DEEPAK JAWAHAR

2017-2018

The Tablewear project explores the potential of a simple table as a social device. Can a hyper functional object be reimagined as a device to encourage participation and interaction?

The proposal is a performative design piece bringing together the body and the object as an event. Tablewear is designed as one large piece of fabric that can be worn by multiple participants, wherein the body becomes part object and the object becomes part body. The design emphasis is neither on the body nor on the object but the performative relationship manifested between them.

2018-2019

Suqian, China

The proposed project in the flower farm in Suqian, is conceived as a counter narrative to the ever expanding metropolis. The intervention is not a definitive standalone architectural element but rather a ‘medium’ to experience the flower farm. The flower farm is the starting point and the destination. The function of the architectural elements are merely to intervene and help create sensory impressions of the flower farm.

Relook - What are the possibilities to experience the flower farm and have a strong visceral impact?

The proposal addresses different scales of intervention from the freely distributed furniture units on the grid to punctual and informal gathering platforms, semi-disconnected tea houses and an infrastructural scale - observation tower.

Awards:

Natian Cup 1 (UED) - Entry Prize Winner

2016-2017

The design for the Slow Door is based on the idea that a door can be imagined not only as an instrument of passage or a barrier but an experiential space in itself.

This in-between space is manifested not through physical parameters but through tactile experience. The emphasis is not on the formal design of the door but on the design of the point of contact to heighten the feeling of slowness.

The Slow Door project has won multiple awards including the Lexus Design Awards - 2016 (LDA) - as Panel Winner, finalist for the Red Dot Design Award 2018. The project has been exhibited at galleries in Milan and Tokyo.

Awards:

Lexus Design Awards 2016 - Panel Winner

Red Dot Design Award 2018 - Finalist

Credits:

Design Collaborator - Irina Bogdan

Fabrication - James Bulataw (NEUNI, Shanghai)

Renderings - Fabian Mazzola (Bitlens Studio, L.A.)

2016-2017

Press is a furniture installation conceived to explore ‘assembly’ as a design process. The solid fragility and the consistent transformation produces multiple forms and layers of interactions, which are both functional and experiential.

This part installation and part seat is a series of interconnected wooden blocks (10X10 cms each) and vertical gas springs anchored to a base metal plate. Upon the application of vertical load, the wooden cubes transform to create a pattern in resonance to the load, leaving an imprint.

Press was the prototype winner at the Godrej Design Lab 2016 and has been exhibited at multiple exhibitions in India, including the India Design ID in New Delhi.

Awards:

Godrej Design Lab 2016 - Prototype Winner

Credits:

Design Collaborator - Irina Bogdan

Fabrication - Godrej Design Lab

Fabrication Assistance - Cube Infra Solutions

2018-2019

Dubai, UAE

The “Theatre of Light” is an installation conceived for the stretch ceilings brand Euroceil and was exhibited at the Light Middle East Exhibition, 2018 in Dubai. The structure measures 7 m long and 3 m wide, clad in an opaque black lacquer PVC membrane on the outside.  The inside is an immersive brightly lit environment that spans between the ceiling and the walls.

Typically the stretch ceiling materials are either used for ceiling applications or wall applications only, but the installation is conceived to form a dialogue between the disparate perpendicular planes and form a continuous immersive environment of light.

To create this, a series of proprietary europrofiles are bent and arranged along the length of the pavilion and the thin translucent white PVC membrane is stretched with a hot air blower and locked between the aluminium profiles. The continuous strips of LEDs that are installed on the box frame above the sheet glow through the translucent material creating an immersive environment.

Credits:

Collaborator - Uncut Design Lab

Client - Euroceil Stretch Ceilings

Fabrication - Euroceil Stretch Ceilings

2010-2011

Site visit - Rio de Janeiro - a part of the site for the 2016 Olympics that is sandwiched between the favelas and the abandoned industrial buildings was the subject of investigation. The mediation between the abandoned warehouses and the violent favelas immediately became the precondition for intervention.

Engagement through stimulation - Question - is it possible to formulate a method that will encourage social engagement - not for political correctness but for its own survival? I looked at programs in the city that exist at the discontinuity between the unplanned organic side and the planned formal side. Among several possibilities one stood out - The church - it represented a desirable alternative and a spatial method for social engagement.

Resistance through indeterminacy - The centre for capoeira is imagined as a landscape of definitive indeterminacy - a single surface that spreads, tears, opens and folds onto itself. A single surface that represents space as landscape and landscape as space. Where gathering is a prerequisite for crossover and crossover is a prerequisite for gathering. The spatial ambiguity is not a lack of programmatic possibility but of many possibilities - some imagined and some not. The formal is destabilised by moments of spatial ambiguity - ‘aperspectival space’. The constant mixing of the active and passive users at the articulated central vortex zone make crossovers and superimposition inevitable.

