bases and railings reinforce the natural feel. Pradnya Gulawani

The particular variety of Dracaena used here injects a little colour into a leaf commonly seen in shades of green. Zamia plants and Adenium complement the turf: not too fussy, yet dressed up. The broad-armed sofas, carved wooden bird and outdoor lanterns fill the otherwise sparsely decorated space.

A setting with only ground arrangements can get monotonous. So a hand-painted Buddha head and a set of hanging baskets create a sense of rhythm above eye level.

Asian Impact

To ensure this backyard-facing balcony had the utmost privacy, it was covered with foliage. Ferns, a leafy, shade-loving lot, seemed like a good option for a green screen. Exotic maidenhair fern and bird’s nest ferns feature in this space.

The natural stone-clad walls on either side make the space look more like the outdoors. A tiled roof gives the setting a villa-like feel, enchanting in a modern urban milieu.

Some of the accessories are original Peacock Life designs, such as the lanterns and wood planters. The lamps are solid pieces carved from wood with fibreglass tops, painted to blend in with the dense greenery.

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Air plants make furniture

We love the ‘Oxygen of Green’ table by San Francisco-based industrial designer Mingling Wang. Traditional air purifiers may improve your immediate surroundings, but are not very environment-sensitive as they consume huge amounts of energy. This innovative concept embeds Tillandsias (“air plants”) into a piece of furniture instead. The plants grow without soil, absorbing water, carbon dioxide and other nutrients through their leaves, and produce oxygen at night. So the air in the room stays fresh, with no adverse impact on the environment. Wang is currently on the lookout for a manufacturer. We can’t wait to see it in the market.

Classic designs for modern homes

‘Gosling: Classic Design for Contemporary Interiors’ (Prestel Publishing, October 2009), co-authored by Tim Gosling, Stephen Calloway, Jean Gomm and Juergen Huber, should be a treat for fans of classic interiors. Renowned furniture designer Gosling’s creations, featured in the book, are timeless pieces that are up to date for modern homes, yet unlikely to look dated with time. The book details the creation of each piece, from the inspiration and through every design decision, including choice of materials and context of use. Priced at Rs2,454 on flipkart

Designs from waste

Vancouver-based designers Alex Witko and Courtney Hunt shuttle between the hardware store, studio and the city’s alleys and dumpsters. Their firm, Organelle Design, has everything from furniture to the prototype of a window in which the degree of insulation can be customized. Their most eye-catching creations, called Hangeliers, are made from wooden and plastic coat hangers. Built around bicycle-wheel rims and cast-off chain rings, the lighting fixtures are held together with zip ties or chicken wire. The Canadian duo’s mission statement on their Facebook page: “Our work starts with a simple premise: Waste is the most abundant local resource our cities have to offer.” Find more of their work on Organelledesign Some of their products are sold on etsy

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Mumbai-based design company Peacock Life was founded by landscape artist Neelam Sagar and her daughters, interior designer Shabnam Gupta and artist Ganga Kadakia.

Photographs by Pradnya Gulawani

All contents on this page provided by Better Interiors

Building a beehive

Rachana Nakra — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:57:00 GMT

When you enter the VivaKi office, a holding company that brings together digital and media services, you know it’s a space where ideas are given form and converted into design and products. It’s housed on the ground floor of a three-floor commercial complex in Mumbai’s Kanjurmarg area, and ideas come at you from every direction the minute you enter—starting with the rusted wall at the entrance. Rust, to VivaKi, represents inclusiveness and openness to change, and that’s how they would like to describe the organization—a workspace that is all about change and new ideas.

A colony of nine

The men’s restroom has a pink colour scheme.

The space is deep and wide, so much so that as you walk in from the common atrium of the complex into VivaKi’s reception area, it is impossible to see the far end of the office. The organization heads at VivaKi decided to give the workspace a common name, The Hive, for an integrated identity.

The reception area opens to a large, common recreation space, next to which is the main conference area called Hive Central, with four conference rooms collectively called Hive Express. The rest of the space is divided into mini offices for nine companies, which provide services such as media planning, media buying and rural marketing, all under the VivaKi umbrella.

Kaushik Chakravorty, country head, Enhance (the retail branding wing of VivaKi), asks us to imagine a beehive. “Many times a single client hires all the services that we provide. So we are separate parts working towards a single goal,” he says. And that is what they wanted reflected in this workspace—many parts coming together as a whole.

The bee motif recurs in the artwork across the office.

Hive Central epitomizes VivaKi’s love for the “next big ideas”. Giving an appropriate theme to that space was important, so a contest was held among employees to suggest a design. The winning entry: the conference rooms painted like a train, with the area around them designed like a railway station, complete with a large wall clock and station bell. “The railway station signifies the spirit of Mumbai and is inspired from Bombay Central. It went well with Hive Central, which is a place for everyone in office to come together,” says Chakravorty.

A 120ft-long bright orange shelf divides the office into two parts and serves as a library wall. “We elevated the library to give another viewpoint to a space that’s flat,” says Sanjeev Punjabi of Spasm Design, who designed the space with his partner, Sangeeta Merchant.

On either side of this wall are the individual work areas of the nine companies. “Since there are different allied offices that need to be housed within one space, they wanted us to make sure that they all retain their individuality even while blending into a single working group,” says Punjabi. So every company space has its own colour scheme and graffiti.

Humming with character

The graphic behind the reception area introduces the concept of The Hive.

The Hive is bright and colourful because the heads at VivaKi wanted it to be a happy place for the employees to work in. “On opening day nobody thought it looks like an office,” says Punjabi. The brief given to Spasm Design was to make the space look young and quirky.

For Punjabi and Merchant, who had worked mostly on residential projects, this was their first experience of designing a big office, and they were given a free hand. “We wanted to challenge all norms and came up with all kinds of ideas. And the company heads were receptive,” says Punjabi.

In a major departure from the norm, they decided to “almost showcase” the restrooms. These are located centrally, right next to the conference area, instead of being tucked away in a far corner. Given the drainage system provided by the builder, they didn’t have the option of moving the restrooms elsewhere. The central space was also the logical location for Hive Central.

Hive Central is designed to look like a railway station, with four conference rooms collectively called the Hive Express; each room, or bogey, is numbered—H 1-4. The recreational area faces the Hive Express.

So, instead of choosing to disguise the proximity of the restrooms to the main conference area, Spasm made a feature of this handicap. The restrooms are just 5ft from Hive Express. Both areas have glass walls. So the restroom washbasins are visible from the conference rooms. “They wanted a transparent working environment and we took it to another level,” laughs Punjabi. Of course, the conference rooms do have blinds which can be drawn to block the view of the restrooms.

Another quirk is a gender bender in the restrooms: The men’s room has a pink colour scheme and the women’s, blue. The walls are cheerful, with graffiti by students of the Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai, who were also asked to come up with concepts for five other walls, as well as the cafeteria. Bees popped up naturally as a theme to signify The Hive.

Multifunctional space

The cafeteria walls are covered with graffiti designed by students of the Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai.

For recreation, there’s the “dancing platform” in the open space next to Hive Central. Before you start imagining a private discotheque-like scenario, Punjabi clarifies that this is their own terminology for a moving mezzanine. “We called it dancing platform because it is movable space,” he says.

The recreation space has been made multifunctional with hydraulic jacks that simply move the platform, normally set with a pool table and beanbags, up to the ceiling when a meeting is to be held. The floor below is lined with chairs that are otherwise tucked away in cupboards, and a screen is pulled down for videoconferences. “If this function can be used to move cars up and down in parking lots, then we thought we could do this here as a space-saving measure,” says Punjabi.

The individual company offices have an open plan, with workstations and glass cabins for the management. Access to each office is controlled by access cards and not everyone can enter every company office space. “We made the space, but the way these guys grew into it is even more interesting. They personalized it by giving it a name and their ideas like Hive Central took it to another level,” says Punjabi.

FACT FILE

Location: Akruti Corporate Park, Kanjurmarg, Mumbai

Area: 33,900 sq. ft

Cost: Rs1,900 per sq. ft, all inclusive

Duration (and date): Four months to design; the office was ready in December

Principal architects: Sanjeev Punjabi and Sangeeta Merchant, Spasm Design

Client: VivaKi, Publicis Groupe

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Grow bulbs

Bulbs are great in beds and containers, and that’s where we traditionally plant them. But have you tried them in your lawn? Think home-grown Alpine meadow: Plant small flowering bulbs such as crocus all over the lawn. One tip: They are fun to dot around arbitrarily, but planting them to plan makes mowing the grass less of a challenge. Iris, anemone and snowdrops are great lawn bulbs as well.

Gladioli, ranunculus or clivia are far too tall for a lawn. But you could put a few in pretty ceramic or terracotta planters: When the bulbs bloom, you can shift the brightness indoors.

Benita Sen

Sculpture exhibition

The patch of grey sunflowers, glistening under the tropical sun, is arresting. A small note next to the plastic flowers explains that the art installation, by Singaporean art collective Vertical Submarine, refers to Chien Swee-Teng’s poem about a sunflower plantation owner’s Faustian pact: He gives up his sense of colour for the success of his business. But there is more to it than meets the eye: There is no Chien Swee-Teng, no poem—the collective invented the writer and his poem about avarice. The work, ‘Planting Shadows’, is part of ‘Nature Borne’, a sculpture exhibition running until 27 December at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. A combination of primary rainforest and speciality gardens, the 52ha park on the edge of the main shopping belt hosts works by 10 artists, five Singaporeans and five Koreans as it celebrates its 150th anniversary.

Great Ideas for Kids Rooms

Parragon Publishing India’s four-book series ‘Great Ideas’ (Rs295 each) is a good place to begin your own interior projects. If you are planning to do up your children’s room, ‘Great Ideas for Kids Rooms’ has plans for all ages, from infants to teenagers. And ‘Tiny Apartments’ can ease the pinch of shrinking urban spaces, with its guide to making undersized apartments feel spacious or cozy, depending on what you prefer. The book on ‘Storage Areas’ has solutions for both living and workspaces, and the one on ‘Bath Rooms’ should help you remodel or decorate the smallest room in the house.

Varuni Khosla

Decorate

Choosing between a striking or subtle pattern for a rug can be tough. Best-case scenario: It brings a room’s disparate parts together. Worst case: It draws the eye downward for all the wrong reasons. And it’s not as if you can sweep the rug under the...rug! But a bold carpet instantly anchors the room and gives you a strong colour scheme to work with. An extremely versatile option is the cotton Zig Zag Rug created by renowned rug designer Madeline Weinrib in 2001. The strong black and white chevron pattern is handwoven in India (other colours are also available). In 2007, the company began selling a wool version, handwoven in Nepal. But you can find similar designs in local markets at a fraction of the price.

Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

Green bulbs for your borders

Planters’ Club | Benita Sen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:54:00 GMT

Where do tulips grow? Is the answer always Holland in your geography books?

Ground realities are changing. One tulip unfurled in my container garden a couple of years ago. Thrilling enough to send me scuttling after more bulbs and corms.

Easy pickings

Many amateur gardeners are wary of bulbs. Strange, when they are so easy to pick up from the nursery, often already sprouting. We’ve grown bulbs such as onions for centuries successfully enough to pack recipes with them. But flower bulbs are relatively less common in our climatic zone. However, chances are new developments in floriculture and technology have brought exotic bulbs to nurseries near you, just in time for winter and spring. If not, you could order them off the Web at Sknflowerbulb.com and Floraexotics.com.

For those who live in areas of high ground frost and snow, these are often early summer blooms. In the Indian plains, however, you grow them mostly in winter (planting around October-November).

Bright bulbs

Go Dutch: Why not grow your own tulips this year?

For years, gladioli were perhaps the most popular bulbs. Today, they’re shifting to make space for several more exotic corms and bulbs.

Oxalis: These small corms, the size of a seed, seem to be flying out of the latticed plastic trays at the nursery and into gardens, leaving you to place advance orders for your favourite colour. There’s good reason for their popularity. The corms we planted a couple of years ago are still fuss-free, coming alive every October to throw up cute black-spotted leaves. Now, we’re waiting for the yellow and red flowers that will last a few months.

Freesia: This relatively easy-to-grow plant has a heady perfume. Plant the bulb a little lower than the thumb rule: The soil above should be about the same height as the bulb. Freesias tilt less, I believe, if they are planted a little deeper.

Tritonia: This year’s recommendation from the nursery. I thought the bulbs look similar to freesias. Sure enough, gardening books call it the Flame Freesia.

Clivia: Very pretty, with bunches of robust, bright orange blooms, the clivia is a perfect winter pick-me-up for your borders.

Nerine: This comparatively delicate, more ladylike flower is certainly cheerful too.

Ranunculus: The flowers are stunning and the leaves, like those of the oxalis, are a bonus since most bulbs and corms don’t exactly qualify as foliage plants!

Also Read Previous Planters’ Club columns

Careful with the corms!

Many of us are wary of bulbs and corms because we hear they need to be rested, stored for a few months, then repotted next year. The first freesia and ranunculus we grew came with strict instructions: Once the season is over, let the leaves be for a while to grow more food. Then snip them down to rest a few weeks. Lift the bulbs and corms out, wash off the soil and germs, rinse in fungicide, dry out thoroughly, store in a wire tray in a cool, dry place, or refrigerate… Phew!

We did follow the routine relentlessly for a few years, but the flowers still grew smaller and sadder.

Easier to live with is this suggestion from Dinesh Pradhan, owner of the famous Shanti Kunj nursery in Kalimpong: Ask the nursery for bulbs and corms that can be allowed to rest in the soil. “Deal with bulbs individually. Oxalis can remain in the bed. So can Football lilies, Achimenes and Eucharist lilies. When they go dormant, check watering since you don’t want the bulb to rot.”

Pradhan, in fact, loves bulbs because they are not too fussy. All they need is soil rich with organic manure (he swears by mature cow-dung manure), a well-drained bed and 6-7 hours of decent sunlight.

The author is a journalist and writer of children’s books, with a passion for gardening.

Write to her at plantersclub@livemint.com

Design Matters | There’s something woody about it

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:39:00 GMT

I want to use laminated flooring in my flat. Can you tell me its advantages and disadvantages, and which would be the best brand? My home is two years old, so would it be advisable to go in for laminated flooring instead of vitrified tiles?

Warm wood: Laminate flooring is good for enclosed, dry spaces.

— Susan Ann Cherian

I would use vitrified tiles in wet (kitchen, bathroom, veranda, etc.) or high-traffic areas, and wooden flooring in enclosed rooms that need an extra touch of warmth.

Laminated wooden floor planks are actually particle boards with a printed surface finish (often laminates). Ensure that the base material is made of medium density and not low density fibre-board, and its thickness is equal to, or greater than, 6mm. Though international standards recommend grade AC-3 in laminated flooring for residential use, I prefer AC-4, especially for high-traffic areas such as entrance lobbies, staircase landings, etc. Also choose interlocking joints, bevelled edges, and matching skirting and edge strips.

PROS

Quick installation: A trained team of two can easily lay a 200 sq. ft floor in an 8-12-hour shift, from site preparation to skirting and edging, to finishing.

Affordability: The starting cost is Rs45-55 per sq. ft, though some of the big brands market similar specifications for as much as Rs250 per sq. ft.

Also Read Previous Design Matters columns

Flexibility: Laminated floor tiles have tongue-and-groove edges that lock together, letting them sit flat on the existing floor without adhesives. This makes it easy to dismantle and re-lay these at another location.

Low maintenance: Compared to natural wood flooring, which requires periodic surface finishing (polish, wax, melamine, etc.), laminates withstand scratches, stains, hot or cold vessels, even swabbing (just not too wet). They are child-friendly: You can easily wipe off colour pencil or crayon marks, but it is difficult to completely remove an entire bottle of poster paint or nail polish.

Variety: There are options imitating natural wood accurately, including grain pattern, colour, surface texture, even scratch marks for realism. Others could imitate a tile pattern or metal finish, or even a stone surface.

CONS

Water absorption: If accidentally flooded, the planks expand and deform quickly, their edges rising. Rooms that open on to a terrace, veranda or garden need a threshold. A stone or tile band is ideal. If flooding happens, try to sponge up as much water as possible, keep the room ventilated and wait to see if the planks settle.

Toxicity: A formaldehyde-containing adhesive makes them fire-resistant, but the fumes are probably harmful. Some brands now offer formaldehyde-free options.

Insect activity: Though these planks are marketed as termite-resistant, I wouldn’t risk placing them in termite-infested, dark or damp spaces.

Noise amplification: These floors amplify sound. To reduce noise, place a thin (1.5-2mm) layer of foam under them.

Colour variation: Planks of the same brand and design but different lots (depending on the date of manufacture) could have slight variations in colour. Replacement of damaged planks can be difficult. Finding skirting, edge protection strips, etc., to match is also tedious as most brands only produce these in a few popular shades, not matching the entire range.

Shaping issues: Laminated flooring can be cut to any shape but finding or creating a curved edge protection strip becomes tedious. As these strips also act as expansion barriers, they tend to disfigure the joint-free look in a large hall by appearing at regular intervals. This kind of flooring is also not recommended for steps.

Service: Finding a vendor willing to take on a small, inexpensive job of, say, repairing a broken edge strip or replacing a few planks can be difficult.

Brands

Pergo invented and promoted laminated flooring all over the world, and maintains a leading position. But the market is flooded with similar, yet cheaper, options. European brands are sturdier than East Asian ones.

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Newly nostalgic

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:30:00 GMT

When the owners of this Chennai apartment—one among four duplexes in a complex—approached Ritu.Rajiv Architects, their brief was a spacious, airy home suited to frequent entertaining, but with a touch of nostalgia. “Even though it was a brand new house, the clients wanted it to feel like it had been lived in and evolved over a period of time,” says Rajiv. “They’ve collected a lot of things on their journeys and each one had to have its place.”

Also See A Look Inside the Apartment

‘Opening up’

The three-bedroom apartment is spread across the third and fourth floors of the building. Its public areas and one bedroom are located on the upper level, with the family area (two bedrooms and a utility zone) in the lower one. The challenge for the architects lay in “opening up” a rather narrow and restricted plan in order to create a larger-looking, more airy space. “Because of the split levels, they were difficult to manage,” says Rajiv.

However, Ritu.Rajiv capitalized on the fact that there were only two apartments per floor, with the surroundings free from prying eyes: They employed plenty of glass, bringing in natural light, and added more ventilation. “All spaces have windows on both sides. There used to be a pantry, a servant’s room and similar small spaces, but we broke down a lot of walls in between,” says Rajiv.

Screening off areas

The upper level now opens into a small foyer, with the formal living area screened off by a frosted-glass panel. “We’ve used plenty of free-standing, frosted-glass panels which visually cut off spaces from each other. But the basic idea was to make everything look very light,” says Rajiv.

To the right of the foyer is the kitchen, sectioned off by another free-standing partition—this time, clad in grey veneer. Adjoining it is the dining area. “The partition helps in extending the kitchen slightly beyond what it was. And we are able to hide a freezer, a refrigerator and a fairly large water dispenser behind it,” Rajiv explains.

Beyond these common spaces, through a passageway, are the bedroom and the sleeper wood-clad patio, which can also be accessed via the living-dining area. The passageway holds a contemporary puja space: a free-standing glass box, positioned right in front of the staircase that leads to the lower level (see Decorate).

The compact staircase winds around a grey partition, peppered with family photographs—quite literally, a walk down memory lane. Stepping down, you observe a small utility area tucked under the staircase, behind the free-standing grey partition.

The bedroom on the lower level mirrors one of the upstairs bedrooms, with an attached study and sit-out. The other half of the lower floor contains the third bedroom and a lavish den.

The rustic look

Individual levels are defined by their material palette. While the upper level has rustic floor tiles interspersed with motifs from Italian brand Cerdomus, the lower level has warm coconut-wood flooring. “The client wanted a very rustic look for the house,” recalls Rajiv. “At the same time, we didn’t want to get into it to the extent that it becomes a nuisance to maintain. So that’s why the focus was to make it as ‘country’ looking as possible with the use of natural materials like wood.” The chipped and weathered appearance of the rustic tiles furthers that “lived-in” ambience the owners were keen on.

The impression is completed by supplementing the owners’ own possessions with new finds hunted down specially for their home. “We’ve actually rummaged through stores that sell old junk,” says Rajiv. “So a lot of the stuff is actually restored. There are so many things in here which photographs could never do justice to.” A century-old citrus juicer and a traditional coconut grater have become installations. A marble-finish plaster of Paris Ganesh takes centre stage in the living area, and the unique footstool it rests on was sourced carefully for the purpose. An off-the-wall clock has numbers scattered directly on the veneered partition near the living area. Tiny wood-and-straw sculptures lend the sit-out its appeal. An intricately crafted bench in the foyer came from Indonesia. African tribal headgear adorns one wall of the dining space.

As for the owners, they may have finally settled down after their share of “discovering”, but there are plenty of memories and great stories to go around for a long, long time.

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Decorate your home temple

In a contemporary home, the ‘mandir’, or ‘puja’ room, too often ends up looking incongruously out of step with the overarching aesthetic. This modern ‘puja’ cabinet, done in black glass, fits the home designed by Ritu.Rajiv Architects perfectly, and also overcomes the challenge of small spaces creatively. Uniformly sized and framed images of deities (rather than sculptures or cast statues) have been mounted in a regular matrix, which is also a great way to make a big impact with several small elements.

