The Meandering Gaze

An essay by Ruturaj Parikh, which argues for a more sensory and haptic approach towards the design of spaces, where ocular biases are moderated, and the experience of a space is a valuable attribute of design.

THE VISUAL REALM

While one may sense the slow movement of the world of design towards specialisations and ‘vertical’ domains of expertise, one cannot deny the overwhelming visual stimulus that stretches across all aspects of contemporary life. From trying to sell soda to making a fine piece of furniture, one has to recognise the sheer force of an image and the disruptive nature of mediums that prioritise the visual. Good design, often, is multi-sensory and engages with issues that go beyond the central purpose of design. In this context, one may be prompted to look at the seminal ‘India Report’ by Charles and Ray Eames that formed the foundational thinking for establishment of NID. The plastic arts, the visual arts and design were engaged with in a seamless domain that delimits design from its entangled definition.

The visual realm, in India, also deals with the special way our changing light interacts with our landscape. The light defers – from the sharp, geometric light we enjoy in the arid plains to the defused and interrupted light we work with in the Ghats, the light seems to be an age-old influencer of design in India. The vibrant colours of the desert thus contrast the white and gold of the apparels of the tropical south. The extensive visual palette in India traditionally received its diversity from context. This has changed – especially in the domain of interior design. The interior space is a tactile, three-dimensional space that negotiates the indulgences of architecture with the human scale. Contemporary architecture often indulges in ‘image-making’ – a dissociated and problematic domain wherein the ‘imageability’ of a built space takes over the design process disengaging the design from finer experiences that are difficult to communicate in the predominant mediums of architectural thought – drawings, visualisations and text. While the discipline of architecture distances itself from the human scale, the domain of interior design finds itself taking over as the primary medium for experience of the built environment. It must therefore disrupt the visual bias and interact with the idea of ‘experience’ – a theatre for space to unravel.

THE EXPERIENCE THEATRE

Contemporary interior design practice is a problematic space. Often misunderstood with styling and ‘lifestyle design’, the discipline in India is gradually coming of age. Dominated by projects in the retail and F&B space, interior design is much more accessible as a conversation for the aspiring middle-class. In a typical Bandra bistro, one would find marble, kotah stone, cast concrete, cane, brass inlay, stainless steel, toughened glass, cement mosaic and copper. The intensity of experience is further heightened by mirrors, water, lighting and music – pure scenography! So what is the architecture of a space like this? – None. It is a neutral white box: a space for the theatre to unfold!

In the past 15 years, designers in India have mastered this pop-up spatial domain of design. Magazines have made this space accessible and exciting. The apparent ‘temporariness’ of the interior space opens it up for everyone to experiment with. A failure does not cost much to rectify and there are happy coincidences. It is design for everyone interested in ‘seeing’ – architects, interior designers, designers from other disciplines, stylists, clients and Vaastu consultants. While this accessibility of interior design has opened up new avenues, it has also limited the discussion on the interior space to concerns of form. A conversation on ‘content’ seems to be largely absent. There are observable contradictions in the way interior design is practiced. Firstly, the tools of communicating design of an interior space or of – lets say – an exhibition design proposal are far too similar to the tools that are used for communicating architecture. These tools are limiting. They are two-dimensional and can never capture the ‘experience’ of a space. The 3D visualisations complicate this issue further by extending the fallacies of a 2D space. The experience theatre needs a language of its own. In recent times, some designers have ventured to look for a process that better resembles the experience of the interior space. These tools include immersive renders, spatial mock-ups, Photoshop collages and mood-boards.

Nonetheless, they do not substitute for the missing grammar in the practice of interior design. This grammar – however it can be articulated – must deal with the more tactile aspects of Interior Design. This language must talk about social behaviour, environmental concerns, issues of ergonomics and human interaction, ideas of comfort and delight. While the contemporary tools of spatial exploration enable us to have a better grip on the ‘form’ of the interior space, this grammar must address the issue of ‘content’. Effectively, ‘The Experience Theatre’ enables us to delimit the typological and phonetic boundaries of the interior space. The theatre extends the design palette to atmospheres – ambiences, temperatures, visual state of materials, touch, smell and sound. How does one design for hard timber without touching hard timber? In India, where the language of ‘craft’ in the format of ‘making’ is well-understood, how can the formal discipline participate in this fluid, sensory feast that our landscape invariably offers?

