Selected project published by Elemente, a Canadian based Architectural and Design Magazine

1. Canada’s alternative design magazine
DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE + lIfESTylE + I N T E R N AT I o N A l
July/Aug 2008
Display until Sept 15
PM41097025
CAN/US $ 8.00 Volume 3 // Issue 3
0
56698 27848
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2. Ar+
architecture
and that’s a WRAP...
In d Ia’s awa r d-wI nnI ng cr e at I v e te am , co llabo r atI v e a r ch Ite ctur e ,
p resen ts t h e I r u nIq u e ca s e f o r e cle ctIc ar ch I te ctur e and d e sIgn
words :: J lynn fraser // Images :: lalita tharani, ajeeb Komachi
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3. PROJECT DETAILS ::
Project :: wrap- 3
Project Location :: calicut, India
Firm :: collaborative architecture, India
Principal Architects :: lalita tharani, mujib ahmed
Client :: Jdt, calicut India
Project Area :: 1800 sq ft
Project team :: nadia & shoukath
“we wanted as much
stimuli as possible
to make the end product a
LIVING ORGANISM”
- muJIb ah med
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4. “doIng archItecture Is not... a result of a ratIonal process, but, [is] intuitive, often layered [with] palimpsests of logical,
irrational, bizarre, poetic, clarified and impossible thoughts,” according to mujib ahmed and lalita tharani, the award-winning creative
team behind India’s eclectic architecture and design firm collaborative architecture (ca).
ca challenges traditional conversations of ioned from gypsum board and steel, is also
retail, commercial and residential space with laminated. compact fluorescents illuminate
a broad vocabulary of materials and fluent individual work areas on the workstations.
translation of space, light, and geometry. “we love to explore,” says tharani, who
this approach is exemplified in wrap 3, has a diploma in Interior architecture from
a computer room that ca designed for pri- the sophia polytechnic. “we want to inno-
mary and secondary students at the Jdt vate on every project.” the firm’s wrap con-
orphanage in calicut, India. “we wanted cept refers to its view of erasure of boundar-
as much stimuli as possible to make the end ies between walls, floors and ceilings, as well
product a living organism. [the work] is about as its willingness to draw upon different disci-
creating living spaces,” asserts ahmed, who plines to interpret clients’ briefs.
earned a degree in architectural engineering the ca team incorporates design strat-
in 1993 from regional engineering college egies from interior design, sociology and
(calicut, India). architecture, as well as ahmed’s and tharani’s
the 1,800-square-foot computer training respective studio and corporate backgrounds
environment seems lifted from the landscape “we don’t want to be shaped as a retail
of dr. seuss’s who-ville. cantilevered work- or institutional architectural firm,” ahmed
stations “hover” above a ceramic tile floor. stresses. tharani’s dream project would be to
on angled walls, windows float like long design a campus for an educational facility,
steams of blown soap bubbles. the walls are and ahmed’s would be to design a museum.
made from a framework of structural steel begun in 2000, the firm now employs fifteen
clad with laminates. ca favours this type of people and has offices in both calicut and
steel because it has both “tensile and com- mumbai (formerly bombay). both cities are
pressive strength,” according to tharani. located on India’s west coast. ca’s clients
the crayon-coloured purple and green are mostly business entrepreneurs. tharani
acrylic paint on the walls is appropriate for describes them as “widely travelled” indi-
the room’s youthful clients. the ceiling, fash- viduals who are exposed to the latest devel-
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5. PROJECT DETAILS ::
Project :: wrap- 4
Project Location :: calicut, India
Firm :: collaborative architecture, India
Principal Architects :: lalita tharani, mujib ahmed
Client :: K t c automobiles, calicut India
Project Area :: 12,000 sq ft
Project team :: shoukath & sandhya banjan
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6. “Collaborative is a highly dynamic practice on look for projects globally.”