‘Nest’ plants

Fill your pockets with soil. Add plants, then water. These are the product instructions from the Woolly Pocket Garden Company. Handmade from recycled bottles, Woolly Pockets are soft-sided “nests” for growing plants that can spring out of tables, walls... just about any flat surface. The tiny modular pouches are easy to install individually or in groups, indoors or outdoors. The material is breathable, but built-in moisture protection keeps walls and floors dry. Click here for more information.

Go shopping

Sweden’s oldest manufacturer of beds, Hästens Sängar, has launched a store in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park area. The 3,000 sq. ft store showcases three collections: frame beds, continental beds and adjustable beds. A video demonstrates their manufacturing processes by master craftsmen, using naturally processed horse hair, wood and a spring system that minimizes impact on the sleeper. The company claims the beds provide perfect comfort even during pregnancy, when extra support is desired. Prices start at Rs3.5 lakh.

Green seating

As the name suggests, the Vegetal chair from Vitra, conceptualized by French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, is inspired by the plant kingdom. Manufactured using injection-moulding technology, its final plant-like shape is made of 100% (recyclable) dyed polyamide. They are stackable (up to three chairs) and suitable for outdoor use too. The six colour options are cream, brick, forest, mauve grey, chocolate and basic dark. They are priced at Rs 1.24 lakh for four chairs, and are available at Vitra India Pvt. Ltd, The Great Eastern Galleria, 416, Sector 4, Nerul, Navi Mumbai (022-27710103/04).

All content on this page is provided by Better Interiors

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Promises of Space

Bodylines | Himanshu Burte — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:03:00 GMT

The simplest traditional house often feels much better than one with modern architecture. This may seem surprising. After all, a modern building is usually designed by a highly educated architect, often using more advanced materials. The traditional house, on the other hand, was probably built by a team of illiterate craftsmen without detailed drawings to guide them.

But most traditional buildings have been designed on templates that have proved suitable to human lifestyle and comfort over centuries. Thus, when people found that a courtyard offered a range of possibilities, from sleeping in the open to working in it when the sun was low, it became a part of their expectations from a house.

Traditionally such buildings were designed on site by builders and dwellers, and not by a designer at a drawing board in a remote office. So, the people manipulating spaces and forms could get a sense of the possibilities they were engineering.

Custom-fit

Form fit: Aspects of physical comfort can be tough for architects to design.

Design is about the arrangement of things. Architects arrange walls, spaces, buildings. And not just architects, each of us arranges objects and spaces all the time: furniture in the room, books on shelves, clothes in the wardrobe, even the stuff overflowing on our tables.

We may not realize this, but our bodies guide us in this activity. For example, the reach of your arm determines how deep you can place the mixer grinder on the kitchen counter. Your body is the yardstick by which your imagination judges arrangements—intuitively, instantly. So one look and you know that a passage is too narrow for you to squeeze through without bruising your elbows.

Also ReadEarlier columns of Bodyline

The ‘affordance’ factor

Evolution has made us wise to the promise of spaces. In particular, it has trained us to recognize very quickly the support, pleasure and danger a space promises. Over human history, we have also learnt to put this wisdom to work in producing new spaces. That wisdom is at the core of what we call architecture. This timeless quality—the potential of a space—was termed “affordance” (that is, the possibilities a space affords) by American psychologist James J. Gibson in the 1970s. Gibson suggested that every animal sees promises in the environment. It recognizes that a cave affords shelter from rain, and that fire affords burns. Affordance, thus, is a specific promise of the cave, of a fire, or of a room. The concept was later brought into product design by Donald Norman, an American designer and communicator interested in the usability of products and technologies.

Design paradox

In light of this, we could say that architects design patterns of “affordances” (even if most have not heard of the term). They link different “affordances” so that we can enter through doors, walk down corridors, meet someone in the lobby in a quiet corner. When the sequence works as a whole, we say that the design is functional.

And the fact that architects actually arrange “affordances” has much to do with how our living, working and entertainment environments actually take shape.

You best recognize what promise a space holds for you when you are in it. The architect of that space, on the other hand, engineers those promises in absentia. That is, when she designs the space, neither she nor you are actually in it. She cannot sense, in person, the “affordances” that emerge as she designs the space on paper or on screen. And because the space is not built yet, she certainly cannot know how the body reacts to it.

Here lies the paradox of design. Architects design patterns of “affordances”. But what they actually manipulate (and can draw) are physical things: walls, doors, countertops. “Affordances”, since they are not objects, cannot be drawn. They can only be sensed, in person. The architect has no way of actually “seeing” what she is manipulating.

Is it any surprise, then, that so many spaces in our buildings and cities just don’t make us feel good?

The author is a Goa-based architect and author of Space for Engagement.

Write to him at bodylines@livemint.com

The mall that mimics Manhattan

Manidipa Mandal — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:15:00 GMT

Kolkata’s newest mall—City Centre, New Town, in Rajarhat—along the highway to the airport is not only the city’s newest hypermarket address, it is also being touted as an entertainment destination that outdoes its earlier avatar: the Charles Correa-designed City Centre at Salt Lake. Certainly the New Town mall is bigger. But is it better?

Downtown design

The large glass structure, which is part of the facade of City Centre, New Town, gleams in the sun, catching the eye of those travelling down the highway.

What appear to be two building blocks at City Centre, New Town, are, in fact, the arms of a single U-shaped structure. The street in between is the spine of the mall, covered with sails of tensile Teflon-coated membrane overhead. It leads to a courtyard that developers Ambuja Realty call Celebration Square. The walls on either side have different colours and finishes, to create the illusion of “a number of different buildings—as if designed by 20 different architects”, says Kapil Bhalla of Studio for Environment and Architecture, Mumbai. Kapil and his partner, Jayashree Bhalla, are the chief architects for City Centre, New Town.

Although the paved “street”, cubist frontage, semi-open corridors and steps in front are reminiscent of the Salt Lake mall launched in 2004 by Ambuja Realty, the resemblance ends there. Salt Lake’s open-air art galleries, its multitude of side streets and stairs are absent. The new mall chooses instead to guide the visitor in a smooth loop, with little room for confusion—or surprise. Indeed, once you leave the central courtyard and enter the foyer of elevators, you could be in almost any modern shopping centre. The traditional market feel of Correa’s design (much lauded by architects and critics) is absent. “The idea (at City Centre, New Town),” says Kapil, “was to pluck out one little precinct of Manhattan.”

Click here to view a slideshow of images of City Centre, Salt Lake

Click here to view photographs of City Centre, New Town

Also Read The mall and the city

But why would a mall in Kolkata, with its flourishing older shopping districts, want to mimic Manhattan? Isn’t there a certain paradox to creating “downtown” in a still nebulous suburb? And, of course, why move away from a milestone Charles Correa model to something with no distinct Indian identity? Harshavardhan Neotia, chairman, Ambuja Realty, says: “Simply because you don’t want to see the same thing again and again. So we were looking for a more eclectic, more young feel.” Times, too, have changed. Neotia cites security concerns that resulted in just three entry/exit points in the New Town mall as opposed to 14 at the Salt Lake one.

Besides, adds Kapil, “It is not possible to compete with Charles Correa.”

Integration issues

Correa’s ability for Indianization is his unique gift. “When Correa built City Centre, Salt Lake, it was an experiment,” says Tapas Bhattacharyya, professor and head of the department of architecture, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. “It is not a pure supermarket or hypermarket.” Rather, it is an agglomeration of smaller shops, clustered together in the different masses of Correa’s typical cubist forms. “At that time (five years ago), the Kolkata customer was accustomed to smaller shops or marketplaces, with limited experience of departmental stores. Correa took cognizance of this, and the resulting City Centre was not much of a departure from what the shopper was already used to.” Then came larger supermarkets and hypermarkets. In that the architecture of City Centre, New Town, is a marriage of the hypermarket with the traditional shopping district. Bhattacharyya says it is a step in the right direction.

Aesthetically, it is another story. Says Bhattacharyya, “Kapil Bhalla is a very good architect, but (his) approach at City Centre, New Town, is pluralistic in form and composition.” Kapil seems to have sought a middle ground between Correa’s cubism and the monolithic transparency of South City (a much-lauded south Kolkata mall, designed by city-based architect Dulal Mukherjee), the professor explains, noting that while this creates curiosity, it could have been better integrated.

Practical problems

The other set of improvements at the new mall include higher ceilings that allow for taller displays and concealed lighting, dedicated space in Celebration Square for product launches—all of which favour shop-owners. Neotia hopes the product launches will avoid disturbing the neighbours, which he claims does happen at Salt Lake.

However, Kolkata-based architect and urban planner Partha Ranjan Das, who was the resident architect realizing Correa’s vision at Salt Lake, says: “In the Salt Lake City Centre, functions (events) are held in the Kund area, which is partially enclosed and...shoppers are not affected because there are other entrances. Here the central plaza (Celebration Square) is unavoidable, and I think the structure along its back and sides may reverberate the sound.”

Das also points out that the steep steps in front may pose difficulties for children and senior citizens.

Final billing

Perhaps the dilemma of City Centre, New Town, is well encapsulated in the predicament of the steel-grey Humanoid (a sculpture by Mumbai-based Barish Danet) hanging off the facade. Modernity has been donned like a pair of jeans, with a shedding of local colour. Unlike City Centre, Salt Lake, which kept the local flavour alive, this space isn’t very different from the malls dotting cityscapes elsewhere in India.

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Art exhibition

An art exhibition and seminars on ‘Informal Cities’ is being organized by Mumbai-based research collective Pukar (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research). The exhibition (31 October-8 November) will also mark the formal release of the Indian edition of ‘Dharavi: Documenting Informalities’, a book produced by the Swedish Royal University College of Fine Arts, Stockholm. Artists and architects will be present. Entry to the exhibition is free. To register for the seminars (31 October and 7 November), email informalcitiesmumbai@gmail.com

Architecture of shopping centres

Good architecture translates into good business for shopping centres. Tapas Bhattacharyya, professor and head of the department of architecture, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and architect Partha Ranjan Das give a few pointers:

• The entrance has to be inviting, with easy pedestrian access.

• To tempt passersby and get the visitor to linger, a mall can be dotted with sensory pleasures, such as seating areas close to the shops, artwork, greenery, great views, insulation from the noise outside and bustle of a busy street or food aromas.

