RAY BARN 2020-23 POST NATURAL INDIPEDENT, ABSTRACT,2023 WOVEN STORIES 2022 THROUGH FRAMES_NONSCHOOL 2021 HOUSE OF COURTS 2021 SEAFLUX 2020 MUSINGS RESIDENCE 2020 PARALLELS 2020-21 FALLEN CHURCH,ITLY 2020 PLAY+NARRATION 2019 WOMEN’S CLUB 2018 FILM ARCHIVE CENTRE 2017 ONE FOR SOUL QUEST?
Summer intern at “DICRC: Design innovation and crafts resource centre ” marchjune ‘16
In the research project:“Vernacular Furniture of North-west, India”
Internship at PVDRS, A’bad, may-aug’17
Interiors of a satellite home.
Volunteer at VSSM NGO, A’badmarch-may’18
Worked in advocacy department to understand lifestyle and concerns of nomads, Worked on building lakes and educating farmers on how to store water
Worked as teaching assistant at CEPT Uni ‘19
Volunteer for ‘Ahmedabad- commons’: Architecture for all ‘19
Volunteer for ‘trees of ahmedabad’ june’20 for Mapping trees and the stories around, Worked at Rayirth Studio, A’bad. june’18june’20 Interiors of a Rami residences, Shantam and The sheth house
Worked as architect at Studio Sangath,A’bad, june’20-oct’21 Interiors for Nalanda University, Mehra house, Patel Estate and Nandi hills villa
Co-founded ‘ray barn’ a furniture and object production barn, A’bad 2021-2022
Work as creative director, as a designer, developing visual identity, curating shoots along with managing sales and marketing
Worked as an exhibition designer on ‘Woven stories of Rajen’ Curating textiles and paintings, designing systems and managing the execution,Oct 2022 collaborating and parallelly developing personal project since aug’19
Ray barn, a furniture and object production house or barn. The place vouch for tough details, easy on the eye. Barn is a harbour for earth’s domesticated creations, that work in cahoots with men and enable them to operate above the primitive. Independence and universality achieved by hammering through the ill-set mundane, rewiring the slapdash bent scarred into the locale; our attempt is to bring precision into practice on every scale we touch.
And we like things real. We grew up with real things- things you can touch, things you can see and be with. Things that become a part of you and every inch becomes an area of study, from colour to crack.There’s a hidden joy in touching materials and seeing pleasing shapes. We consider every piece we make an opportunity to forge an instrument that melds the two and becomes one complete experience. Our attempt is to bring a superior grade of finish and precision married with comfort into the mainstream. In that light, we’ve had to re-look, re-organize and re-invent processes that describes furniture making as we know it.
Seeing what we make ending up in new homes is a joy in itself. It makes the effort seem complimentary and affirms the direction in which we are headed. Earth takes home a piece of itself. -From us https://www.instagram.com/raybarn_/
I bole in woods
| layers of thoughts in the process of designing
| the studio rebelled through industrial production process and started shaping designs on our home terrace, after multiple prototyping with many hands and brains. I would call this right here is the best place of learning
| phases of process from material procuring to seeing the material shape with local knowledge
| to setting the visuals of the company, to branding and marketing all done under 2 brains and 4 feet..
| The Ash A three pedestals of varying widths and characteristic edges. Two bidirectional surfaces wrap around the disc of staged marble that all in all poses to be a rather centre defining piece.
| cubola close companion of the plateu, yet a complete piece in itself
| The bole is a neat example of minimal seating solution, taking into the account both comfort and elegance. The knots of a tree realised in a back of the chair with a stately seat encompassed in a minimal frame
| Magma, is mounted on an ashen base, magma is a blend of simplistic forms and curves, that eventually describe a singular, comfortable seating area.
| Magma rises and falls, giving rise to back and backless seating.
| from visualizations to reality
AN ABSTRACT FOR POST NATURAL PROGRAM, MADRID,2023
‘A mother didn’t have to worry- she had 10 in-house caretakers for every baby. Each would go from one set of arms to another. It was amazing being either in the field or in the kitchen, just seeing this constant flow of people sometime stirring the pot on the stove and next minute holding the baby. I’m convinced if we survive, this the way to future’ said by Helena Norberg-Hodge in the podcast ‘Our Ancient Futures’.
