Nakashima at NID

Nakashima at NID

The exhibition that explores the Nakashima legacy at NID by showcasing and interpreting the furniture collection that Nakashima had designed for NID.

Nakashima at NID 21st October-21st November 2016 National Institute of Design Paldi, Ahmedabad 380007, India nakashima@nid.edu nakashima.nid.edu Designed by Vineet Gedam Guided by Mona Prabhu Set in Adobe Garamond Pro designed by Robert Slimbach and Frutiger designed by Adrian Frutiger

Nakashima at NID

The exhibition that explores the Nakashima legacy at NID by showcasing and interpreting the furniture collection that Nakashima had designed for NID.

Nakashima at NID

“A tree is our most intimate contact with nature.�

CONTENTS

Foreword by Pradyumna Vyas

01 Foreword by Mira Nakashima

02 About George Nakashima

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Nakashima at NID: An Introduction

Nakashima at NID: 1964 and the Roots of Modern design in India

The Design Collection and Archives

The Nakashima Collection at NID

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19 Discovering Nakashima: The Symposium

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Nakashima at NID

Foreword I am very pleased that we are able to produce this landmark exhibition celebrating the great designer and wood worker George Nakashima who has played a vital role in the history of the National Institute of Design’s formative year. Nakashima’s legacy is alive even today, within the NID’s curriculum, the pedagogical approach of its furniture design department and the very ethos of NID. Gautam and Gira Sarabhai, the visionary founders of NID played an instrumental role in bringing George Nakashima to the institute and in doing so a legacy of modern design was created which this exhibition is attempting to illuminate.

The National Institute of Design (NID) is internationally acclaimed as one of the foremost multi-disciplinary institutions in the field of design education and research. The Business Week, USA has listed NID as one of the top 25 European & Asian programmes in the world. The institute functions as an autonomous body under the department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. NID has been declared ‘Institution of National Importance’ by the Act of Parliament, by virtue of the National Institute of Design Act 2014.

Pradyumna Vyas Director National Institute of Design

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Foreword

My father, George Nakashima’s, first encounter with Indian culture, spirituality and materiality was when he first went to Pondicherry in 1936 to supervise the first reinforced concrete building in India for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He was then a member of Antonin Raymond’s architectural office in Tokyo, who had received the commission to build a dormitory called Golconde for disciples, and he volunteered to supervise its building.

He became so dedicated to the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo that he received the name “Sundarananda” (he who delights in beauty) on his birthday in May of 1938. Even though he left Pondicherry in 1939 to be with his family (and start his own in 1941) in the United States, the deep experience and Ashram name guided him his entire life.

In the words of Sri Aurobindo, “Beauty is the special divine Manifestation in the physical as Truth is in the mind, Love in the heart, Power in the vital. Supramental beauty is the highest divine beauty manifesting in Matter.”

In the words of the Mother, “Let beauty be your constant ideal.

The beauty of the soul, the beauty of sentiments, the beauty of thoughts, the beauty of the action, the beauty in the work — so that nothing comes out of your hands which is not an expression of pure and harmonious beauty…And the Divine Help shall always be with you.”

It was, I believe, the powerful memory of his life-altering experience in India which made him eager to again engage in building something beautiful in India at the first invitation of Gira Sarabhai in 1950. This was followed by a hand-written proposal to the Director of Industries and Commerce in 1956 asking for information on machinery and materials available, and finally a twelve-copy letterreceived from the Indian Government in September 1965 approving his “technical collaboration” with

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Nakashima at NID

NID for 5 years with royalties and expenses paid in rupees or timber in exchange for use of his designs and training people in the manufacture of furniture. He had already made his first trip to Ahmedabad in the fall of 1964, and I was fortunately able to leave graduate school in Tokyo to travel with him, to meet the Eameses at work, and to taste India for the first time.