• Just as escalators replaced stairs and made multistoreyed markets viable, shoppers at any level should be able to see all their options, and how to get to them, at a glance. Manidipa Mandal

Victoria and Albert Museum’s design archives

The new ‘V&A Pattern’ series (available in India through Roli Books) is a collection from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s design archives. From wallpaper and carpet to tile and textile patterns, the books highlight works by some great design artists as well as works by unknown designers and draughtsmen. In the collection is a book on Indian floral patterns from the Mughal courts, and another which has a collection of William Morris’ wallpaper and swatch patterns. Each book costs Rs495 and comes with a CD of pattern images. Roli Books has released four books in the series. Seema Chowdhry

Glamorous minimalism

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:45:00 GMT

Dilip Sanghvi’s family home is unmistakably minimalist. It also bears the subtle finishes that have marked much of Ahmedabad-based architect Gurjit Singh Matharoo’s work over the last 17 years.

Click here for a slideshow of more spaces and design features from the Sanghvi home

In designing Sanghvi’s home, Matharoo referenced the family business (they are diamond merchants), but stopped short of “bling”. Even glamorous and expensive onyx, occupying an entire wall along the length of the house, exudes utilitarianism—binding together the functions of the spaces it flanks and softly lighting up the whole house. Concrete and onyx represent two facets of a diamond—the rough unpolished stone and the polished gem.

Natural light comes in through a skylight, bouncing off bare concrete textured to resemble stone blocks, exuding warmth. The “stone” finish was realized using fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) moulds. A total of 150 moulds were made to minimize repetition and keep the look natural.

Structural elements are not hidden—no false ceilings, camouflaged pillars or beams. Utilities, such as pipes and wiring, are not concealed, so changes and repairs don’t call for any demolition or dismantling. Yet these are tucked away cleverly.

Floor plan

You can enter the house from two sides, through the formal and informal living spaces, respectively. One entrance opens into the family area, the other leads directly into the formal living and dining space and the veranda.

The main entrance has a custom-designed door that curves gracefully when opened (see Adapt). Next to it are three identical flights of stairs: one functional, two hanging upside down from the ceiling along the flanking walls. Sculptural monkeys play along them. The functional set of stairs leads to the gym on the first floor.

The first floor also has the master and children’s bedrooms, a study and a library that overlooks the formal living space. The ground floor has the formal and informal living areas, guest bedrooms, a puja room and Sanghvi’s mother’s room.

Structural exploits

From the gate, a ramp leads down into the basement parking. Here, the east wall supports the entire roof without any pillars or visible beams. This allows a large sedan, such as a Mercedes S-class, to make a full turnaround without brushing the other three parked cars.

There are no supporting columns within the onyx wall on the ground floor, which means the master bedroom above the formal living area is suspended from the roof slab, an ingenious solution achieved by principal structural engineer Rajendra Singh Matharoo (the architect’s father).

Discreet décor

The interior design reflects the minimalist architecture. For the most part, it showcases the intrinsic beauty of structural materials: solid Burma teak doors and cabinets, glamorous onyx and travertine, humble kota and cudappah stone walls and counters.

Downstairs, master weaver and designer Rajan Chaudhary’s bright dhurries (rugs) hold their own against contemporary Italian furniture and lights handpicked by Sanghvi and Matharoo. The first floor has wooden flooring. The bedrooms have storage discreetly tucked away in dressing areas.

The house is oriented towards the garden, with large windows overlooking it, their wooden louvred screens providing diffused light. These screens also conceal electrical wiring, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) ducts, plumbing and drainage pipes. Above the louvres is a channel that holds rainwater, letting it overflow as a falling screen during the rains, creating a bit of magic.

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Bloomframe balcony

After the hype when it was conceived about two and a half years ago, the Bloomframe balcony is now in production, giving apartment dwellers who feel cooped up an option that defies the confines of their homes. Designed by the Amsterdam-based firm Hofman Dujardin Architects, this innovative window frame folds down and out to become a balcony into which users can step. The Bloomframe balcony can be installed in both new and existing buildings.

Functional beauty

In the Sanghvi residence, designed by architect Gurjit Singh Matharoo, the wooden door at the main entrance has a handle sculpted from the same block of wood it sits on—functional beauty at its finest. In case you are not able to find a single piece of wood with sufficient thickness to carve out a protrusion, try moulded acrylic or have the handle joined in such a way that the joint does not show.

Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People

The San Francisco-based design blogger and product designer Emily Pilloton’s book ‘Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People’ will be released at the end of the month. In the book, Pilloton, who launched Project H Design, a non-profit venture that supports “life-enhancing, humanitarian design” (according to the book’s blurb), features Braille-based building blocks for children who are not sighted, safer baby bottles, a waterless washing machine, wheelchairs for rugged terrain and the daily dump composting system developed in Bangalore.

All content on this page is provided by Better Interiors

Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

Design Matters | Material Dilemma

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:32:00 GMT

I like the deep blue ceramic tiles that come in sizes of 2ftx3ft. Is this a good size regarding wastage, joints, among other things? How do I know if these Chinese tiles are of good quality?

--Priya Wadhwa

The bigger, thicker and heavier the tiles, the more difficult these are to handle and cut with a motorized hand-held cutting machine (when required). Some vendors offer a tile-cutting service. However, this doesn’t help, especially when the actual size of the tile is derived from a site where work is still going on. You need to confirm the workability of the tile from the vendor before investing money. The track record of a vendor is also important.

Also See Previous Design Matters columns

The size of the tile versus wastage is dependent entirely on the shape and size of the given space, and the pattern in which you choose to use the tile. These large-sized tiles (irrespective of the source of origin) are also prone to warping and distortion.

Floor plan: Check tiles carefully before buying. The track record of a vendor is also important.

Check the tiles carefully before buying. Place one tile on the finished surface of the other. Uneven edges or a warped surface will show quickly—you will see light passing between the two if they don’t line up flush. Also, move the top tile across the surface of the lower one to confirm the flatness of both surfaces. Now, reverse positions and check again. Do this with at least four-six tiles because you would have to be very lucky to catch the error in the first pair of tiles, especially if you are purchasing a whole lot.

All tile manufacturers state minute variations in size on the packaging. You need to make sure these variations are not very pronounced. A typical good-quality tile should not have a variation greater than one-300th of its length (that is, for every 300mm length, the tile should not be longer or shorter than expected by more than 1mm). This variation is also easy to spot. Place three-six tiles from a single box on a level surface. Join four tiles edge to edge. See if you can spot one or more tile edges that are longer than others. Note down this difference of measurement. Now, turn the tiles around and replace a few tiles with fresh ones, and check again. You should also get an idea of frequency (as well as degree) of such variations by repeating this check through a small crate of tiles.

I have a couple of leftover cement bags from the last renovation at least a year back. Is it all right to use that cement to repair the terrace parapet wall that has developed cracks?

--Yamini Bandha

Even though there is no expiry date printed on cement bags, the strength of cement diminishes (very slowly) over a period of time owing to exposure to atmospheric moisture. This is especially true when the bags have been placed directly on the floor without a vapour barrier (such as a plastic sheet) below, or worse, left exposed on a porch or veranda. In this case, the cement would have partially or completely solidified, making it useless.

This phenomenon of atmospheric-induced hydration is faster in “quick-setting cement” (it solidifies faster) and slower in “modified pozzolanic cement”. Pozzolanic or pozzolana cement comes in various brands and grades (represented by numbers such as 33, 43, 53, among others). It’s the presence of pozzolanic materials (which reduce the speed of hydration as they don’t react with water), such as fly ash, that prevents cement from hardening before you are ready for it to set. It’s only when fly ash is exposed to free lime or calcium hydrate that it starts to set. Modified pozzolanic cement has a greater resistance to atmospheric moisture.

All content on this page is provided by Better Interiors

Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

How sustainable is your style?

Himanshu Burte — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:10:00 GMT

Sustainability is the buzzword. Every manner of building makes a claim to “greenness” today. While there are various ways of judging how green a building is, we often assume its look also offers a clue.

This seems reasonable. If a building is made largely of a material that consumes less energy and produces fewer emissions, the building is likely to be greener than others. Buildings that expose stone, brick or a wood skeleton consume less cement because they are not plastered. Also, if this material is local, little energy is consumed in transportation. So can there actually be a green look for a building?

Stein’s architecture for the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, celebrated bricks as an elegant material, linking it to prestige. The cleverly designed pergola over the courtyard has angled panels that block the summer sun but let in warmth and light in winters, creating a pleasant outdoor environment across seasons. Ramesh Pathania/Mint

That depends on how the question is phrased. We may ask, “Can we judge how sustainable a building is from its looks?” Or “Are there some aesthetic values that lead to more sustainable architecture?”

Let’s take the first question first. From the late eco-architect Laurie Baker’s buildings in Kerala, we may conclude that using natural materials and showing them off will lead to a greener building. Such strategies reduce the use of energy-guzzling materials such as cement, steel, aluminium and glass. Yet as Surya Kakani, an Ahmedabad-based architect who has built several eco-sensitive institutional and industrial facilities, says, “A building in mud may not be truly green in its impact if the mud is transported from a faraway location, using up a lot of fuel.”

Waste material locally available may be the best. Some years ago, Kakani used earthquake rubble to build load-bearing walls for a school in Rajkot, which he then plastered and painted—a conventional look with deep green veins. At a recently completed garment factory in Ahmedabad (which is day-lit and naturally ventilated), he exposed the mix of fly-ash bricks (75%) and burnt bricks (25%) in a distinctive look that flaunts environment-friendly underpinnings.

Also Read Open schools

How can we build a sustainable future?

Taking a stand

Architects working towards sustainable materials and techniques

Size matters too. An air-conditioned, 5,000 sq. ft bachelor’s pad, even if built with local mud, would not be the best illustration of sustainable architecture. In this case, size alone would negate the low-energy consumption of the building material, even before power-guzzling appliances come into play. The natural look of mud construction can hide a very unnatural attitude to consumption.

Perhaps there is no green look then. Or maybe looks have nothing to do with sustainability.

A less sustainable look?

Consider the other side of the coin—is there an aesthetic that is inherently non-green?

One look at oversized glass and aluminium composite panel (ACP) building blocks in Gurgaon, neighbouring Delhi, or Whitefields, near Bangalore, and you know these are not sustainable buildings. The huge glass walls face any direction, including the west, from where the hottest low-angle sun streams in. Glass lets in light and traps heat. So these corporations must consume a lot of energy (and cash) to keep the interiors cool. And all this because of the “progressive” look they desired.

(Left) Facing every which way, glass wraps the buildings in and around DLF Infinity and DLF Cybercity, Gurgaon. (right) The sharp architecture of the DLF Gateway Tower in Gurgaon confronts the setting sun with a huge glass curtain wall. (Harikrishna Katragadda/Mint)

Certainly, the glass and ACP facades are an aesthetic choice. We have been conditioned by the use of glass in American skyscrapers into believing that it best expresses corporate identity. Over the second half of the 20th century, private corporations rose in power, and glass became the architectural motif of power and prestige.