As I addressed my intent to study food cultures, it’s important for me to search for an area wherein I could strongly find a relevance- something that was connected to societal and cultural values. Belonging to a culture where one sees the mango being used in various forms— as pure, liquid elixir (aamras) in the summer, as pickles for the year remaining; from seeds as mouth fresheners to its bark for furniture and so on. Such is the ancestral wisdom that keeps the kitchen circular. Any form of waste always found new life. An intuitive understanding of what was being consumed allowed house- holds to make informed and creative decisions that reduced waste significantly. Additionally, as one looks deeper and tries to draw parallels, she sees a collective wisdom- the local know-how passed down from our ancestors in an act of play or through stories. It was this bond between the young and the elderly of the house that built these foundations of life. Vandana Shiva stated rather amusingly, ’we should have a grandmother’s institute all around’ in the documentary ‘Economics of Happiness’, a compilation by Helena (quoted above) addressing the effects of globalization and the urgency of localization, about how food plays a vital role in contemplating every problem we face today. This source affirmed the direction in which I was headed and aligned me with small and big parts of this sphere of information around food systems.
On the other end- which in my observation is linked to food in the culture I live in- is how food habits and cuisines developed over the years with social structures, namely the caste system. The most elite castes controlling access to land and grain. They developed levels of food in response to social and “spiritual” status, which speaks a lot about religious practices shaping a way of living through diet. This again has roots in location specific knowledge and the wisdom of traditional cultures being carry- forwarded. An insight into this mapping could open up new dynamics where one could learn from and know exactly what to devise for a better food economy.
Hence, to begin with, one could question more broadly, through research and re looking, to allow it to shape into a more niche domain. This study could be an attempt of:
1.A search of Food system around religious practices, hence mapping conscious buying, maintaining agendas becomes a result of a wisdom grown over years. Their household manage waste along with health quite wisely. E.g Jain community skipping vegetables on some days and eating pluses. This do have religious values attached but more than that it comes from knowing the nutritious values and the environmental consciousness. Can tracing the historical structures of food through caste help us here? Can the research take us to the grassroots of the way we grow our food to knowing where does it come from? This could lead us to the 2nd phase of study.
2. Where does our food come from? Tracing my potato— a parallel investigation along the way.What does the food transport look like? The Import-Export chain? What is being localized? And what needs to be?
3.Which crops grow in this climate? Can we dig into the history of certain plants and their cycles in a particular region?
4.Through that can we touch upon the seed conspiracy? As Vandana Shiva stated in her recent movie ‘food is a weapon, when you control food, you control society and when you control seed you control life on earth.’
5. Slightly offset study of a mapping of farmers market and its dialogue with direct consumers. Addressing decentralization, leaning into small businesses going global does help local food economy and agro-biodiversity.
6. The search is put to rest for a while I let the life of this community affect me. An Informal study around the topic of family structure and relations amongst people developing the local fabric hence environment.
This left me with a thought. What is the role of a designer, of a creative service here which could urgently attend and bring design to a befitting place. This allows us to share this fundamental human need, a deep love we’re all looking for. Can this attempt of understanding social cohesion bring us closer to our local identity and the self. This investigation won’t preach the idea of revamping obscurities that lack amicability with modern times. No matter how much we state that building local systems and small communities is the answer, but staying small and isolated isn’t the way. Taking part in an exchange, being in touch with diversity, being challenged in your worldview and yet learning could be the way forward.
Chareiveti, Chareiveti… journey on, journey on… weaving the eternal fabric of life.
“I do my work because I love doing it.” Till the very end, Rajen was relentless in his pursuit of art, but try pointing out to Rajen his pivotal contributions to the field and he would look amused and proclaim, “Art is a journey of which you don’t know the end. My process is for me, not others.” This retrospective is as much about Rajen Chaudhari, the artist-weaver, as it is about contemporary India. An India, where threads of thoughts from 3000 years past can sit and converse with ideas of today. An India, where the everyday quotidian and the sublime are interwoven, into an ever-evolving tapestry of life. Unfettered by the dogmas of the world, Rajen singularly dedicated his life to a weaver’s loom, weaving into it his voice and vision of joyful abundance. In an era when the world got busy chasing the new, and identity became a politics of being different, Rajen unabashedly wove into his art the multitudes of cultures and times that marked his horizon. To see Rajen at work, was like witnessing poetry in action. All in a moment he could be painting, singing, and throwing a shuttle in a loom... life’s colours emerging as they were lived.Never old, ever young, Rajen and his art remains forever relevant, inviting us to enjoy each moment, without ever getting lost in the din of glorious futures. With a dance in his footsteps and a smile on his lips, Rajen would often quote Osho, saying, “live totally and live fully so that each moment becomes golden and your whole life becomes a series of golden moments”.