THE PLATE FOR THE CUISINE

Interior design is specific. It is as much an issue of recipes that it is an issue of ingredients. One can recollect the exacting nature of traditional furniture – from Gujarati swings to Parsi dining-sets. While our spaces are cluttered with derivative, industrially produced things, they seem to have completely lost the fine indulgence of the stubborn and often, quirky designs that were crafted to complement space. Cheap materials and cheap, replicable, modular, mass-produced objects now dominate our spaces. While they nurture the great idea of economy and efficiency, they often lack the personality of a radiogram cabinet – finely crafted to suit the space, the equipment, the analogue electronics and the human scale. The beautiful hinges enable one to hold the cabinet at an angle wherein the pin can rest comfortably on vinyl. It was built to last forever. We often encounter the limitations of the generic party-dish to enjoy Andhra cuisine. The gravies are too runny for the plate! The form, in interior space, rarely follows content.

The new grammar of design thus must have a space for nonuniversal ideas – ideas that are rooted in the immediate context of practice. Take for instance the omnipresent colour catalogue. This fanning-out catalogue of a thousand paint shades has nothing to do with ideas. It confuses and contradicts the principle for using colour in a landscape like India. Instead of a deeper understanding of the backdrop, intensity of sun, the receiving and releasing of light and the tolerances, colour is splashed everywhere almost as a membrane that hides cheap materials. While an industrial palette – designed for graphic exuberance – provides an endless Pantone sequence of hues and shades, it fails to address the very fundamental context for use of colour in an architectural space. It is, thus, not a question of choice but an issue of appropriateness and consideration. This is perhaps the line where interior design parts ways with interior décor and styling.

CONTEXT

“Design is not art” said Dashrath Patel in 1998. He must have sensed the overwhelming influence of Fashion and arbitrary design movements that would consume us in the two subsequent decades. Contemporary interior design is an unfortunate victim of this commodification of the inhabited space. This is not to discard the wonderful gifts of industrial production and IKEA, but to evaluate the role of the interior design discipline in contemporary times. Recently, we have come across rich examples of design of interior space in domains other than residential, retail and F&B. These examples span a range of projects – institutions, pavilions, theatre sets, co-working spaces and libraries.

Indian society has an innate cultural memory. The interior space and its experience is intrinsically entangled in the web of this memory. This space has a simultaneous grasp of the constraints and the possibilities of life to manifest. The pluralistic nature of this palette has its origins in a limited number of ingredients. These ingredients are the tools that come from the context. They can be agnostic of the visual realm where the designer goes shopping and may not sit comfortably. In some cases, this tension of disparate kit of parts works in the favour of the milieu – a skill few designers possess. In most cases, this over-production of possibilities creates visual confusion and a sense of uncanny newness that mimics the randomness of a retail window-display. Often experienced in the interior design of apartment buildings, there is a delirious concoction of aspirations, cheap credit and quick-fix deployment of things.

The house is the most intimate of spaces one designs for. The palette can be compared to a ‘mela’ – a melange of mercurial Indian sensibilities that have an almost magpie-like curiosity. The contemporary discipline does no justice to this cultural memory – an ability to make fine visual judgements without the biases of a consumer culture. We often therefore see the professional interior designers employed in serving the affluent class or trying to do new tricks in the retail / commercial space.

The immense possibilities presented to design professionals in the middle-class domestic space are lost. These gaps are quickly filled with decorators and the primary purpose of the design of interior space dealing with the tough questions of human occupation is lost. It feels like a kaleidoscope stuck on a singular thought-pattern. By re-orienting the purpose of interior design to be able to shake this kaleidoscope and to be able to return to the grammar of space that better represents context is the most essential and urgent need. This thought is not merely a reaction to the lifestyle supermarket but it originates from the urge to reimagine the role of interior design in articulation of contemporary life in a culturally diverse India. A context for design thought in the domain of interior design will help us realign our lost bearings and help us make better sense of the deluge of visual information that may soon sweep over us completely. ⊗

RUTURAJ PARIKH is Founder and Director at MATTER – an architecture, design and publishing firm based in Goa. His work at matter deals with architecture and curatorial projects with the idea of the diversity and richness of the Indian landscape at the core of the practice. He is the former Director of the Charles Correa Foundation where he led research and public forum initiatives.