UNStudio

2014-2017

Location: WKCD, Hong Kong

The Lyric Theatre Complex (LTC) is located in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) on a harbour-front site in the heart of Hong Kong. The WKCD is to be developed into one of the world’s largest cultural quarters blending art, education and the much needed public space in the centre of Hong Kong.

The LTC is conceived as a ‘connective spine’ stretching between the artist square in the north and the waterfront in the south. All the three theatres (LT, MT & ST), the Resident Company Centre (RCC) and the rehearsal facilities are organised around the lower spine and the upper spine creating hyper density and friction through superimposition of programs.

UNStudio

2011-2012

Location: Kutaisi, Georgia

The new Kutaisi International Airport is one of the three international airports in Georgia and the design addresses the long term expansion strategy for both the airport and the city.

The strategy was to provide a gateway for low cost airlines to operate to and from kutaisi, and once the process is set in motion, then expand the airport to handle 1 million passengers by 2020.

Major expansion plans were a prerequisite for the design of the terminal, hence the architecture refers to a pavilion, in which clear structural layout creates an all encompassing volume. The volume is organized around a central courtyard / exterior space.

UNStudio

2011-2012

Location: Strasbourg, France

Situated close to the European quarter in Strasbourg, Palais de la musique et des congres (PMC) is a music venue and a convention center. The design for the redistribution of existing programs and the additional new wing of 8000 sq.metres, proposes a strategy laying emphasis on critical reuse and renegotiation. Since 1975, the PMC has hosted the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg and the initial design for the building was conceived by Le Corbusier.

So, the ‘terms of engagement’ of the new structure with the city is critical. The design of the centralised vertical foyer acts as a point of contact or a sociogram for the new building, the old building and the city. While, the centralised foyer represents density and becomes the center of social interactions, the breakout spaces are large and generous with through sightlines providing opportunities for alternate events and a platform to liason with the city.

UNStudio

2011-2012

Location: San Donato Milanese, Milan, Italy

The building is designed in the tradition of its own history, accepting the most significant challenge of its times, the capacity of imagining the future.

The design picked up the challenge and translated this urge in architecture. The two most relevant components that will forge the world of tomorrow, the research on new renewable energetic sources and new communication systems, constitute the heart of the project.

UNStudio

2011-2012

Location: Brussels, Belgium

The Brussels Airport connector building is located within the existing airport infrastructure. The connector is intended to facilitate seamless functional flow between the existing terminal and the pier.

The design for the connector building focuses not only on creating an efficient and seamless functional flow but also an identity that reflects the ambitions of the city to establish Brussels, as a European hub. The program of the connector building is hybrid - part experiential and part functional. While, it hosts shopping and entertainment facilities under large skylights to enhance the travelling experience, it also helps in handling passenger flow, security and operational processes.

UNStudio

2011-2012

Location: Strasbourg, France

The design for the European School envisages a unique typology by means of integrating three levels of schooling into one building. A nursery school, and primary and secondary schools are brought together around a main central square, referencing other European institutes in Strasbourg.

The interpersonal contact between the students is an important factor in the design, which contributes to inspiring the children and encouraging them to learn by moving. Each school level is organised around a patio which is placed on different levels. This important focal point characterises the design of the school towards the creation of a safe and homely environment in which the students can develop and grow.

Albaker Architects

2012-2014

Location: Doha, Qatar

The inverse problem: In 2010, FIFA officially announced Qatar as the host of the 2022 football World Cup - At which point the country’s entire population was 1.78 million. This event alone will bring upwards of 1 million tourists. While America, Europe and the rest of the world were reeling under the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, Qatar had a problem of the opposite nature - a lot to build in record time.

Intersection - To overcome the situation, many ‘high-speed’ private developments started to absorb programs/facilities which are usually in the public domain.

Dohalive - a hotel and a mixed use project that is located between the low-rise residential and medium-rise commercial developments along the airport road in Doha, relies heavily on the above strategy.

Albaker Architects

2013-2014

The Bead box is designed to store traditional Qatari prayer beads and it can store up to 66 prayer beads. The design of the bead box draws its inspiration from a series of material experiments

Albaker Architects

2012-2014

Location: Doha, Qatar

The kind of rapid growth that Doha is undergoing meant that private developments had to play an active role in defining public spaces. Under the ‘maximum revenue economic model’ developers were forced to cut back on programs which are not major income generators. Parks, green areas and other public programs in an arid desert climate are nothing but that.

Destination - In the Centre for Visual Culture the attitude towards parks and plazas was not about allocation but radical escalation. The intensity of their presence will make it a ‘destination’. The entire groundscape is dedicated to parks, and other public programs such as carefully curated screening areas throughout the landscape and the connecting corridors.

2018-2019

The Arbour House is designed as a vertical structure in a landscape, that can provide shelter, privacy and shade. It can blend in with the landscape or separate different garden areas and direct movement. Its walls and roof consist of open framework to support vegetation.