After the agreement was reached, he traveled to NID several times with my mother and brother, hosted very graciously by members of the Sarabhai Family. The set of drawings in our archives all appear to be dated 1966, but I am not sure whether he was able to build that many models while he was in India or actually sent over “knocked-down” furniture as he proposed in his 1956 letter. I found an undated price list from NID listing 34 different Nakashima designs, withan abbreviated introduction and excerpt from “notes on care” and some photographyidentical to our 1962 USA catalog, which is the basis for our work to this day: In George Nakashima’s 1973 catalog, he asserted that our work “…is more than an expression. It is the stubborn ideal of the Karma Yogin” and his furniture is certainly a manifestation of the Karma Yoga, the Integral Yoga, which he experienced at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

About half of the items produced in India appear to be made nearly exactly the same as those made in America, excepting that they are in Rosewood, while the other half were designed and made especially for India.The Nakashima experiment in India was unfortunately very short-lived, and we are very glad that some examples of the collaboration between George Nakashima and the Design Institute of India still survive for us to see in this exhibit.

Mira Nakashima

Foreword

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Nakashima at NID

About George Nakashima

Source: www.nakashimawoodworker.com

G

eorge Nakashima was born in Spokane, Washington in 1905 and grew up in the forests of the Olympic Peninsula. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in architecture at the University of Washington and a Master’s from MIT in 1930, as well as the Prix Fontainebleau from L’Ecole Americaine des Beaux Arts in France in 1928. After spending some time in Paris, he traveled around the world and secured a job at the Antonin Raymond office in Tokyo which sent him to Pondicherry, India, where he was the onsite architect for the first reinforced concrete building in the country, Golconde, and became one of the first disciples of Sri Aurobindo.

When the war broke out, he returned to the U.S. via Tokyo where he met Marion, married in 1941 and was sent to the camps in Minidoka, Idaho in 1942 with his infant daughter, Mira. Through the sponsorship of Antonin Raymond, Nakashima came to work on his farm in Bucks County, subsequently rented a small house on Aquetong Road and

then purchased a parcel of land where he designed and built his workshop and house.

Among many awards from the AIA and other prestigious institutions, Nakashima received the Third Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor and Government of Japan in 1983 in recognition of the cultural exchange generated by the shows he produced in Japan from 1968-1988. His last show in the U.S., the retrospective “Full Circle” which opened at the American Craft Museum in New York, sponsored by the American Craft Council and curated by Derek Ostergard, marked him as a “Living Treasure” in the United States. This show returned to New Hope shortly before Nakashima’s receiving his final award, Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus, from the University of Washington one week prior to his death in June 1990.

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Nakashima at NID

Nakashima at NID An Introduction

Tanishka Kachru and Jonak Das

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eorge Nakashima came to the National Institute of Design in 1964 when it was still known as National Design Institute and it had been only three years since it was set-up in Ahmedabad with the untiring efforts of the Sarabhai family.

This was an important year, with the iconic NID building in process of being designed and built as a collaborative effort by the early design faculty led by the siblings Gira and Gautam Sarabhai and the arrival of several leading figures of the international design fraternity at the newly formed institute. The exhibition The Free Edge: George

Nakshima’s legacy at the National Institute of Design explores this moment when multiple strands of influence in the form of educational philosophies, design practices, making practices and aesthetic ideals came together to shape and mould the nascent Indian design education.

The symposium Discovering Nakashima is an attempt to uncover the importance of this historical moment and explore its relevance to the institute today. George Nakashima plays a central role in introducing an idea of design and craftsmanship

Discovering Nakashima is an attempt to uncover the importance of this historical moment and explore its relevance to the institute today.

(Opposite) Grass seated Chairs in NID Auditorium

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(Above) Mira Chairs George Nakashima, 1961

The exhibition has been in the making for over a year now and has given the curators an opportunity to explore parts of the design archive and collection.

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Nakashima at NID

that uses the traditional hand-making skills of Indian carpenter in combination with knowledge of industrial production methods.

The coming together of these (seemingly at odds) value systems in a deeply harmonious practice of woodworking is a significant contribution to what makes the NID a unique pedagogical

experiment even today. The student design competition A Celebration of Wood and the wood-joinery workshop are attempts at re-connecting a new generation of designers to these legacies and the beauty of making furniture using purely wooden joineries (without any nails or screws).

