Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Studio Mumbai at Victoria &Albert Museum, London

One of the projects in the London based Victoria &Albert Museum (V&A) Cast Courts developed by Studio Mumbai as part of the series 'retreat' was done in collaboration with Kate Dineen and Michael Anastassiades. Entitled 'Inbetween Architecture', it came on in leaps & bounds in just a few days of the structured on-site construction.

The project incidentally was modeled on dwellings that were directly behind the architects’ studio located in Mumbai. It examined unauthorized architecture, constituting more than half of the cityscape. Echoing the parasitic settlements, which tend to develop in ‘in-between’ spaces, the structure essentially represented an architectural ‘cast’ of a prevailing sliver of dwelling space.

The original dwelling, home to a family of eight, occupied a very narrow corridor that was formed between a grouping of ubiquitous industrial buildings. Bijoy Jain and Michael Anastassiades discussed their shared values as well as their plans of building an in-between home more as a retreat in the V&A's Cast Courts. The film also includes home-made footage in which they record their Indian muses and sources. The latter stated in an interview:
“One evening we walked through this narrow slither, basically sandwiched between the outside wall of a warehouse and the boundary wall of a property and in there was a series of dwellings. The light was very low and the lights inside those dwellings were on and it was an amazing experience.

"Human beings have a deep connection with architectural spaces. If a structure is built with consideration for the people who will live in it, they will love it. When we had the brief we had this idea of refuge, shelter, a place for contemplation, a place for worship and in many ways these dwellings have that quality where they have all these sort of built in."
Studio Mumbai is an architecture firm co-founded by Bijoy and Priya Jain. It incidentally makes the best of easily available resources to come up with some truly innovative architectural solutions. These always keep in mind the human element. The new work by Studio Mumbai courtesy V&A was inspired by both human ingenuity and nature. Its minimalist, rather earthy aesthetic found a much-deserved mention at Venice Biennale 2010.

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