So much so that glass (and ACP) is the exterior material of choice for many non-corporate entities, even many governments. You can find cultural centres and small businesses adorned with glass even in scorching semi-desert climates. The state-built PL Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy, built over the old Ravindra Natya Mandir at Prabhadevi in Mumbai, is an example. A small hotel in Bhuj, Gujarat, in which I stayed two weeks ago, had a large glass surface catching the hot morning sun. Behind the glass was the air-conditioned lobby.

So the glazed look would certainly seem to have an unsustainable ecological impact. However, things are not quite so simple.

Indiscriminate glazing can certainly make buildings unbearably hot and increase energy consumption in the form of air conditioners. But glass is not the villain. If expanses of glass face shaded courtyards and let in reflected light, we could get free daylight, while avoiding the heat and glare. The Apollo Tyres headquarters, designed by Morphogenesis in Gurgaon, does this with the style of a typical corporate office in glass, aluminium and stainless steel.

Climatic considerations

The real problem is our fascination for a particular look irrespective of its climatic and ecological appropriateness. Through the buildings they design, architects often engineer and strengthen this fascination. If large numbers of architects continue to favour one look, they push people’s imagination towards it.

This Rajkot school building by Kakani has walls of earthquake rubble, rammed into moulds with gypsum waste from local sanitaryware factories. The final look balances rustic thatch with crisp cement plaster. Himanshu Burte

Yet, sometimes, the work of even a single architect can counter this—such as that of the late Joseph Allen Stein, who nudged the imagination of architects and laypeople in New Delhi towards a more nature-friendly taste. The values embodied in Stein’s work, such as the brick-walled India Habitat Centre, constitute a much more ecologically responsible approach.

This puts a special responsibility on architects. Not only do they need to know the actual ecological impact of their design decisions, they must also consider the cultural impact. “Whatever aesthetic an architect wants to explore must be explored responsibly,” says Jaigopal G. Rao, an Ernakulam-based architect with expertise in eco-sensitive architecture. “We can’t casually choose a look that needs energy-guzzling materials and goes against climatic logic.”

For his part, Rao has already developed a unique style of building, combining bamboo with concrete to create light, airy and ecologically gentle architecture.

Now, it’s up to the rest of us.

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Pointers for greener buildings

• Reduce: Build as little as possible, so that you consume little even with conventional technology. If possible, reduce the use of energy-guzzling materials such as cement, steel and aluminium. Look for alternatives. A tip: Labour-intensive technology can often reduce total fossil fuel energy use

• Reuse: Buy doors, windows and similar building parts from second-hand dealers

• Recycle: Recycle water, waste, garbage and anything else you can think of

• Reset: Expectations of comfort and style can be limited to what may be naturally available through good architectural design without mechanical equipment. If you must use an air conditioner, accept a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius, instead of 22, and save energy costs. Also, change your lifestyle to save every drop of water and electricity

• Resource: Local material saves transportation energy. Cement, steel and the tiles available in your local store don’t count as local material. Instead, explore the possibilities of local stone, mud, bamboo and terracotta. Also, explore ferrocement and innovative brickwork techniques

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Know | Out of the box table

Ask a six-year-old to draw a table and the result will likely be a four-cornered, four-legged phenomenon. If this looks suspiciously like your dining table, think out of the box. Like the 1949 Guéridon Table by Jean Prouvé (see picture), whose oak legs radiate from the centre of its circular top.

The clean lines and tapering legs in natural materials made the Guéridon a modernist classic and inspired other teepee-like designs. Evidently, cutting corners isn’t always a bad thing. ©2009/The New York Times

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Decorate | Bed and bath

In ‘150 Best Bathroom Ideas’ (Collins Design), Daniela Santos Quartino looks at daring options from glass-encased rooms to bed-and-baths with minimal separation. But there are also ideas many homeowners can apply:

• A bathroom can be both vintage and contemporary. Pair bright modern colours with classic hexagonal floor tiles.

• Not enough natural light? Use transparent glass shelves and sinks, or tiles with metallic finishes.

• Don’t be afraid to use wood. Teak, cedar and bamboo are water-friendly. Offer the unexpected, such as a bamboo ladder for hanging towels.

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Celebrate | Tips for a more caring Diwali

• Think before you buy anything. Keep your ecological footprint light. Buy only what you need, not what you want

• Instead of crackers, buy yourself or friends other gifts

• Avoid plastic bags now more than ever. Chances are, these will be disposed of by burning around this time

• Don’t burst crackers in green spaces or parks. If you must light fireworks, choose an open area to do so

• Want to light up your house? Make sure the lights don’t focus on trees or leaves where birds roost. Lights blind and disorient them. Switch off most lights by 10pm. If you must place naked flames near plants, maintain a safe distance, allowing for a breeze or a change in the wind direction to whip up the flame or turn it about. Benita Sen

Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

Make your garden glow

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:45:00 GMT

Click here to see ideas on brightening up your garden for the autumn-winter festivities

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Light | A mini UFO on your hand

At first glance, it looks like a mini UFO that has landed on your hand—a see-through acrylic body, delicate lights lining its inner surface. A closer look reveals three tiny strategically placed LEDs. One on the lower axial and the other two opposite each other, these light up in a host of combinations: blue-blue, white-blue, red-red and white-red. Each light is powered by three rechargeable NiMH batteries. This (in the picture) is upoGallegio from light manufacturer Viabizzuno. The palm-sized upoGallegio is specially designed to glimmer when afloat in pools and hot tubs. It can behave as a colour-changing ambient light or even as a reading light in the pool.

Plan | Plant forests, trap carbon

An August report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK has suggested that a forest of 100,000 artificial “trees” be “planted” near depleted oil and gas reserves to trap carbon and bury it underground. Researchers say that once these “trees” are fully developed, they could anchor thousands of times the carbon real trees can.

Evaluating hundreds of geo-engineering projects, the researchers have suggested three feasible and quickly-action-able ways to reduce the impact of emissions leading to climate change. The second way: growing algae in tubes along the sides of buildings. The algae, which trap carbon during photosynthesis, could be collected and transformed into charcoal, to be buried underground. The third idea, of painting roofs white to reflect sunlight, would mitigate the heat island effect in urban areas.

Recycle | Cutlery made out of Coke cans

The next time you gulp a can of Coke, don’t trash it. Instead, try eating with it. Spanish designer Oscar Diaz recently created a cutlery set by chopping up plastic bottles and coating them with metal. Christened ‘Found’, the range is made by plating the plastic first in copper and then tin. ‘Found’ was on display as part of ‘Airmail’, an exhibition at the Idea Generation Gallery during the London Design Festival (19-27 September).

Text by Anusha Babbar (courtesy Green Grower, India)

Photographs by Dylan Luis

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Breezy solutions

Design Matters | Navneet Malhotra — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:15:00 GMT

Our bedroom air conditioner (AC) emits an odour. We got it serviced but the AC vendor couldn’t rectify the problem. Initially, we thought there may be a dead rodent inside, but that wasn’t the case. The odour gets worse when the AC is switched on. We have resorted to placing incense in the room, but to no avail. Can you suggest a solution?

Sumit Kumar

The smell can be due to dirt within the AC, or it could be picking up the odour from its surroundings. By getting it serviced, you have eliminated the possibilities of dead creatures inside or dirt causing the odour. That leaves us with the surroundings. Mostly, window and split ACs simply recirculate room air, with fresh air coming in only through gaps in windows and below the doors. However, both systems are actually able to take in some air from outside as well. Window ACs take in some air from the rear. Some window ACs also come with a tiny mechanical switch that operates a vent at the rear of the machine. The technology is quite similar to that in a car and can be used to shut the entry of foul air, if required. The split AC, however, takes in air through its (water) drain pipe.

A smell can, therefore, arise when a window AC is installed in a shaft that also houses plumbing pipes. Ensure that any manhole located at the base of this shaft (as is often the case) is not choked or overflowing, and has an air-tight cover.

Also, ensure gaps between the machine and the opening it fits into, or over, are properly sealed. Tiny gaps can be neatly covered with a silicone sealant, while larger ones can be first filled with foam strips, cotton fibre, thermocol or another flexible, mouldable insulation. Tape fixed over the gaps would also do the trick.

Sometimes, vendors installing a split AC release its (water) drain pipe over an adjoining bathroom or kitchen drain, without taking precautions to prevent foul air from rising through it and circulating into a room. Whether below or above the floor level, the creation of a simple loop (see illustration) at the discharge end, raising the mouth upwards, can effectively prevent odours and insects from entering the AC.

How can I get rid of the scratching sound a ceiling fan makes at low speed? The sound disappears when it operates at full speed. We’ve oiled the bearings, but that didn’t help.

Feroze Vadiwala

The scratching sound could be due to the wear and tear of its (built-in) bearings. This is easily repaired.

Also Read Previous Design Matters columns

The sound can also occur when low-capacity, smooth-moving electronic regulators are used. Simply replace these inexpensive “local” mechanisms with ones that have at least four or more pre-defined speeds. Though old, the pre-defined speed technology is an effective solution. If you are using modular switches, the choice of replacements is restricted to the existing manufacturer, as only those will fit the current switch plate design (switches from most brands don’t fit into the switch plate of another).

You should also see if you have sufficient space in the existing plate, as local electronic fan regulators often take only one slot space, while most branded fan regulators require two slots in the switch plate. With the new regulator, you should be rid of the scratching sound even at low speeds—provided the fan bearings haven’t worn out.

My sea-facing apartment on the 11th floor gets a strong breeze that makes the doors slam shut. This has led to the development of big cracks between the door frame and the wall. What should be done?

Sabia Shastri

Try these simple solutions:

• Affix a door closer, where possible. It’s not very effective if you have mortise locks—commonly used—on the shutters. Mortise locks, unlike deadbolts, have a lip that you retract by twisting the handle when opening or closing the shutter. It is this lip that stops the shutter from moving back and forth freely. The movement of the door slows when we fix a door closer. However, the lip of a mortise lock prevents the slow-moving shutter from shutting completely. You could either remove this lip (the handle would no longer turn to open or shut the door) and add a deadbolt, or replace it with a different lock and handle mechanism that shuts even at a slow speed.

• Fix a wide band of wood panelling on the walls adjoining the door frame. The band should be at least 6-8 inches wide and should cover the affected area completely. The cracks between the frame and the wall would still exist, but won’t be visible if the panelling overlaps the edge of the frame. Polish or paint as desired.

Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

Turn the tables

Aparna Piramal Raje — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:58:00 GMT

If you live in Mumbai, and know your Hendrix from your Hariprasad, it’s quite likely you would have seen a concert at the Blue Frog. If you know your pesto from your parmesan, it’s even more likely that you will dine at the Tote on the Turf.