The exhibition has been in the making for over a year now and has given the curators

an opportunity to explore parts of the design archive and collection. In this process, we have not only discovered hidden furniture gems in unexplored corners of the institute, but also rediscovered the craft of making precise technical drawings by hand which yet again reinforces the value of connecting mind with body. We have also used this as an opportunity to have conversations with many ex-faculty, alumni and designers who witnessed the making

of NID in the 1960s. These conversations have greatly enriched our understanding of the historical circumstances that shaped the moment we were exploring and led us to explore micro-narratives carried in the anecdotal way of transmitting history.

Acknowledgements The project was conceived under the mentorship of NID director Pradyumna Vyas and has received his unstinting support throughout. Over the course of a year, the project has involved almost all the departments at the NID, alumni and designers without whose help the curators would have been able to achieve very little. A significant contribution towards assistance in conducting research and digitization of historic materials housed in the library was made by Dr Shreyasi Parikh and Stuti Raval. Extensive photographic research and documentation was made possible with the help of Rishi Singhal, Clifford Jeffrey, Sheik Mohammed Ishaq, Mohit Bhatia, Deepak Panda, Adira Thekkuveettil and Saurabh Srivastava of the photography design department. Research and documentation of the furniture was carried out with the help of Pravinsinh Solanki, L.C. Ujawane, Sweety Taur and students of the furniture design department. Furniture designer Gajanand Upadhyaya and ex-faculty J.A.

Panchal explained the technical qualities of the furniture, apart from sharing historical nuggets of the 1960s. Exhibition design students Sivasanjith and Usha P. alongwith cameraman Vishal helped in recording research interviews.

Most of all, the project would not have been possible without the incredible help and encouragement received from Mira Nakashima who not only gifted us a set of drawings of the furniture designed by her father for NID, but also answered all our questions patiently and infected us with her enthusiasm.

Nakashima at NID: An Introduction

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Nakashima at NID

Nakashima at NID 1964 and the Roots of Modern Design in India

Tanishka Kachru

I

n the formative years of the National Institute of Design (then called the National Design Institute) Ahmedabad, many iconic designers from Europe and the USA were invited to contribute to the intellectual and pedagogic framework and resources of the institute through workshops, designs, projects and guidance.

One of the most important designers to have thus contributed to the institute in this period was the American furniture designer George Nakashima. Nakashima was invited by Gira Sarabhai (one of the founders of the NID), who had known him since the late nineteen-forties, to work at the institute in

Ahmedabad for developing a range of contemporary wood furniture.

Nakashima came to Ahmedabad in November 1964 and spent a two-three weeks at the institute. He adapted some of his earlier designs as well as developed some pieces over here while leaving behind detailed drawings for 32 different types of furniture pieces for which he gave production rights and these were subsequently made in the institute’s wood- workshop.

The Nakashima collection has left an indelible influence in the institute, not only by the furniture resource itself, but also on the designers who worked with him in 1964.

(Opposite) Kornblut Chair, George Nakashima 1945

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Eventually, commercial production for the furniture stopped around 1975 and the period for the production rights got over, but the iconic furniture remained and since then has become an integral part of many key places of the institute life. The Nakashima collection has left an indelible influence in the institute, not only by the furniture resource itself, but also on the designers who worked with him in 1964 and in the pedagogic process of the furniture design programme, which remains one of core design programmes offered by the NID. The National Institute of Design will celebrate this association with one of the unique personalities of design, with a series of activities and events through which we can rediscover and revisit the work, life and ethos of George Nakashima, and also build new connections, through interaction and discourses.

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Nakashima at NID

The furniture made after Nakashima’s departure based on the sketches that he left behind was made with the prized Indian Rosewood, also known as Mysore Sheesham.

1964 and the Roots of Modern Design in India

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The Design Collection and Archives

Rishi Singhal and Tanishka Kachru

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he Design Collection and Archive holds one of the most important collections of objects, images and archival materials related to design in post-Independence India.

