A spotlight on Studio Mumbai

Born in Mumbai in 1965, Bijoy Jain did his M. Arch from Washington University in St Louis (1990). He then worked in Los Angeles and London before coming back to his home country in 1995 to discover his practice.

Founded by Bijoy Jain, Studio Mumbai shares a concern for immediate environment - a space that we subconsciously create and inhabit. We can make this space very familiar, or we can expose ourselves to unfamiliar elements that provoke our response and re-evaluation. There are many sources of inspiration: one only has to observe closely. It is possible to have set ideas of what architecture should be, but first we need to understand why0 things are a certain way.

Gathered through time, this group shares an environment created from an iterative process, where ideas are explored through the production of large-scale mock-ups, models, material studies, sketches and drawings. Here projects are developed through careful consideration of place and a practice that draws from traditional skills, local building techniques, materials, and an ingenuity arising from limited resources.

A note on the website states: “The essence of our work lies in the relationship between land and architecture, it requires coming to terms with the presence of the environment through the succession of seasons.  Inspired by real life conditions, we observe the complexity of relationships within each project without any assumption or prejudice. Our attempt is to remain intuitive, and look for a space to initiate a dialogue. It is through this practice that the matter being observed naturally reveals itself.”

Their installation ‘in-between architecture’, on show at the V&A museum in London, was directly based on a dwelling crammed into narrow urban allotments located right behind the studio’s building. While quite tiny, the original structure housed a family of eight. though seen as parasitic, these homes offer intelligent design solutions in a city where space is scarce.