Grass, Coir & Natural Fibres Neelam Chhiber

Giving Glass a Vanity

Studio: Abhikram Architects, Panika Crafts and Technologies Material: Mirrors Technique: Thikri work Region: Rajasthan, India Description: Mirror-work has played a very important role in the traditional décor of Rajasthan and Gujarat. The art of thikri, or glass inlay, involves cutting pieces of blown glass by hand using diamond scalpels. These pieces are then arranged into the desired shapes and assembled on various surfaces, such as ceilings, walls or objects, to form stylized geometric patter

Inspiration: The use of this craft was inspired by certain vernacular settlements—which use mirrors embedded in mud—and palaces such as the Sheesh Mahal. Contemporary interpretations of this craft for modern spaces give a traditional touch and make us feel connected to our valuable heritage.

Sustainability: The small pieces of mirrors that are used in thikri work are recycled pieces of broken mirrors, which are then arranged to form beautiful traditional patterns.

Such sustainable traditional artwork promotes local artisans and their craft. Since most of the work is executed by local craftsmen headed by the master craftsman, the processes and the technologies rooted in their traditions are preferred.

Studio: Arjun Rathi Design Material: Glass and metal Technique: Glass blowing and casting Region: Uttar Pradesh, India

Description: As a lighting design studio, most of our composite works and installations involve collaboration with various metal, glass and other craft artisans across the country. Combining traditional crafts with modern fabrication techniques and materials has been the core process for us to build our works. Since most of our products have different combinations of metal, glass, wood, the processes on each material vary. With regards to glass the studio explores two forms of production processes: blown glass, blown either by hand or lathe machine, and casted glass, where raw glass is melted and shaped into slabs used for lighting or glass furniture.

Inspiration: Glass is an integral material for decorative lighting. It creates unique shadows when lit and the material has the ability to give a very rich colour. Through our glass casting process, we are able to create a version of glass which looks like slabs of frozen ice and is very unique to the process.

Sustainability: Glass is an infinitely recyclable material. Waste glass can be melted down and reshaped into a new product. Moreover, our works use natural brass and copper for the frames, which are also recyclable. In terms of social sustainability, we work with artisans from Firozabad, in Agra, providing employment and skilling opportunities. We are also in the process of setting up a school in Mumbai where artisans can learn hotglass techniques for glass blowing.

Old Stones Talk Again

Heritage Properties

Old Stones Talk Again

Aman Nath

Rather than complain about the paths history inevitably forges—where some get acclaim and others get ruined—in whichever era we are born, we should consider ourselves fortunate to be alive in body and spirit. For me, the mid-20th century was a great era to observe where India and its crafts were placed and how we all slowly grew out of the spell of the “phoren-made” by the end of our adolescence.

But before that, to first understand how seriously all things indigenous were threatened or made extinct by India’s colonization by the British, a look at history and some of the facts can be quite revealing. What began somewhat as a side-battle of Plassey, in 1757, between the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies in the defence of his lands against the British East India Company, was soon to become a scenario of greed and aggrandizement within a century. In 1858, India came to be directly administered by the British Crown. A whole process of Indian patronage becoming embarrassed or even ashamed of its tastes led to the blind emulation of European architecture, led by a few good architects but mainly engineers and draughtsmen who did not represent the best of their traditions. The Gothic married the Indo-Islamic to give birth to the IndoSaracenic hybrid, best suited for railway stations and functional public buildings. In the process, many of our grand building traditions slipped away and were finally lost. Fortunately, the temples of India carried some of the craft patronage but the toll on crafts used by individuals was very great. If you think of the recent legacy that 565 royal houses and thousands of zamindari estates and jagirs, which comprised 40 per cent of pre-Independence India and 23 per cent of its population, left behind in the last three centuries, there is little of our artistry and tradition in the building crafts that have been carried forward. Very few residential buildings leave us proud of India. With the onslaught of tourism, many of the palaces and forts began to play out of the European model and use Indian fabrics and objects to attract discerning travellers. They didn’t want to see or live out a repetition of their familiar styles. This bonus still persists, as more and more Heritage Hotels become showcases of India’s best crafts.

A site on the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Padmanabhapuram Palace in Tamil Nadu (owned and maintained by the Government of Kerala), the first seat of the rulers of Travancore, predates the colonial period. Built between 1550 and 1750, it displays the most spectacular indigenous craft and building skills. Seven years before the decisive Battle of Plassey, the Palace intuitively shied away into itself, as if it had heard the death knell. With a plinth of the local coastal laterite stone, it is built entirely out of timber and clay. The Palace’s 14 purposes of usage, which are now highlighted—the entrance porch and reception halls, on to the living quarters, dining hall and kitchen, spaces for rituals and prayers, the armoury, entertainment and dance halls, mansions, palaces—all make for stunning need-based spaces. The craftsmanship adorns where necessary, without any hint of excess or decadence.