The collection includes work by designers trained at the NID as well as classics of twentieth century European and American design. The collection is a vital resource that continues to be used by students, faculty and researchers in the field of design. It is a resource for study of a variety of exemplary design products especially those produced at the NID over the last fifty years. In the formative years of the National Institute of Design (then called the National

Design Institute) Ahmedabad, many iconic designers from Europe and the USA were invited to contribute to the intellectual and pedagogic framework and resources of the institute through workshops, designs, projects and guidance.

One of the most important designers to have thus contributed to the institute in this period was the American furniture designer George Nakashima. Nakashima was invited by Gira Sarabhai (one of the founders of the NID), who had known him since the late nineteen-forties, to work at the institute in Ahmedabad for developing a range of contemporary wood furniture.

The collection includes work by designers trained at the NID as well as classics of twentieth century European and American design.

(Opposite) Grass seated Chairs, George Nakashima 1945

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(Top) Kornblut Chair The chair showcases a combination of Japanese and Indian sensibilities.

(Right) Coffee Table detail

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Nakashima at NID

(Above) Grass Seated Chairs. An iconic design from Nakashima’s repertoire, the chairs are quite strong but remarkably light.

Nakashima came to Ahmedabad in November 1964 and spent a two-three weeks at the institute. He adapted some of his earlier designs as well as developed some pieces over here while leaving behind detailed drawings for 32 different types of furniture pieces for which he gave production rights and these were subsequently made in the institute’s wood workshop.

Eventually, commercial production for the furniture stopped around 1975 and the period for the production

rights got over, but the iconic furniture remained and since then has become an integral part of many key places of the institute life. The Nakashima collection has left an indelible influence in the institute, not only by the furniture resource itself, but also on the designers who worked with him in 1964 and in the pedagogic process of the furniture design programme, which remains one of core design programmes offered by the NID.

The Nakashima collection has left an indelible influence in the institute, not only by the furniture resource itself, but also on the designers.

The Design Collection and Archives

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The Nakshima Collection at NID

Tanishka Kachru

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eorge Nakashima provided thirtytwo furniture designs for production in NID wood workshops that would be for sale. While this production was stopped in the mid1970s, the NID houses a number of furniture pieces that were produced during those years in the offices, meeting rooms and other institute space. This collection is a part of the living history of the NID and is unique in that the design are made from Indian Rosewood which is not used anywhere else for the production of Nakashima’s furniture designs. There are

four pieces in the collection which are made from teakwood that was selected

by George Nakashima and Gajanan Upadhyay during his visit in 1964. They worked on the construction of these pieces together with carpenters like Haribhai in the new wood workshop.

This collection is a part of the living history of the NID and is unique in that the design are made from Indian Rosewood which is not used anywhere else.

(Opposite) Grass seated Chair, George Nakashima 1945

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KORNBLUT CHAIR George Nakashima, 1964 Teakwood, made in NID

by George Nakshima and Gajanan Upadhyay The chair showcases a combination of Japanese and Indian sensibilities. The chair body rests lower and wider than usual seating standards of the West to allow easy assumption as well as release from a cross legged seating posture usual to Indian living habits. The carved backrest renders a character to cavities left by removal of knots from wood piece.

OTTOMAN George Nakashima, 1954 Rosewood, made in NID ca. 1965-1972 This ottoman has four simply canted turn legs supporting a slated platform for cushion.

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Nakashima at NID

GRASS SEATED CHAIR George Nakashima, 1964 Rosewood, made in NID An iconic design from Nakashima’s repertoire, this chair was first developed while he was working on a farm with only barn wood and ropes available for making furniture. It is a very strong but remarkably light chair.

MIRA CHAIR George Nakashima, 1961 Rosewood, made in NID ca. 1965-1972 First conceived as a high chair for his daughter to be able to sit at the table with family, this chair has a profiled seat that is convex at front and concave at back making it a very ergonomic chair.

The Nakashima Collection at NID

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TRESTLE TABLE George Nakashima, 1961 Teakwood, made in NID ca. 1964 The table consists of matched solid boards, with four teakwood butterfly joints. It is knock down furniture with traditional Japanese techniques.