This retrospective is a reflection of the intensity and depth that can be inherent in the visibly simple and joyous act of creation.
https://vimeo.com/769034992/9b2c02a438
I view of nature themeed wall hanging, his paintings translated to wall hanging
I mock ups to check the curation and flow of colours
| people from all, walks of life connect to Rajen’s art.
| It’s special to see how children connect with art and the curiosity that Rajen’s work arouses in them.
I the canvas of artist-weaver Rajen Chaudhari’s work at Le’ corbusier’s aatma house
I observing social, cultural and environmental surrounding through following movies
This workshop will focus on imagining the unseen spaces of three movies by the directors: Micheal Radford, Satyajit Ray, and Abbas Kiarostami. Through this exercise, the participants will delve into different questions of architecture - poetics of space, spatial rituals, cultural meanings, historical contexts, climate, landscape, and materials.
Abbas Kiarostami said: “I’ve often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us unless it’s inside a frame”. Through four steps - observing, reflecting, drawing, and imagining - the workshop aims to, not only uncover the spaces portrayed in the movies, but also to discover and speculate the unseen spaces through the frame.
I mind map; drawing through frames of pather pancholi
I study of people and its proportional relationship around the built
I frame study of movie IL POSTINO, and meticulously collecting data from backgrounds
I counting foot steps to get the gage of building’s scale and proportions
An old house’s master bedroom to be refurbished,taking the inspiration from the language of old house and yet blending with modern characters. The project revolved around customising every little inch of the room from flooring to handles.
The site is nestled in the vicinity of an industrial area, so we made sure to play on the ground and let the green isolate.With a vista at it’s prime, We tried radial clustering of functions with the same axis where living spaces and the deck open towards a horse ring. Treating each function as a separate mass, binding with open passages and courts. And then allowing the forms to be modulated vertically.The roof, for instance, was a key element to explore its architectonics and enhancing the form by little gestures. We use the word work-environment, its a sensitive word when one thinks of it as whole. Blue and green codes running on the screen like a line of ants,keyboard sounds, our fingers and eyes not in the control of us but more of this objects in front. In such a time and kind of work the IT offices deal with, it becomes important to let their eyes flow around, look at the sun setting while they choose to look up from their screens, find their friends chatting over tea by the window, knowing which code is hard for a fellow to crack, or which meme he laughed loud on. Cubicals can’t an answer to the new ways of work, where as pushing people towards walls is equally sad. Hence seaflux opens the vision, set the workstation away from the walls, allowing free physical and psychological movement. Taking conference in the front by the window, imagining it to be more like a multipurpose space being used for lunch time to enjoy endless doze of teas overlooking greens. This idea of liberating from the walls continue in the way partitions are being treated; deliberately offsetting from ceiling, leaving cross junctions open so that spaces can breathe and feel like one.
| living room and deck view from hourse ring pathway
I seaflux, completed in 2021
‘The wall was happy that the woman was facing it. But damn laptop in between had hijacked her gaze’-a friend
We use the word work-environment, its a sensitive word when one thinks of it as whole. Blue and green codes running on the screen like a line of ants,keyboard sounds, our fingers and eyes not in the control of us but more of this objects in front. In such a time and kind of work the IT offices deal with, it becomes important to let their eyes flow around, look at the sun setting while they choose to look up from their screens, find their friends chatting over tea by the window, knowing which code is hard for a fellow to crack, or which meme he laughed loud on. Cubicals can’t an answer to the new ways of work, where as pushing people towards walls is equally sad. Hence seaflux opens the vision, set the workstation away from the walls, allowing free physical and psychological movement. Taking conference in the front by the window, imagining it to be more like a multipurpose space being used for lunch time to enjoy endless doze of teas overlooking greens. This idea of liberating from the walls continue in the way partitions are being treated; deliberately offsetting from ceiling, leaving cross junctions open so that spaces can breathe and feel like one.
