Socho

ahmedabad Embroidery installation old city religious conflicts Space Spatial Design textile design

Our final design project at NID, Design for a Space, is supposed to be a project (10 week long) where we apply all of our textile design sensibilities developed over a time period of seven semesters to make something for a space which is not just an aesthetic embellishment but also something that either expresses a concern or does something functional in order to add something qualitative to the space.

From a detailed study of a huge space to narrowing down to a specific area and creating something to add to that specific area is all that this journey of ten weeks was supposed to be. To understand how a large space works and how even with one little change that we make in the space it can affect a lot of people, is what the motive of the course was.

One constant thing in the

Past three and a half years at NID

Has been the old city.

We keep on returning

To this place

Every now and then

For something or the other.

I often used to wonder,

“Why?”

What is so special about this place?

Sketching, research, inspiration,

material sourcing

How can a place be

The source of everything?

And more importantly

Why?

I could really never articulate

An answer to this question

But yesterday when I was roaming

In and around the old city

Without the sun over my head

And without the stress of

producing n number of sketches

I heard my friends say,

“This place is about contrast.”

And that is when I thought

Yes! It is about contrast

About diversity.

Old city is about Swaminarayan Mandir

And Siddi Sayyed Masjid.

It is about the obvious market spaces

And the mysterious staircases.

It is about the pink shirt of the man

Selling pink candy floss,

Against the greys and browns

Of the buildings.

It is about the plain brick walls,

And the intricate wood carvings.

It is about the chaotic markets,

And the systematic arrangement of the same.

It is about the specificity

Of the Dhalgarwad shops,

And the diversity

Of the teen darwaza stalls.

It is about being planned

Like a pol,

And being as random

As a chowk.

It is about the sophisticated architecture

Of the stock exchange building,

And the simplicity

Of a Manek Chowk ‘thela’.

It is about the restlessness in the criss cross

Of the rickshaws,

And the peace on the face of the man

Sleeping in his shop.

It is about the honking

Of a hundred million vehicles,

And the calm inside

The Jama Masjid.

It is about people,

About oxymorons,

This city

This city of Contrast.

What one reads above, is a narrative that I wrote on the old city of Ahmedabad which more or less encapsulates my experiences in the space over the time period of last three and a half years.

Before the course began, we were given two options, old city and B.P.A., and we were supposed to work in one of these spaces for our last design project here at N.I.D. That very moment I knew that I was going to work in the old city, only for the stories that one comes across in that space.

We started our research with the heritage walk route and then gradually we went into the other areas as well. Following is the basic study of the elements like colour and the built forms (like the doors, windows, staircases, etc.) of the old city. The study was done in a group of four - Arjunvir Singh, Neha Bhide, Shreya Parasrampuria and Spandan Vaid - at different places in the old city and at different times of the day.

What you see above is a small mapping of the colours of the old city of Ahmedabad.

A panoramic view of Manek Chowk at seven in the morning and eight in the evening.

A panoramic view of Teen Darwaza market at seven in the morning and six in the evening.

Fernandes bridge as seen from the Gandhi road at 11 a.m., 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively.

Once we were done with going to different places in the old city, the four of us started sorting out the collected information on the basis of the kinds of space, predominantly, markets, pols (societies) and chowks.

Next we had to pick one place to work with. After going through several rounds of discussions, we shortlisted two places, The Bhadra fort market (left) and Katakiavad (right).

One of them being a very busy market place and the other being a residential pol, but both having equally interesting subjects and stories.

One can see the maps of both the areas above.

From the two shortlisted places we decided to work in Katakiavad mostly because studying a space with so much of crowd all the time would have been a difficult task and hence more time would have been required to do something for such a space. Moreover, the possibilities that Katakiavad offered were immense. Hence, we as a group decided to work in different areas within Katakiavad.