TRESTLE TABLE George Nakashima, 1960 Rosewood, made in NID ca. 1965-1972 The table top has three butterfly keys joining two planks made of three glued planks each. The top precisely fits the base secured with pegs. This type of construction is inspired by traditional Japanese techniques.

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ROUND COFFEE TABLE George Nakashima, 1961 Rosewood, made in NID ca. 1965-1972 This table has a butterfly like cross-stretcher base and its circular top has an angled edge running through the perimeter to direct any spilling liquids away from the surrounding chairs and legs.

CABINET WITH DRAWERS George Nakashima, 1961 Rosewood, made in NID ca. 1965-1972 First conceived as a high chair for his daughter to be able to sit at the table with family, this chair has a profiled seat that is convex at front and concave at back making it a very ergonomic chair.

The Nakashima Collection at NID

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Nakashima at NID

Discovering Nakashima The Symposium

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his one-day symposium, featuring a keynote lecture by Mira Nakashima, American architect and woodworker was held at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad on October 21, 2016. It served as an opportunity for discussion and sharing views/perspectives on the work of George Nakashima in the background of emerging modern idioms in 20th century India; the value and relevance of wood as a material today; and the future of furniture design education. The symposium featured speakers who are eminent architects and leading practitioners in furniture and interior design.

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Speaker Profiles

Mira Nakashima was born in Seattle in 1942, and moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania in 1943, where her father, George Nakashima, continued his furniture-making venture by designing and building his own shop and house in 1947. She received a BA cum laude from Harvard University in 1963 and her Masters in Architecture from Waseda University in Tokyo in 1966. Mira has a brother named Kevin, four children and seven grand-children, has worked at George Nakashima Woodworkers since 1970 and married Jonathan Yarnall in 1985. She became head designer when her father died in 1990 and President when her mother Marion died in 2004. Harry N. Abrams published her book “Nature Form and Spirit� on her father’s life and legacy in 2003.

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Pradyumna Vyas has a Masters in Industrial Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. In June 2010, Vyas was conferred with an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, United Kingdom in recognition of his contributions to design education and design promotion. Since the last 25 years, he has been associated with the National Institute of Design (NID) as a faculty in the Industrial Design discipline and in April 2009, he was appointed as the Director. Vyas was invited as the jury member for the special awards screening panel at Good Design Award (G-Mark) by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion, Japan consequently in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The Symposium

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Panel 1

Gajanan Upadhyaya is an architect, educator and one of India’s pioneering furniture designers. Having joined the National Institute of Design in 1963, he had the opportunity to work with George Nakashima in 1964 and has been part of realizing the range of furniture that was prototyped and modeled then.

Upadhyaya went to train in furniture design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and practiced in Denmark from 1966 to 1974. On his return to India, he taught in the furniture design program at the NID until retirement in 1996. He continues to practice both furniture design and architecture and is currently associated with TDW, a furniture and interior design firm in Ahmedabad.

Shrikant Nivasarkar has his architectural practice in Pune and is associated with various educational and professional associations, in different capacities. He is a member of the governing council of College of Architecture- Trivandrum, & Rachana Sansad- Mumbai, member of the academic council of MIT School of Design and College of ArchitectureNavarachana University- Vadodara. He has been First Indian President of International Federation of Interior Architects/ Design (IFI), a global apex body of the profession of Interior Design, during 2007-2009, and also been executive board member International Design Alliance (2007-2009), President of Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID) during 20042006. He was a member of India Design Council, from 2009 till 2015 and is a serving member of Governing Council of National Institute of Design.

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Balkrishna V. Doshi is an architect, educator, and academician.

After initial study in Bombay, he worked with Le Corbusier in Paris (1951-1954) as senior designer, and then in India to supervise Corbusier’s projects in Ahmedabad and Chandigarh.

Professor Doshi established the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design in 1955, known for pioneering work in low-cost housing and city planning.

