The event was a 3-day section consisting of nine stories, two panel discussions and four break-out sessions that explored all aspects of design; from the ancient to the contemporary vernacular so as to stay relevant in an increasingly techno-driven design canvas.
The inaugural and the Day 1 session of the 10th National Convention at the Sainik Darbar Convention Centre began with the Flag hoisting and inauguration of the trade exhibition by the Chhatrapati of Kolhapur, H.H. Shahu Maharaj and IIID President Ar.Nitin Saolapurkar.
One keynote speaker Ar. Charles Correa, India’s most highly acclaimed contemporary architect was unable to attend the Convention, but his famous presentation ‘Vistara – the architecture of India’ was presented by Ar. Jabeen Zakarias of the Cochin chapter. “Vistara expresses the insightfulness of what we have in India and the various influences through generation in a single screen condensation comprising nine projects.
Day 2
Heritage Walk to the New Palace and Museum, the current residence of the royal family was the first event to be followed by a long day of inspiring talks and discussions. The visitors were led through the galleries of the Palace-Museum and introduced to all rare artifacts, costumes, memorabilia, including a rare blunderbuss that made up the exhibits of the museum.
The day’s first speech topic was Architectonics by renowned American-Indian architect and planner, Ar. Christopher Charles Benninger. Ar. Benninger noted that ‘To study Tomorrow’s design paradigm, we need to go one step back in history and to go two steps forward and analyze the history of society and the means to analyze buildings in a sequence over time.’ Ar. Benninger believes that Structural materials can reflect Art. Ar. Marjan Van Deipen of the Netherlands from Fokkema Architects who gave a riveting presentation on Optimizing Processes in Design. Roger Carr, international product designer and Director of the Radar Furniture Design Consultants based out of London, who happens to have given us “Reason,“ the avant-garde workstation for Godrej Interio also presented a speech.
Post tea began with Ar.Habeeb Khan’s postulates of Ten Commandments, all of which should be synergized to evolve a language within a contemporary framework. Ms. Els Zijlstra, the Founder and Creative Director at Materia, an international network that identifies trends and innovative uses of materials. Materia brought a new meaning to the vocabulary of Materials and their beautiful innovations to the world of design. Next follows the technical Discussion on the concept “Resources and Interiors” featuring celebrity speakers Ar. Habeeb Khan, Els Zijlstra, Marjan Van Deipen and moderated by Ar. Rajesh Patel.
After a refreshing afternoon session, delegates had the choice to choose from several workshops that were conducted simultaneously, a workshop on Live Watercolor painting by national award winner Mr. Sanjay Shelar and a Workshop on Creativity by Ms. Sarita Dhimte. Final event of the day 2 was The Ethos INDESIA quiz conducted by Ar. Gita Balakrishnan of Calcutta.
Day 3
Ar. Mark Watson an Australian architect, started session with a thought-provoking talk on Bionic Design. Biophilic Design is the architecture of life itself. An innovative way of designing places where we live, learn and work by “Connect to Nature” in a mix of ancient monuments with contemporary design. Ar. Sanjib Chatterjee co-founded Kaaru, a design studio based in Delhi, known for his contemporary and environmentally sensitive designs spoke about his connection to nature and design through his “Kaaru’s Tool Kit”. The Indesia Panel discussion featured 4 celebrity speakers – Urdu Poet Sheen Kaaf Nizam, Kathak Guru Prerana Shrimali, Film maker Sankalpa Meshram and Academic Jay Thakkar, who all spoke that fusion of language, expression of music, film-making and education all having one commonality that was about co-creating.
Finally, the most awaited speaker of the day was Mr. Rajeev Sethi, renowned Designer, Curator, artist and Scenographer who talked about his 1.5 km long - Art Walk at the brand new T2 terminal at Mumbai International airport, a mega project that he curatored over a period of 4 years and showcased 7,000 artifacts and works by 1,500 artists.
The beauty of the convention was that it fostered an atmosphere of introspection- where delegates were excited by the thoughtful and diverse topics that threw light on nuanced topics; thereby everybody who left the Convention, took a piece of Kolhapur back with them.