‘built for both joint family living and solitude’ carves out a pristine choreography of spaces for a family of six to grow as individuals yet stay connected
Mehra house is a residence of 3 generations living together. They carry memories of their old tower like house, hence it was an attempt to recreate the same in a modern way, compact but yet a versatile home. In other ways its a house of many staircases, as it connects to many different levels, crosses through bridges, going up somewhere and in some parts looking down, giving all kind of playful volumes to suit each activity. It is experimental how in some parts the spaces make one feel like an apartment arrangement and how the treatment of center changes this feeling, volumes are like unpredictable turns. This shifting volumes vertically create some negatives where additional functions have been placed, like chanting room, home office and utility shafts. However the space is a mystery box, reveals as you go. The house yet makes sure that it feels serene and let everyone merge. Dining space being a main bridge, it is spaced in such a way that all three generations can overlap their activities. It over looks the living space , veranda, while feel at most connected to food cooking in the kitchen, be aware of children playing upstairs and overlooking big neem trees outside at the corner. All private spaces are branched out around th staircase shaft. As the space is playful in terms of its levels and volumes, the interiors are hence been kept most basic and simple out of oak. One experiences a gray box with a little terracotta band on top from outside, it travels inside in the granite floor keeping all walls white, as light as possible, hence oak adds to rest of the lightness leaving a habitant with sense of a adventure and calmness at the same time.
https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/an-ahmedabad-home-built-both-for-joint-family-living-and-solitude/ https://www.archdaily.com/975588/mehra-musings-residence-studio-sangath
I top view showing the adjoining built
I The view from the master bedroom, which gazes out at the kids’ rooms while being visually tied to the dining and living space
I vertical connection amongst all 3 floors
I The chanting room, and the connecting bridge, receives the first rays of daylight.
I The view from the living room showcases the visual connectivity between the different levels and the interplay of various hues of natural light.
I mleko coffee shop, from barista’s point of view
There has been constant flow of interior projects, the one which directs you to deal it more commercially and ome with tight budget along with tight timelines. Yet to discover unknown trajectories and keep developing new approaches is what ‘parallels’ is showing.
A coffee shop in an old house amongst a busy society and its challenges of solve previous mess and bring more clean yet simple aesthetics. This project has been a good study to understand interiors in public realm. Every time I witness it does show how people behave in a space like this to how one needs to think of maintenance in depth.
An old house’s master bedroom to be refurbished,taking the inspiration from the language of old house and yet blending with modern characters. The project revolved around customising every little inch of the room from flooring to handles.
Develping furnitures by keeping textiles as its core was an intresting to get to know basics of weaves ans quilts.
I Mleko a coffee shop enhanced only through simple lighting and planners following serene Japanese aesthetics. The project came with super tight budget and a time line hence only small and simple gestures was the way.
I An old house’s master bedroom to be refurbished,taking the inspiration from the language of old house and yet blending with modern characters. The project revolved around customising every little inch of the room from flooring to handles.
I developed a bed back with local ‘khatla’ weaving technique and have a lose quilt buttoned on the wooden frame. The idea was to have looseness in character at the same time bringing textiles crafts at front
I Terrazzo flooring in extended balcony, the form derived by the activity of owners as they would use this space to laze in winter mornings and indulge into weekend gatherings
I Terrazzo flooring exploration, using the wastage of Indian stone industry meanwhile also developing new ways to communicate with artisans in their language
I A very first project- an office of a friend. The process had an influence of paimio sanatorium, as I was studying Aino and Alvar Aalto’s interiors during the same time
Brief: Chiesa Diruta is a catholic church built in Grottole (MT) in the 15th century, in order to host the local community of clergymen and to become one the most important churches of the bishopric. It suffered a lot of damages due to earthquakes, fires, and building issues so it was soon abandoned. Participants of this competition were asked to reuse this space as a Concert Hall/A performance space. Is it possible to bring back to life one of the most important religious buildings of Southern Italy?