He also founded and designed the School of Architecture and Planning in Ahmedabad. He has received numerous international awards and honours, including Padma Shri from the Government of India.

Pankaj Vir Gupta earned a Master of Architecture at Yale University, School of Architecture, New Haven, Connecticut in 1997, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia in 1993. From 2003, he is Founding Partner of vir. mueller architects New Delhi, India.

Accolades for vir.mueller architects include the Fritz-Höger foundation for Excellence in Brick Architecture, and Fifty Under Fifty for innovators of the 21st century. Their projects include the Humayun’s Tomb Site Museum for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Institute of Information and Communication Technology for Ahmedabad University. Pankaj is appointed Professor of Architecture at University of Virginia, School of Architecture Charlottesville, Virginia in 2016, where he is s also India Coordinator of the Yamuna River Project, and was Harry S. Shure Professor of Architecture, 2011, 2014 – 2016.

The Symposium

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Panel 2

Singanapalli Balaram is Dean & founder faculty, DJ Academy of Design, Coimbatore; Emeritus Professor of CEPT University and former Chairman of Education, National institute of Design. He was part of the pioneer batch of Design teachers who started design education in India. He is a recipient of 4 patents for his innovations. He was conferred the Helen Keller award for his work for people with disabilities, and the international Ron Mace ‘design for 21st century award’ for Universal Design. Balaram is Honorary Advisory board member, ’Design Issues’ journal, (USA). His publications include Thinking Design (second edition), Design Quotes, Q&A on Education, and chapters in books Adalaj; Universal Design Handbook; Teaching Universal Design; The Idea of Design; Britannica encyclopedia; Cotton; and Design and Critical Primary Sources.

Sanjib Chatterjee is an Architect, Furniture maker, Interior designer, Installation designer and a disciple of Trees. An Alumnus from Delhi School of Planning & Architecture, after graduation, Sanjib honed his skills and design vision, training in fine Arts and later working with Architect Prof.

K.T. Ravindran over several years. He co-founded KAARU, a design studio based in Delhi, eighteen years back with Anjalee Wakankar, which is known for its initiatives in the realm of the Indian Contemporary design with integration of the best of Indian Arts and Crafts. KAARU’s works are represented in India, UK & Japan. He has authored articles for several design magazines and journals and has been invited to present his thoughts on Contemporary design at important design events in India.

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N. Mahesh is an eminent Indian architect with 43 years in academic and professional field. He has contributed immensely in the field of Sustainable Architecture and has revived the Timber construction in a Modern Concept. He has used this technique to design some of the best resorts and hotels in India. Mahesh is founder of the College of Architecture Trivandrum (C.A.T) and is the Chairman & Managing Trustee of C.A.T. He has published his work as a book Amazing Timber Resorts. Mahesh is a recipient of many awards and honours, including AD50 listing by the renowned Architectural Digest magazine.

Kuldeep T. co-founded ‘Bent by Design’ a Multidisciplinary design studio in Bangalore in the year 2007. After his foundation program at the College of Fine Arts, Bangalore he joined the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad where he specialized in Industrial Design. For Kuldeep, design is about hand crafting human qualities in our everyday objects, interactions & relationships.

The Symposium

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In the age of death and disintegration we find a calm but desperate need to make things and if possible to create beauty.

The day of personal expression, the rootless egotism of “modern art” and modern architecture with its completely false values is now over. It is a middle class luxury we can no longer afford.

The realities of existence are pressing in on us from all sides.

We can still try to create beauty so that an honest, skilled and creative activity is possible; that we can rest for the night with an honest face.

Instead of a long running and bloody battle with nature, to dominate her, we can walk in step with a tree to release the joy in her grains, to join with her to realize her potentials, to enhance the environments of man.

It is an art and a soul satisfying adventure to walk the forests of the world, to commune with trees, to take them when mature or even dead, and going through the dozens of creative acts needed, to bring this living material to the work bench, ultimately to give it a second life.

This is our ‘Shakti’, our creative energy.

George Nakashima

(Opposite) George Nakashima around 1985 Photograph by Randy Duchaine

Nakashima at NID

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