A similar random but more modest example in the far north of India would be the Stok Palace at Leh, perched on a cliff of earthy mountains. Built completely by local artisans with a full understanding of extreme weather conditions, it uses the warmth of mud for its adaptability and wood for its flexibility to weather. Frescoes from 1820 onwards show no alien influences, with no inferiority complexes that harbour a compulsion to borrow from all those sea-faring nations who influenced our buildings to an irreversible degree, which now seem beyond repair. Danish architecture in Tranquebar, Portuguese in Calicut and Goa, French in Pondicherry (now called Puducherry) and Karikal, Dutch in Kochi, not to mention the British all over the subcontinent, intimidated India out of its building strength, possibly forever.

Where has that science of carpentry, once proudly called “taccusastra,” gone today? Who will teach again the formulae, site selection, orientations, governing proportions, scale dimensions—in fact the whole genetic code which relates to the availability of timber lengths, their thickness and strength in relation to the needs of specific regions, the steeply sloping roofs related to the run-off rate of the rain, as well as the lower heat retention of terracotta tiles? When will our patrons and architects of today rise to the occasion to look deep within the vernacular traditions?

But we can still hark back to better days with hope for the future. In Kerala, where dexterity, skill and restraint are balanced in equal measure, or in Pondicherry, where the French brought some simplicity to the Tamil design excess, it is quite easy even today to restore or replicate the old. The new cannot be told from the old. In Kerala’s wooden grilles, which screen off spaces but let the breeze pass, there is much to learn from and adapt. Throughout India, wood-working traditions are still found to be vibrant, such as the khatamband tradition of intricately carved ceilings, which Shah-i-Hamadan had brought to Kashmir from Persia and which now continues to flourish in its mechanized form, whereby 2,000 pieces can be made in a day. Once a purely luxury item, khatamband ceilings are more widely used today. It is as if the geometric-patterned, marble-inlaid floors of the Mughals are now on the ceilings too!

From my own experience, in the course of the whole Neemrana adventure to revitalize some 30 properties in 18 states, it was thrilling to find Gyarsi Lalji of Jaipur, who had retired from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda after teaching the art of true fresco buono painting, or avayish, on wet lime plaster. We used this process for the dados and floors of the older wings at Neemrana Fort-Palace. It was amazing to see how lime was filtered three times and applied in layers and then burnished with an agate stone. In Pondicherry, we discovered that a similar finish was achieved by grinding seashells, applied with plaster of Paris and then polished with coconut oil.

I feel that if there is sufficient interest and research done, the passion to revive crafts bears fruit. Craftspeople in India can rejuvenate the lost skills of other building crafts also, which were not necessarily practised by their forefathers. With new, forward-looking generations, who are also keen to look back under the layers of the past, there is much hope in revivalism, into which the strengths of the 21st century can breathe new life.

Fateh Prakash Palace, Rajasthan Studio: Abhikram Architects

Description: Over a century old, the four-storeyed Fateh Prakash Palace overlooks Lake Pichola, forming a part of the Palace Complex. A large Durbar hall, or royal court, was located on the third floor. Its main arrival level was converted into a banquet hall. Its corridors, auxiliary spaces and meeting rooms, which were long ago converted into living quarters, were now converted into suites on the third and fourth floors. A restaurant next to the banquet hall (facing the lake) and a Crystal Gallery on the top floor were some other additions.

Inspiration: Every space and element had a story to tell about the materials and the evolution of their appropriate use over many centuries. The old furniture and electrical fixtures were restored and the original heritage chandeliers in the Durbar hall provided inspiration for the design of new crystal chandeliers. The paintings provided the basis for the colour palette and, overall, the pairing of furniture and electrical fixtures was done to balance the ambience of a traditional palace with contemporary needs.

Sustainability: The scale of the space and the calibre of detailing required led to the use of extremely simplified methods and mechanisms. Restoration and reuse of old furniture and electrical fixtures, and the local manufacture of new ones, helped cut down the costs to a large extent.

The House of MG, Gujarat Studio: House of MG

The House of MG is the first and largest adaptive reuse project in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The ancestral family of the current owners have had a significant influence on the city and are acknowledged to have introduced India to architectural modernism, through Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, whom they invited to design many of the city’s premier institutions. This exposure ensured a contemporary yet cohesive approach in the design philosophy that relied on the family’s strong cultural roots and Gandhian ideology, combined with a global outlook and sensibility. The emphasis was on using local materials, local talent and personal aesthetics that were honed over years of growing up in an environment that put huge emphasis on arts and culture. This stands out in an era of aspirational luxury and is evident in the authenticity of the outcome. The furniture and textiles are made locally and the staff is hired from the city or from the neighbouring villages. The interior decoration is also formed along local themes, derived either from Islamic motifs seen in the (famous) mosque on the other side of the street or from Vaishnava religious art, such as the Mata ni Pachhedi tradition of hand-painted textiles. All aspects of the property tell a story, articulated on signboards for the benefit of guests. The intangible aspects of the adaptive reuse play a big role in highlighting the identity of the place as a former residence of a cultured Gujarati family.