This building has been standing tall in the middle of the town for centuries now as a symbol of their church, community gathering space of their previous generations. This project is an attempt to give a rebirth to this abandoned space by letting the community own this space once again. The design approach was to see this building as it’s 24 hour cycle and not just for the concert hours which would happen once in a while. This intention guides to a major design decision to dissolve concert hall into amphitheater,which comes with many flexibility during performances and when there is no performance it becomes a hangout place for town people. Other interventions of roof and walls slightly get stitched through wire mash to the robust stone keeping it visually fragile. It is with the intention of making the building more breezy and porous. A metal bridge becomes a connecting point between the main entry at the extreme corner and the street, entering through a dark tall tower like space and slowly the curiosity gets answered as you move forward to box office cum gallery space and so on. From terracotta red terrazzo in the interior spaces to locally available stone on theatre steps, intention was to paint the floor as a canvas and keep everything else as it is to enhance the broken beauty and perforated metal roof covered with greens brings filtered light to add its own play of light when there is no play going on. A small bar counter and gift shop take place near the beautiful balcony and gets extended to the balcony as a small cafe in daytime. The hidden door in the stitched wall at the back becomes an exit point after performance and always remains as entry gate for daily access for town people. This project could have a possibility to become an active breathing spot amongst the narrow streets of Grottole town.
I church standing tall in uphill
I top view of chiesa diruta, showing the adjoining built
1. The sense of cosiness one feels under a tree foliage 2. The sense of community that the ‘Ghats’ allow, steps becoming key element 3.fragiles greens being a roof against robust ruins 4. feeling of emergences in the one move explores volumes and sense of arrival
Seating which emerges from the floor and goes all around the building and take it over creating different levels to let you sit, lean, walk, jump from level to level and can also make you sit quietly when some concert is happening. Amphitheatre answers lot of need off today’s experimental performance art.
‘Play being a theater’ and ‘narration being a museum.’
Mandu carries a rich heritage with it for centuries now. This Project is an attempt to add a new life to this ruined building by attracting visitors through museum and theatre for locals to let them own the building as well. The design approach was a constant effort to enhance the beauty of the ruined site by giving a strong narration through materials and different elements. The idea was to exaggerate the feeling of being an ant surrounded by ruins, hence to multiple this feeling, the theater was taken down and mirror facade was proposed. The aesthetics of material was terrazzo in interior spaces to china mosaic for outdoor spaces, from brass rods to hold the display panels ending at slick teak patti to Gond art telling stories on the ceiling, from white stucco covering few parts and leaving few to visualize the actual walls, to maze of arches covered with white stucco- soft enough for one to lean on it, from sepia colored customized bricks taking over all the ruined stone walls to baobab in the center saying I’m the tallest of all, from almost passing through monotonous shades and then seeing dull yellow almost like a dried haldi on the huge walls along the side of theatre steps, from water-body in the central courtyard to a theatre space reminds me of step-wells, the journey ends here on the steps of theatre and with the water of thoughts. (a group project)
I site plan expressing its strong context
The brief of studio was to propose a public place which becomes a focal point for the community around and for the tourists. Main design driver was to create a spectacle yet being the utilitarian.
In the time we are living right now, where women have been celebrated and its changing how we are perceived now, its changing how we celebrate on the table what we bring to the table. Still In the society where we live , women’s leisure have been taken as secondary and fragmented. As a woman and a designer I believe that there is requirement of a public realm, an open canvas to let women feel connected let them bloom together, while they spend their leisure time. The women’s club can be an asset to the society to let the women-hood grow. Therefore the space planning has been done in way that ground feels more inviting, and a part of the outside. It is a lounge for women to eat, sit, talk, read and be aware of the activities happening in the club. The ground accommodates a cafe, an amphitheatre, open library, toilets and rest is just kept as sitting areas, while other levels accommodates spaces for a retail shop, a lecture room/a multi-purpose space, a gym with an adjoin yoga space, a salon and a space to let them ‘pour out their body’ and feel relived. The circular form allowed free smooth movement and bring people together as well as separate when the activity demanded on upper levels. As if the chambers are metaphor of ‘a tree,’ freeing the ground around the trunk while expanding the foliage above as required. The materiality of the space being a pink terrazzo adding the punk, while the rest of the canvas is being kept simple white walls with glass ribs as partitions. Interiors have been kept subtly luxurious yet minimal,. evoking a modest feeling. This is how project tries to create a balance between the binary of ‘spectacle yet utilitarian’.
