The recently concluded three-day Designuru 3.5 featured an array of events such as workshops, film screenings and a book launch. Some of the design-based art installations included Soft Rock by Collage Architecture Studio in collaboration with Marble Centre International and Comfortably (Un)Numb by Purple Ink Studio and Twiggr Studio. Workshops included Toy Making, Textile Block-Printing and Wood Crafts. Edgar Demello also launched his book The Architecture Travellogues at the festival.
Kavita S Sastry, Chairperson of IIID, the institute organising the event, shared, “The theme for Designuru 3.5 was Local, Social, Sustainable. Designuru is a festival where we literally take design to the streets and showcase how design can engage communities positively. This year we added a book launch and a film festival to the agenda.”
Soft Rock by Collage Architecture Studio and Marble Centre International (MCI) was one of the primary installations at the festival and the idea brought forward through the installation was to showcase the fluidity and malleability of a hard material such as natural marble.
“The most common thing when one thinks of fluid is water. The movement of water in the form of a wave is very aesthetic and pleasing. This is precisely what we worked on to make this installation,” revealed Rahul Maheswari, Director at MCI.
Swapnil Valvatkar and Adwitha Suvarna, founding partners and principal architects of Collage Architecture Studio said, “We believe that each project has its own peculiarity and cultural interpretation and should be approached with a unique and integrated vision. As architects and designers, we love to deform and extend the natural properties of materials around us to carve spatial experience.”