- l a l I ta t h a r a n I
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7. PROJECT DETAILS ::
Project :: concept pavilion
Project Location :: mobile
Firm :: collaborative architecture, India
Principal Architects :: lalita tharani, mujib ahmed
Client :: titan Industries
Project Area :: 1450 sq ft
Project Team :: shoukath & sandhya banjan
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8. “The pavilion is designed to maximize the interface between the
audience and the products.”
opments in art and architecture. ahmed space that would “convey the future direc- for a booth displaying timepieces. the
notes that 90 percent of the clients are tions of the company [while] showcasing floor’s dark carpeting provides a neutral
under the age of 40. the different brands of the company.” background for the display cases – or
although ahmed claims to be unfamiliar boldly coloured in red and tan, the “domains,” as ahmed calls them.
with stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001: A Space booth’s floor-to-ceiling modules curl “we are more peter Keating than howard
Odyssey, the aesthetic in ca’s concept around rectangular glass vitrines display- roark,” ahmed says, referring to the ego-
pavillion is strikingly similar with its retro ing watches, jewelry and designer eyewear centric and domineering architect-protag-
1960s futurism. as in the wrap 3 project, made by titan. the modules are designed onist of ayn rand’s The Fountainhead. “we
ca’s vocabulary of free-flowing floors, long with heights of 3,000 millimetres and 2,400 dislike the point of view of the god-like
sightlines and expansive space makes the millimetres. made in a number of widths, architect,” adds tharani. nevertheless, ca
1,450-square-foot travelling exhibition the modules can be arranged into differ- will “restructure” a client’s brief if they feel
booth seem larger than it is. ent groupings. it lacks vision, as they did with the concept
“the pavilion is designed to maximize fluorescent lights along the ceiling pavillion. ahmed likens relationships
the interface between the audience and and supporting walls are inset in a criss- with clients to a “double-edged sword”
the products,” ca wrote of its approach to crossing pattern, guiding the visitor’s and observes that they can be “tenuous,
the design. the booth can be expanded gaze downward to the vitrines. long because the client says that they want x,
or contracted as needed. the client, titan hatch marks on the ceiling, called the and then we have to educate them.”
Industries – a division of the tata group, a “hour roof Zone,” change colour as time In the case of wrap 4, the client,
global company based in India – wanted a passes, an appropriate visual metaphor hyundai, asked for “a nice backdrop
604-881-4881 | www.frasershading.com | www.mechoshade.com
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9. for the product display.” CA noted that architect Charles W. Moore, whose angles team approach to building may be holding
its “ensuing architectural response did and emphasis on basic forms can be seen back the country’s architectural innovation:
exactly the opposite of the [client’s] in CA’s work. The cantilevered “outcrop- “In terms of the intellectual part of archi-
brief.” Taking their wrap concept to a pings” and the sense of immense space tecture, India is still catching up. Industry,
grand and extreme form, CA created a in the public buildings of Spanish architect the contractor and the architect are linked
car showroom that allowed 360-degree Rafael Moneo are echoed in CA’s approach in the West. They are completely dis-linked
viewing of the cars, and took advantage to angles and boundaries. Ahmed also cites in India. Which is why India can’t produce
of the former warehouse’s 12,000-square- Louis Kahn, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret- contemporary architecture.” Ahmed
foot space. Gris (Le Corbusier) and Frank Lloyd Wright notes that, while the economies of India
Reminiscent of a Möbius strip, WRAP 4 as influences. These architects are known and China are growing at the same time,
illustrates CA’s distinct approach to bound- for their strong forms and their ability to he believes it will take “50 years for India
ary-erasing walls, floors and ceilings. The distill a building to its essence. to catch up.” In India the mindset has to
showroom’s ambience is that of a pared- Ahmed denies that his early studies change. “The mentality of the clients has
down futurism. Long, rectangular hatch with Californian potter and architect Ray not changed,” Ahmed observes – even
marks – a recurring motif – decorate sec- Meeker, who along with Deborah Smith though, he concedes, “the middle class is
tions of the blue strip, which forms the established Golden Bridge Pottery in changing the profession.”
display platform for the cars. A sense of Pondicherry (found at the south-east tip of India’s lack of infrastructure, combined
speed emanates from the long white hatch India), still influence him. It can be argued, with the CA team’s desire to explore and
marks, the angled white countertops and however, that Meeker’s fire-stabilized mud innovate, may draw them to projects out-
the angled blue strip. The Hyundai logo is buildings and ceramics, for which he is side of the country. “Collaborative is a
also smoothed and angled to match the famous in India, gave Ahmed a respect highly dynamic practice on look for proj-
room’s sleek aesthetic. for volume and for the sensuousness of ects globally,” says Tharani. “We would
Tharani and Ahmed are influenced by curved form. love to do some institutional projects in
well-known architects from a variety of In India, Ahmed believes, the lack of Europe and North America…We are wait-
cultures. Ahmed points to the American technology, dependable infrastructure and ing for the call!”
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