The establishments differ in scope but offer path-breaking leisure experiences, underpinned by a highly evolved understanding of architecture’s contribution to the hospitality business.

Click here for a slideshow on Tote on the Turf and Blue Frog.

Design concepts

It’s no coincidence that both venues have been designed by Serie Architects, a partnership between Mumbai-based Kapil Gupta and London-based Chris Lee. The firm approaches spaces from the way they behave, not just their look and feel, ensuring that the design is fully integrated with the business concept.

Also Read Preview | Tote, Mumbai

“Our work is deeply contextual, and a very unique response to its brief and location. The Blue Frog has a plan like a restaurant and a section like an opera house to deliver a highly acoustic, yet very intimate viewing experience. At the Tote, we rethought the idea of heritage and context to create the incredible feeling of standing under the dappled light of a green canopy in an indoor environment,” says Gupta.

Global quality, local buzz

Blue Frog is a versatile 6,000 sq. ft space in post-industrial Lower Parel and simultaneously serves as a performance arena, nightclub, restaurant and bar. Guests are seated in circular pods, staggered at different levels in a horseshoe arrangement around the stage. This deceptively simple layout allows diners to enjoy the performance and their privacy, without encountering noisy bar-goers.

Tote is more ambitious at 27,000 sq. ft and exudes contemporary, handcrafted elegance inspired by its natural surroundings. White metal branches support the ceiling of the banqueting wing, bringing in the greenery of the Mahalaxmi Race Course and seamlessly binding the indoors and outdoors. With dedicated indoor and outdoor spaces for food, drinks and private gatherings, it can cater to 2,000 guests every day. The bar is a dramatic triple-height lounge with wooden panelling. By avoiding theme interiors, the restaurant is shielded from fluctuating fads.

The investment in architecture and design at both venues exceeds industry norms and might appear risky. However, given the promoters’ domain expertise, clarity on business model and attention to detail, my bet is that these two will last the course—without needing a facelift.

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EU to make green law bigger

European Union (EU) nations have reached an agreement to broaden a law on green design by making manufacturers of building products, including windows and taps, adhere to more energy-efficient norms. “Many energy-related products have a significant potential for being improved in order to reduce environmental impacts and to achieve energy savings through better design,” says the revised law on environmentally conscious design, stressing that such rules can also save businesses and consumers money. The rules already apply to energy-using products, such as washing machines, freezers and hair-dryers. The new rules, still to be rubber-stamped, state that “Products used in construction such as windows, insulation materials or water-using products such as shower heads or taps” should also be designed with environmental savings in mind. AFP

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The business of being trendy

Aparna Piramal Raje — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:36:00 GMT

In this age of bling, the “luxe” trend of interior design is ubiquitous in five-star hotels and luxury show homes. Designer furniture, textured wall coverings and jewelled lighting are some opulent elements.

But hotel owners, seeking style for its own sake, are likely to discover that they have painted themselves into a corner, warns Carl Almeida, partner at P49 Design, a Bangkok-based interior architecture firm which has designed 200 hotels globally, 15 of them in India. Speaking last month at a seminar on hospitality design at the annual Index Furniture trade show, Mumbai, he highlighted the importance of knowing the difference between “being on trend and being trendy”.

The former is “the art of knowing what trend to pick,” he says; the latter is “an expensive and short-lived” approach to interior fit-outs which results in repeated renovation. Instead of focusing on mere aesthetics, hotel owners would be wise to examine factors influencing trends in hotel design. He thinks these are the most important:

Sustainability and a greener outlook

Awareness of the dangers of climate change is beginning to penetrate the hotel industry. International operators are increasingly finding ways to conserve energy and water, and opting for sustainable materials in an attempt to demonstrate that hotels “can still be cool and sustainable”. For example, the Starwood chain of hotels is piloting a Green Choice programme in Seattle, where guests are rewarded with points for choosing to reduce chemical consumption and water usage by minimizing housekeeping.

Although Almeida remarks “that this trend is still in its infancy in India”, it is already visible. The boutique Park Hotels group will inaugurate a new LEED-certified hotel in Hyderabad later this year, one of the first of its kind in the country. The group estimates that it will reduce power consumption by 30% and potable water consumption by 40% through greener building design, construction and operating activities.

Technology for convenience

In a world of proliferating gadgets, in-room support for portable devices is

an essential component of enhancing guest comfort. Electrical fittings that allow multiple cable access for devices such as iPods, or those that enable a laptop to be viewed on the hotel TV screen, are increasingly prevalent. Almeida envisions a scenario where guest-recognition software will form the basic interface between the guest and the hotel room, and is helping a hotel chain implement cutting-edge technology at its upcoming Bangalore property.

Emergence of new brands

Globally, new hotel brands are being launched that are more reflective of the target group, rather than the destination. One P49 client is an international hotel chain wanting to create a new brand aimed specifically at guests who consider themselves “forever 34”, says Almeida. This brief translates into a look that is “natural, organic and locally inspired” and is aimed at travellers who may be older, but consider themselves young at heart. A target market-focused strategy allows hotel operators to differentiate themselves and “not make the mistake of being all things to all people”, he explains, citing the example of long-standing groups such as ITC and Oberoi, which are conceptualizing new brands, and the expansion of groups such as the budget Lemon Tree chain.

Holistic wellness of the guest

As balance and wellness become priorities for international travellers, hotels are keen that their properties become an extension of guests’ lifestyles. “Lobbies are multi-zonal, for work, rest and play; food is healthy and spas are essential. Some have an entire floor dedicated to a spa, which can return more money than a guest room. Hotels realize that guests are beginning to pay more for the lifestyle afforded by a larger room, rather than wanting them to go out and spend more in a restaurant,” says Almeida.

The Taj group was one of the first to recognize the growing demand for wellness therapies among its guests and introduced the Jiva spa in its 20 most upscale properties. “Jiva is the only Indian spa brand in the world with unique Indian signature spa therapies,” says Sarita Hegde Roy, the group’s director of public relations. The hotel seeks to provide a holistic spa experience by using Jiva-branded personal care products, organic linen and clothing, and providing cuisine that promotes wellness. P49 also recently designed what Almeida describes as “a good spa by international standards” for the Radisson in Amritsar and a 22,000 sq. ft spa in Alibag, near Mumbai.

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Time for the annual ritual

Planters’ Club | Benita Sen — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:15:00 GMT

For years, I wondered about the right time to start planting winter annuals. Then, a local gardening legend from Dehradun told me that in a large part of India, 15 October is safe enough to get going.

So give or take a day or two, you need to start planning now. The soil, whether for a container garden or beds, needs to be prepared and replenished. Are you going to grow from seeds or get seedlings (this saves a few weeks)? Do you need to buy seeds or do you have some saved from last year’s flowers?

Of seed and shade

Flowers such as nasturtium and sweet pea are easier to grow from seeds, but unless you’re a deeply committed gardener, it may be practical to pick seedlings for most other flowers. Some prefer to pick up their plants a little late, when they begin flowering. That way, you can spot the new hybrids that are introduced virtually every year.

Also Read Earlier columns on Planters’ Club

Educationist Shobha Sharma’s garden is to the north of her Patna home. This means the house casts a shadow across it all winter, leaving her little option except cineraria. This robust flowering annual comes in many shades and almost makes up for the lack of sun-loving winter annuals. It’s not as popular as, say, the chrysanthemum or nasturtium, so start the seed/seedling search early.

Season’s seedlings

In Mumbai, Green Grower, a nursery and plant solutions company, suggests these five favourites to city residents: aster, impatiens, petunia, phlox and salvia.

Aster is easy to grow. The yellow-centred flowers come up with a skirt of bright pinks, whites and mauves. Prolific impatiens comes in shades such as white, pink, red and mauve. The hybrids are a robust must-haves, and they grow well in dappled shade.

The petunia isn’t fussy and can be grown even on busy traffic islands. The hybrids are brilliant, but even the original pale shades of white, pink and purple are charming. They make pretty border and bedding plants and can hold their own, planted in profusion. “They make perfect centrepieces in pots and hanging baskets too,” says Amit Walawalkar of Green Grower. If you can move the tub into the shade in summer, you can keep petunias blooming all year, though at a slower clip.

Phlox is a favourite for its brilliant colours. The clusters of flowers may be short, but are great for borders, rock gardens and slopes.

In most Delhi nurseries, the season begins with the chrysanthemums. Prize-winning plant rental entrepreneur Pragnya Nair’s garden must also include the pansy, calendula and marigold. She recommends chrysanthemums even for greenhorn gardeners: Just stake them properly and ensure a reasonable amount of sunlight. As the rains recede, it’s time to feed them an extra dose of manure.

No winter garden is complete without the pansy. Children love the edible nasturtium and the “faces” on pansy.

Shell Jhanb of Faridabad has a penchant for the unusual, though. “I have collected some very rare foliage,” he says of his garden, which is open to visitors.

For others, autumn festivals mean marigold. Across the country, except in the cold hills, the bright marigold thrives through the season. It is also believed to be a good pest-repellent, besides having festive uses. In Hyderabad, avid gardener and Ikebana teacher Uma Prasad, about to start her own vineyards, also roots for marigold, and says that it is “resistant to fungal and pest attacks”. Get hybrids for more colours.

White and green Christmas

In Kalimpong, orchid scholar U.C. Pradhan and wife Tej know the marigolds will be done by December, so it is time for sweet pea, hollyhock, petunia and phlox. Dwarf red salvia will provide prolific blooms till early spring in the hills. Tej, in charge of the couple’s winter planting, put some sturdier stuff down years ago, such as the red poinsettia, often treated as an annual, but in fact a sturdy perennial. They are “also dearly called the going home flower by children of Dr Graham’s Homes (a nearby school), because they paint the hillsides red as the school closes for the long winter holidays,” says Pradhan.

If you’ve ever visited those hills in winter, you know how essential the bright red cheer is to warm the cold winter days. After all, what’s Christmas without the Christmas flower?

The author is a journalist and writer of children’s books, with a passion for gardening.

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A jewel box exhibition, sans the gems

Elaine Ganley / AP — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:03:00 GMT

The name Tiffany is synonymous with the finest jewellery, and a visit to the ongoing exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris devoted to Louis Comfort Tiffany is like standing inside a jewel box—without a jewel in sight.

The son of the founder of the New York-based Tiffany and Co. preferred glass. His creations, from vases to stained glass windows or the signature Tiffany lamps, are a study in colour, light and innovation that revolutionized glass making, breaking the mould set by European artisans and creating what became known as American glass.