I ground floor plan showing the park and its seating formations
I women at the indulgence park
| A previous proposal and its initial impressions as bath house for women
| ‘A metaphor of a tree’: Illustrations translating the idea of keeping the ground as free canvas to let women lounge, while the activities were taken on upper level. It explains a need of a circular geometry to let women feel free, united and lively.
A place will promote Indie film industries and its films as a medium of art. It will be a social hub for the film enthusiasts and academicians in this media. Hence, this studio attempts to interpret the correlation between public place and the ideas of collective presence in a civic world. The vision of the project was to showcase the world of Indie films through the layers of ‘behind the scenes’, having a lens of attempting a project as a set more then a building. Where the language of set is described through temporariness, modularity pre fabrication and packed up. The characteristic of a set being less rigid and more flexible, less permanent and more temporary, materials were such. Slotted MS angles, M.S box sections, cort-en steel, Fiberglass panels, PEB panels and oak wood to give a contrasting visual texture. Since space follows modularity as a concept, it plays with angular grid as main design driver. It allows spaces to be viewed from a different perspective, some where blocking the views, else where directing a way to open up towards spillovers. Functions of the Centre have yet been arranged in a similar manner, temporary being galleries and screening pods to permanent being theater and audiovisual library. A cafe being a mediator which binds both the binary. The life of the space is where there are gathering nodes, where people indulge into discussing films, and see the making; behind the scenes actually being translated in the space.
According to site context in respect to gates and traffic the angle was initiated, also the intention of designing a space from the concept of ‘behind scenes’, angular geometry allow space to slowly reveal like a set as one moves and it became a modular grid.
Here the other task I
I Above is me uncomfortably comforting myself with all the moods of what my character would do. To left is us play with a stick and trying to build strong relationship with other fellow performers for better expressions.
I AATMAN THEATRE, from the play ‘rumour has it’; for breaking through body constrains so as our brain’s, as small as like training your brain to separate information and events to be able to see it clearly, to develop more effective gestures, to simply being honest and how it is to be in a group of people and play.
garbed was to meticulously look at set-production part along with costume design.
While one side of me worked for food and continued the sort of human centric practice, the other which I call ‘the one for soul’ continued the aspiration of other areas of Work. Which then branched out from working with NGOs to build lakes and engaging with the farmers to doing a tree mapping of the city to building homes for handicapped dogs. It developed my strong relationship with community and non human beings. This exchange of knowledge and really seeing the depth of its importance to the way we design today is important insight I got through these areas.
The other part of mine, which has been an intuitive interest, is how our own body involvement can take the major role in the way we presume the information and act upon It. Hence what’s best way in understanding that then being involved in theatre activity and really developing this unsaid bonds with our body and the world around.
I VSSM NGO; worked on the project of building lakes to bring the water level up and educating farmer on new methods of storing water (2018)
I TREES OF AHMEDABAD, mapping trees to preserve heritage trees and the stories around it. The project helped to expand on the areas like health of a tree, certain species and its kind of a growth along with maintaining and planning
Below is 524 mapped trees in a span of 6 months
I FREEDOM PARK; Building shelter for handicapped dogs. Here before building a small jungle for dogs, this monsoon we dug a canal so the rain water can be stored well for next year plantation. Below images is me building homes for dogs to protect them from harsh summer of Gujarat.
Can we understand our material sources better? How does the value chain of chair looks like?
What is a position of the designer and the way industry make the designed products? What stages needs to be inter-wined?
How do we build better? People’s relations with local materials ?
Can tracing through social structures, caste systems and their religious practices have an impact on our food cultures and the way we grow our food today?
Ancient tools and the idea of craftsmanship-- How can it help us combat climate crisis we phase today ?
Is this very idea of education is really helping towards taking right and effective steps?
Or what we really need to do is to stay in our societies, observe local wisdoms and be activist to make an effective change we can see?
What our import export chain looks like? What needs to localised ?