This discussion sought perspectives and viewpoints on the perceivable aspects of interior design and the emerging tangential domains of the discipline – interior decoration / visual décor and styling.
Interior Design Practice in the Indian context
Canna Patel [CP]: In India, interior design has not been separated from architecture as a result of poor or no legislative or licensing control. In its minuscule understanding, interior design is taken up as a part-time occupation and not a business. Thus in the Indian context, the percentage of hard-core interior design practices is relatively small.
An interior design practice when placed in the Indian context gets tied to not just our culture and aesthetics but more importantly, to how it is practised.
Sandeep Khosla [SK]: Primarily an Interior Design practice must be able to spatially plan the character of space by understanding the psychological needs of the people who will inhabit it. In the Indian Context, even though we have a middle class that is rapidly evolving and technologically enabled, we are still a traditional society with a strong belief system.
Ambrish Arora [AA]: Architecture generates the built form and our critical perception and experience of a built form, is largely from within. In the Indian context, interior design is perceived to be less technical than architecture or engineering. It is more accessible. Even otherwise, globally, interior designers have a very wide spectrum of practitioners.
Significance of Styling and Décor
CP: Styling and decoration are the finishing touches, which are inherent to the process of design for good interior design practice. It lends itself at a higher position when it is embedded in design decisions instead of a last minute add-on. This way they become less superfluous and impart a deeper significance to space.
SK: Styling and décor are valuable if they enhance the feeling of love, and if they work in a certain narrative. The importance of both tends to be undermined in our profession, as it requires a correct balance of composition, textures and proportions between differing elements.
Décor and styling is a profession operating mostly from the faculties of the right brain. I find a design that emerges purely from instinct fascinating.
AA: Architecture can be regarded as the skeleton of the human body, and the flesh could be the materials ornamenting the inside or the outside. A good skeleton of architecture lends itself to the interior space.
Such conversations are important, as one cannot deal with the idea of an environment without understanding the bones, the flesh and the skin; the architecture, the interiors, space, volume, lighting, etc. This is what one would call a cultural ornament – it is not ornamentation but the cultural expression of what the identity of the space is.
A Culture of Images in Interior Design
CP: Design is a culture that needs to be driven through amalgamations of visual, experimental and meaningful experiences, and thus it takes its position in different forms of visual media. Unfortunately, the new accessible methods of social media and design applications for visual depictions of interior design have failed to create a “design awareness”, and remains a means of imitation.
SK: I do not have a problem with ‘image-making’ as long as it is an effective tool to communicate design intent. The problem I have is with designers blindly ‘image-receiving’. In India, there is a real opportunity to create ‘original’ images, and I am optimistic about this.
AA: I think the reason people go to an image is because they do not have a fully formed idea of what is it they want. Social media is easily accessible and it allows us to anchor ourselves quickly. The reason I think people are hesitant about ambiguity is that the idea of having faith that something will emerge if you allow the parameters to inform the process. This is a difficult leap for many to make.
Design is really about being comfortable with ambiguity.
Design Thinking in the Practice of Design & Décor
CP: A décor practice is based upon short-term changes, in some cases forms of makeover that tend to be area specific or event specific. When this activity finds its hold in a concept, it becomes a part of design thinking. This way décor forms a subset of design.
SK: A décor practice that is purely about surface-application and does not look into the subliminal qualities of a space can be problematic. But interior design practices that embrace décor and styling as part of a certain language are strong.
AA: As a practice, we believe that a key attribute of design is listening to all the voices that inform the project. I like to believe that we are more like craftsmen with a certain skill set, and that skill needs to be directed towards the necessity of the moment. This framework is design for me. Décor may be a voice inside this framework.
Interests and Concerns of your Practices
CP: As a design practice, we constantly aim at approaching a project from all sides. This is supported by activities, initiatives and daily routines of the design studio such as open-houses, workshops and research programmes. They constantly help us to bridge the gap between education and practice which is important for any good design practice as a form of critically reflecting on your own work.
SK: At Khosla Associates, we are “contextualists”. There is a certain romanticism to our work, a narrative quality that leads the viewer into varied experiences, and we enjoy creating work that references the old while being wholly contemporary and innovative. I find it crucial to question ourselves on some of the basic values/qualities of good interior space. We try and put our design to the test each time we take on a project.
Is there an honesty of material and expression? Are the basic values of light, air and ventilation fulfilled? and, Is the project climatically sensitive, contextually rooted and conceptually relevant?
AA: Our practice has two distinct kinds of manifestations- the architectural team and the interior design team. They function independently as well as collaboratively, but the skill sets required to deliver an architectural project are different from that for an interior design project. I think what we offer is not domain expertise but process expertise. We engage deeply in mutually establishing the premises of how things ought to be ⊗
CANNA PATEL is an Architect & Interior Designer with over twenty-eight years of professional experience. Having completed her Bachelors in Architecture at CEPT, Ahmedabad she did her Masters at University of California Berkeley, USA. She is the Chairperson at HCP Interior Design Pvt. Ltd. (HCPID), widely regarded as a reputable and professionally managed firm. She is a Founder Member and Past Chairperson of IIID, Ahmedabad chapter. Her works are being regularly published in various Indian and International publications.
SANDEEP KHOSLA is the founder and principal of Khosla Associates, a Bengaluru-based multi-disciplinary architecture and design office. Sandeep studied architecture at Pratt Institute, New York, then returned to India to establish Khosla Associates in 1995. He was picked by India Today magazine as one of the fifty men and women under the age of 35 from various fields of enterprise who are poised to be leaders of tomorrow.
AMBRISH ARORA trained and worked as a boat designer before moving to Spatial Design. He founded Studio Lotus in 2002 along with Sidhartha Talwar & Ankur Choksi. In the course of his working career of over thirty years, Ambrish has lectured extensively and served as visiting faculty and juror at various international and Indian design forums. A member of the CII National Committee on Design, he is on the executive board of the Jawahar Kala Kendra and is currently working on co-founding a new School of Design.