Click here to view a slideshow of American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany’s glass art, featured in the show Louis Comfort Tiffany, Colours and Light

Wisteria lamp, c. 1901, by Louis C. Tiffany, in his patented Favrile glass, lead and bronze, from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, US (gift of Sydney and Frances Lewis). Katherine Wetzel

Gems, gardens, global art

The jewellery of his father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, who founded Tiffany and Co. in 1837, served as an inspiration for Louis Comfort Tiffany, but it wasn’t the only one.

The younger Tiffany, who travelled widely in Europe, North Africa and elsewhere, was also inspired by Orientalists, Islamic and Japanese art, and the flowers in his garden.

A selection of pieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are featured in the show Louis Comfort Tiffany, Colours and Light, which opened last Wednesday. They range from monumental-sized stained glass windows to tiny stamp boxes bejewelled in glass. Rich, luminescent colours glow and dazzle like electric rainbows, while fine, sometimes startling, often lyric designs—best seen in the vases which gained Tiffany international acclaim—evoke a sense of harmony. This is the first display of Tiffany’s works in Paris since the 1900 Paris World Fair.

The window Magnolias (1900), showing a single magnolia branch, lent by Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and first shown at the 1900 Paris World Fair, appears to embody Tiffany’s artistic soul, incorporating his love of nature. The blossoms, with their three-dimensional petals and their confetti-spattered centres, seem alive.

Iridescent peacock feathers show up in numerous lamps, along with the classic Tiffany style.

Gilding the glass lily

Louis Tiffany began his artistic training as a painter, studying in New York and Paris before taking up interior design, where his reputation drew him clients such as Mark Twain, and in 1882, the White House of president Chester A. Arthur.

But it was his innovative work in glass that became the mainstay and has sustained his artistic reputation.

Tiffany believed that the decorative arts could stand up with sculpture and painting.

Through revolutionary techniques such as draping, in which semi-cooled glass was lifted and folded like draperies, he added a three-dimensional quality to his work and provided a glass maker’s version of shading. Nurtured on exquisite gems, Tiffany created his own jewels in multiple ways, using chipped glass, for instance, to allow light to glance off its facets.

“He liked the imperfections of glass, the irregular shapes you can get from glass, the unexpected effects,” says Rosalind Pepall, decorative arts curator at Montreal’s Musée des Beaux-Arts, the force behind the exhibition. “Glass goes into the oven and then it flows, the colours all melt together. So you never know what’s going to come out and he just loved that.” European glass makers, meanwhile, were painting their works. As for Tiffany, “he was really playing with glass rather than painting on glass” like the English, Germans or French, says Pepall.

While the trademark Tiffany lamps were no more masterful than Tiffany’s other works, they gained special favour among buyers.

“They really attracted a Hollywood set for a while...that could have added to the cachet,” says Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, guest curator and decorative arts expert from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which lent numerous pieces for the exhibition.

However, the Depression, when sombre colours and spare designs were favoured, was to be a blow to the Tiffany atelier, where he was the maestro of a team of artists, often women.

Tiffany died in 1933 aged 84, and his firm was liquidated five years later, but Pepall says it was his art, not the Tiffany name, that helped him live on. “Tiffany the father was very well known, but then Tiffany Louis, the son, ended up making the name even more famous. His name became a mark of prestige.”

The exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg will run till 17 January, and will then move to Musée des Beaux-Arts (11 February-2 May), and after that to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (29 May-15 August), bringing many of this American artist’s works back to his homeland.

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Buddha-shaped pears

This is neither a trick nor a hoax. These are Buddha-shaped pears growing in an orchard in Weixian county in north China’s Hebei province. Hao Xianzhang, a local fruit farmer, spent six years perfecting the process, growing the pears inside plastic moulds, two halves of which are popped apart when the fruit has grown fully. He sells the pears at around 50 yuan each. AFP

Swine flu dining

An eatery in a mall outside Madrid claims to be the world’s first restaurant with a plan against swine flu. Servers at Silk & Soya have their temperatures taken before shifts, menus are washed after each use and tables are set further apart than usual. Restrooms let customers avoid doorknobs, faucets or light switches: The door’s always open, water flows as you approach the sink and the lights turn on when you walk in. Servers don’t handle plates of food with bare hands; they use cloth napkins. The elevator has a sanitizer dispenser. Owner Cipri Quintas paid a consulting firm €1,000 to design the plan. In August, representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), who were in Madrid for a meeting on swine flu, stopped by. Guenael Rodier, WHO’s director for international health regulation coordination, says, “It would be good if other restaurants took such measures.” AP

Designs from garbage

Gabarage, a shop in Vienna, produces sustainable design pieces made from trash and industrial waste as part of a social programme for disadvantaged people. Pictured here is a couch that was once a rubbish container. In the background is a ceiling lamp made of bicycle tyres, and a floor lampshade made of old film. Gabarage also sells bags made from plastic lorry covers; a chess set made from salvaged screws, including wingnut knights; and football flowerpots. Reuters

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The seeing body

Himanshu Burte / Bodylines — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:05:00 GMT

We all know this classic classroom punishment: A child made to stand in a corner facing the wall.

On the face of it, it causes no bodily harm, only mental discomfort. But that is because we tend to accept that the mind is different from the body. And surely, this has nothing to tell us about our man-made environment, the focus of this column?

We may well be wrong on all counts. In particular, the body’s response to seeing may govern our attitude towards, say, minimalist or ornamental design.

Seeing is obviously a bodily process. But does visual pleasure or discomfort have bodily implications? I don’t plan on answering that question. However, exploring the idea leads to valuable insight into the design of an environment and our approaches to it.

Also Read Himanshu Burte’ s earlier columns

What the eye sees

Sight involves at least two steps. First, the image of the object is formed on the retina. Second, the brain has to process the image and decide whether it represents an apple or an abacus. The processing part is where things become interesting.

Take the classroom punishment. Some well-regarded research suggests that our cognitive apparatus (which makes sense of the retinal image) needs some amount of complexity in the visual field. Our brain also likes to be able to organize what it sees into some basic structure, which starts explaining the nature of the ordeal the punished child goes through.

With the blank wall in his face, the child’s brain receives an image that has very little complexity (how many differences can you find across the expanse of a blank wall?). The lack of any visual “incident” also denies the child’s brain the opportunity to “break up” the wall into a pattern of discrete parts (though the desperate child might start noticing patterns in the cracks in the paint). Much like an adult faced with a page of dense writing not broken into paragraphs, the child experiences great cognitive discomfort. Since any discomfort the brain faces has a physical aspect, the punishment is, ultimately, to the body.

What does this have to do with design? Quite a bit if we accept that the same mechanism is in play when we look around on the street or inside a building.

Chaos or complexity?

Many of us find urban streets visually chaotic. We find there are too many distinct and different elements we are forced to see (buildings, cars, people, light poles, colours, materials, cables, among others) that do not fit into any stable pattern. For those who feel dizzy in this “chaos”, we might say the street overburdens their cognitive mechanism with complexity.

One reaction to this chaos outside may be to try for complete calm inside buildings. This route often leads (though not necessarily) to minimalist design.

Modernist architecture created a new approach in the early 20th century which banished all “chaos” (ornaments, intricate shapes, shadows and colours). It believed in a monotone architecture of unadorned spaces and surfaces. The slightest bit of ornament was considered “dishonest” because it “hid” the real construction material or detail. Chandigarh, designed in the 1950s by French architect Le Corbusier, is an example of a modernist city. Corbusier’s dream was a city with regularly spaced and similar buildings in the same material: unadorned, exposed concrete. This offered little complexity with lots of order.

Ever since, good design is often expected to be minimalist. Hushed empty spaces and minimal visual incident are valued — for good reason. It can also provide a calm compensation for the city.

But take it too far and the blank white wall can give you a headache (from a running cognitive apparatus, with nothing to process). Talking about physical pain here may be stretching things. But if the public today votes for what purists call over-decorated confectionery, at least a part of the blame lies in the way the mind’s eye has been wired. Another part lies with architects who have disconnected from that circuit. The simple is, after all, difficult to make profound.

The author is a Goa-based architect and writer.

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Small town highs

Himanshu Burte — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:37:00 GMT

We try harder.” This marketing campaign from the 1960s for Avis, a US car rental company, comes to mind when we look at the emerging architectural creativity in India’s smaller towns and cities. The campaign capitalized on a fact most communicators may have tried to hide—that Avis was not the market leader (Hertz was). Is small town architecture too “trying harder”?

Demand for design

Brinda and Parth Shah’s office in Rajkot looks unusually home-like. Himanshu Burte

Take Brinda and Parth Shah, who practise in Rajkot. After studying architecture in Ahmedabad, Britain and the Netherlands, they decided to move to Parth’s hometown in 2005. Four years down the line, they feel their move has worked.

Says Parth, “In a small place, there are not too many people with your skills, so there is a greater chance of being heard.” They have also discovered that there is a tremendous hunger for good design in rural areas. “We have already worked in 70 villages on a project involving the design of schools,” says Parth. They also had the luxury of being able to choose the projects they work on—something their seniors in big cities can only dream of even after a decade of practice.

The Shahs’ first project, their own office, served as a demonstration of their ideas. They were helped by an indulgent family that gave them a plot to build a modern office which looks like a village house. At the same time, they began meeting officials to discuss what they could do for the city. After all, private practice and public projects mix well in architecture.

Praveen Bavadekar of Belgaum is another person who returned to his small town roots. “We tend to underrate the clientele in smaller places. But these are people like us—qualified professionals who have returned from the big cities and are keen to explore new ideas at home.”

International sensibility

Bavadekar, who studied architecture in Bangalore and at the famous Architectural Association in London, saw big architects famous for conceptual work (plans, model designs), such as Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid, struggling for actual projects. In India, too, he found that in places such as Bangalore and Pune, the big firms got all the plum projects, while those starting out had to struggle for significant commissions. But there was a lot of work and openness to new ideas in a place such as Belgaum, with the cosmopolitan influence of two cultures (Kannada and Marathi).

Making a mark: The Deshpande Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Hubli, by Thirdspace Architecture Studio of Belgaum, takes an innovative form that hints at its intended function and occupants. Courtesy Thirdspace Architecture Studio

Since he began practising in Belgaum in 2002, Bavadekar has built a number of institutional and residential projects that are injecting an international sensibility into this small town setting. With opportunities increasing, he is trying to bring in talented architects from other cities to keep the bar high.

Along with new architecture, small towns such as Thrissur are also getting better public spaces because of young architectural enterprise and vision. Vinod Kumar M.M. returned to Thrissur in 1999 after studying architecture in Bangalore. Over the last seven years, he has worked with various government agencies tenaciously to restore (and redesign) a neglected heritage garden adjoining the Saktan Thampuran Palace in the city. He has also got a promenade and waterside park built along one edge of a large, old neglected temple tank where (now revitalized), which is now an attractive public space.

Many things work in favour of small towns today as far as good architectural and urban design is concerned. To begin with, the small town architect typically has more land to play with (because it is cheaper) than he would in big cities. The cost of construction and architectural services is almost the same everywhere. Media explosion and travel have also shown small town residents (including government officials) that they can get more bang for the same buck.

So, while part of it has to do with the globalization of the urban imagination everywhere, another part is the realization that design is not a matter of fashion alone. That begins to explain the simultaneous success of the different styles of people such as Bavadekar in Belgaum and the Shahs in Rajkot.

Issues of identity

Environ Planners’ Sanjay Patil’s design for the Bhujbal Knowledge City of the Mumbai Education Trust in Nashik proves that non-urban environs needn’t clip the wings of ambition. Courtesy Sanjay M Patil, Environ Planners

One challenge many of these architects face is the question of identity: how to preserve all that’s valuable of the past that persists in the present, while preparing for the future. Since the 1990s, many big city architects have concluded that it is hopelessly sentimental to let the dead past shape the architecture of the present. But “fresh” architectural ideas often mean unexamined values, which may open up new possibilities while closing many equally valid ones simply because they are local and old.

Aldo van Eyck, a famous modern European architect, once warned against succumbing to a “sentimentality towards the future”. Bavadekar might soon want to consider what his internationalist careening forms say about the past, present and future culture. On the other hand, the past, too, may be “a foreign country”.

The Shahs know that the real estate market makes the low-rise rural cottage, such as their office, a difficult general solution. It helps that all these architects have much left to build. They will need this depth of opportunity to work out an absorbing conversation between competing sentimentalities.

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Connect

Big ideas to help manage small spaces:

• Multifunctional furniture: When you can fit in only a few items, it helps if they serve more than one function. For example, a coffee table that is adjustable in height, letting it work as a dining or work surface, with a top that lets you stash things inside. An open shelving unit can offer storage while delineating areas.

• Built-in cabinetry: Cabinets and shelving made to fit your specifications can put every odd corner and nook to good use.

• Reflective and see-through surfaces: One of the oldest tricks in the book is using large mirrors and reflective furniture to give the illusion of more square footage. Transparent furniture has become another popular choice. Taking up little visual space, it makes a room feel open and airy. ©2009/THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Design inspired by human body

Perhaps inspired by contemporary art by the likes of Damien Hirst, many designers are basing everyday objects on body parts. “The human body has become a source of inspiration,” said trend spotter Francois Bernard at the Maison and Objet trade fair in Paris last week. There were hair-covered blonde and brunette chairs from Austria, internal organ water bottles from Denmark, a life-size Dutch garbage bin titled “Fill Bill” in the shape of a man bent over, posterior ready to receive trash, and this chair that resembles a skull from Ukraine-born, Netherlands-based designer Vladi Rapaport. AFP

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Gardening on the rooftop

Interested in rooftop farming? The trend is catching on in the West, with many new converts. The rooftop farm, they say, yields more than just tasty greens. There are enormous environmental pay-offs as well: Plants absorb rainwater, which would otherwise make its way to the sewer system and eventually the sea, bringing pollutants with it; a layer of soil and vegetation helps insulate the building and reduce energy usage; and locally grown food, which doesn’t travel far, further reduces the carbon footprint. Enough green roofs can even mitigate the heat island effect of the urban jungle. BLOOMBERG

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Collectibles

Quirky collections often outweigh their actual value. Make a display of yours:

• Bind small pieces together. For example, put matchboxes in a picture frame or use specimen jars or large canisters for smaller items.

• For different-sized collectibles, try to create harmony: Lean assorted frames against a long horizontal shelf; use a column of shelves for small items such as miniature cars. ©2009/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Rays of a new light

Eric A Taub / NYT — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:29:00 GMT

LED light bulbs, with their minuscule energy consumption and 20-year life expectancy, have grabbed the consumer’s imagination.

Future vision: 1. An Oled installation by Hannes Koch, who says the technology will ‘change the quality of light in public and private spaces’; 2. Students at the Cleveland Institute of Art have developed flexible, paper-thin Oled technology on safety outerwear; 3. A flexible blue Oled at GE’s global research centre in Niskayuna, New York; 4. A lamp by designer Ingo Maurer, which costs about $10,000, uses 10 Oled panels.

However, an even newer technology is intriguing the world’s lighting designers: Organic light-emitting diodes (Oleds) create long-lasting, highly efficient illumination in a wide range of colours, just like their inorganic cousins, LEDs. But unlike LEDs, which provide points of light like standard incandescent bulbs, Oleds create uniform, diffuse light across ultra-thin sheets of material that can eventually even be made flexible.

Ingo Maurer, a lighting designer with studios in Munich and New York, who has designed chandeliers of shattered plates and light bulbs with bird wings, is using 10 Oled panels in a table lamp shaped like a tree. The first of its kind, it sells for about $10,000 (Rs4.8 lakh).

Maurer is thinking of other uses. “If you make a wall-divider with Oled panels, it can be extremely decorative. I would combine it with point light sources,” he says. Other designers have thought about putting them in ceiling tiles or in Venetian blinds so that after dusk, a room looks as if sunshine is still streaming in.

Today, Oleds are used in a few cellphones, such as the Impression from Samsung, and for small, expensive, ultra-thin TV sets from Sony (and soon, from LG). Sony’s only Oled television set, with an 11-inch screen, costs $2,500.

Oled displays produce a high-resolution picture with wider viewing angles than LCD screens. In 2008, seven million of the one billion cellphones sold worldwide used Oled screens, according to Jennifer Colegrove, an analyst at DisplaySearch, a research firm. She predicts next year that that number will jump at least sevenfold to 50 million phones.

Also Read Should you switch to LEDs?

But Oled lighting may be the most promising market. Within a year, manufacturers expect to sell the first Oled sheets that will one day illuminate large residential and commercial spaces. Eventually, they will be as energy-efficient and long-lasting as LED bulbs, they say.

Qualitative change

Because of the diffuse, even light that Oleds emit, they will supplement, rather than replace, other energy-efficient technologies, such as LED, compact fluorescent and advanced incandescent bulbs that create light from a single small point.

Its use may be limited at first, according to designers, and not just because of its high price. “Oled lighting is even and monotonous,” says Maurer. “It has no drama; it misses the spiritual side.”

“Oled lighting is almost unreal,” says Hannes Koch, a founder of rAndom International in London, a product design firm. “It will change the quality of light in public and private spaces.”

Koch’s firm was recently commissioned by Philips to create a prototype wall of Oled light, with sections lighting up in response to movement.

Because Oled panels can be so flexible, lighting companies are imagining sheets of lighting material wrapped around columns (General Electric, or GE, created an Oled-wrapped Christmas tree as an experiment). Oled can also be incorporated into glass windows; nearly transparent when the light is switched off, the glass would become opaque when illuminated.

Because Oled panels are just 0.07 inches thick and give off virtually no heat when lit, architects one day will not need to leave spaces in ceilings for deep lighting fixtures.

The new technology is being developed by major lighting companies such as GE, Konica Minolta, Osram Sylvania, Philips and Universal Display.

“We’re putting significant financial resources into Oled development,” says Dieter Bertram, general manager for Philips’ Oled lighting group. Philips recently stepped up its investment in the area with the world’s first production line for Oled lighting in Aachen, Germany. Universal Display, a 15-year-old company that develops and licenses Oled technologies, has received about $10 million in government grants over the last five years for Oled development, says Joel Chaddock, a technical project manager for solid state lighting in the US energy department.

Armstrong World Industries and the US energy department collaborated with Universal Display to develop thin ceiling tiles that are cool to touch while producing pleasing white light that can be dimmed like standard incandescent bulbs. With a recently awarded $1.65 million government contract, Universal Display is now creating sheet-like under-cabinet lights.

“The government’s role is to keep the focus on energy efficiency,” Chaddock says. “Without government input, people would settle for the neater aspects of the technology.”

Coming soon

GE is developing a roll-to-roll manufacturing process, similar to the way photo film and food packaging is created; it expects to offer Oled lighting sheets as early as the end of next year.

“We think that a flexible product is the way to go,” says Anil Duggal, head of GE’s 30-person Oled development team. Oled is one of GE’s top research priorities; the company is spending at least half its research and development budget for lighting on Oled.

Exploiting the flexible nature of the Oled technology, Universal Display has developed prototype displays for the US military, including a pen with a built-in screen that can roll in and out of the barrel.

The company has also supplied the air force with a flexible, wearable tablet that includes global positioning system (GPS) and video-conferencing capabilities.

Proponents of the technology say that as production increases and the price inevitably drops, Oled will find wider use in cars, homes and businesses.

“I want to get the price down to $6 for an Oled device that gives off the same amount of light as a standard 60-watt bulb,” says Duggal. “Then, we’ll be competitive.”

CONNECT

Ikea in font mess

Ikea, a Swedish furniture chain, never expected a backlash after switching the typeface in its latest catalogue.

The company’s first font change in 50 years, from the iconic Futura typeface to Verdana, caused a worldwide reaction on the Internet. The catalogue, which the company advertises as the world’s most printed book, was distributed last month. It fuelled tweets such as “Ikea, stop the Verdana madness” and “Words can’t describe my disgust”. Ikea spokeswoman Camilla Meiby says, “We’re surprised.”

Verdana was invented by Microsoft for use on a computer screen, not paper. Its wide letters, with space between characters, are designed to increase legibility on small screens. Ikea said that in order to reach many people in different ways, it needed a font that works in both the digital and print media.

— AP

Pergola-a shady retreat

A pergola or arbour can serve as a shady retreat, frame a view or create a focal point. It may be a romantic structure smothered in roses or a sleek metal arch spanning an urban patio. Let it complement your home and garden style: contemporary, cottage or formal. Arbours you walk through must be at least 2x7ft . They should bear the vine’s weight even in gusty winds. Anchor the posts in at least a foot of concrete. Use decay-resistant wood or treated lumber, with galvanized screws or nails. Make the lattice with treated lumber cut into 3- to 4-inch strips. Many ready-made lattices are too weak to support vines such as the Rangoon creeper.

Deborah‘s tips for passionate decorators

When working at ‘Domino’ magazine, Deborah Needleman wanted to design a quiz to give readers an insight into their personal decorating styles. But the founding editor-in-chief of the now-closed magazine never got around to it. So Needleman was thrilled when the discount retail chain HomeGoods asked her to create a free StyleScope for its online community of passionate decorators.

HomeGoods’ new online tool at www.homegoods.com assigns participants to one of 16 style types, from Country Eclectic and Bohemian Classic to Earthy Modern, based on answers to 10 questions. Participants are also offered design tips and ideas on incorporating colour.

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