Katakiavad is a residential pol in Kalupur, behind the Swaminarayan Temple which also happens to be the starting point for the morning heritage walk. We started of by studying both Katakiavad and Targaravad as they are two pols very close to each other and hence seem to be one single space.

We chose to work with this area majorly because of the huge open chowks that are present within the pol and were not being used for anything, and the Panch patti darwaza which is right outside Katakiavad and separates a hindu pol and a muslim pol (Targaravad and Rahman pol).

Following is a study of the space, again done collectively as a group, focusing on all the major aspects of a space using both photographs and sketches.

Two panoramic views of a chowk in Targaravad and another one in Katakiavad.

A study of built elements that one can see in the selected space.

What one sees above is a picture collage of all the different colours and texture that can bee seen in Katakiavad. On the right is a collage of all different colours extracted from the same picture collage which makes one understand that though there are a lot of bright colours visible, the majority of colours belong to palette of grays and browns.

Next we studied all the different types of activities that take place in the pol. And we tried segregating them on the basis of activities due to outsiders, due to the residents and due to the space itself as these aspects are very important and need to be kept in mind while designing something for a space.

Another very important aspect of a space is light and shadow and how it changes the space completely. Different areas in the space behave differently with a change in light. Above are some sketches which were done to study the same and see how closed, semi-open and open areas within the selected space behave with the same light or how a change in light and time changes the feel of the space itself.

After studying all the various elements of the selected space all four of us started analysing the collected information individually in order to come up with individual insights and certain questions that can probably be turned into a design brief later.

What one see's below are my insights and the questions that I came up with. Then there is a further detailed breakdown of all the questions done in order to come up with some design interventions which were discussed later in the project.

Once we had decided to work within Targaravad and Katakiavad and had laid down our insights and questions, we were supposed to think about the possibilities of design interventions within the space. I went ahead with deciding the ‘where’ aspect of the project and then started to conceptualise around the decided spaces.

I was interested in two parts of the pol, the paanch patti darwaza and the chowks of the pol. One would give me expression based results whereas the other would give me a possibility to generate certain kinds of activities. A basic mapping of the same can be seen above. Most of the concepts that were built around the ‘panch patti darwaza’ were expression based installations that are supposed to make people think and question themselves whereas the ones developed around the chowks were theatre and story-telling related activities. One can see some of the concepts above and rest of them below, all done in the form of sketches.

After brain storming on all sorts of possibilities for the fnalised space, I was supposed to finalise on a particular concept. I decided to work around the space of Panch patti Darwaza which is a door that separates Targaravad ( a Hindu pol) and Rahman Pol (a Muslim pol). To begin with I was thinking of installations in the form of canopies that go through the door itself. But after Prof. Chhaya’s feedback I realised that by doing so I was highlighting the divide rather than highlighting the similarities between both the communities. He suggested that rather than having a canopy that goes through the door, I should develop something in a pair out of which one part can be put on one side of the door and the second one on the other side. Some of those concepts can be seen here, right above the text whereas the final concept can be seen v

What one sees here is a basic sketch for my final concept, which basically incorporates a pair of fabric panels with mirrors and some provocative sentence printed on each panel that encourages people to think about all the communal and religious conflicts and if they even make any sense or not and question their thought process, their mentality and bitter feelings. The intent being for it to be able to make people pause for a while in the hustle bustle of their daily life and think about the invisible wall that has been created between both the two communities.

PAANCH PATTI DARWAZA

Paanch Patti darwaza is a very clear division between a Hindu pol and a Muslim pol. It is located in Kalupur, behind the Swaminarayan Mandir. After researching in the old city for around four weeks, I decided to work with this space because while we were interviewing people in Katakiavad, we realised that things have gotten bitter between both the communities. The feeling of hatred is not there but there is a hesitation which has sort of become normal for all of them. The syncretic relations seem to be lost. And this entire Hindu-Muslim conflict has always bothered me. Hence, I decided to work with this particular space.

TARGARAVAD

Targaravad is the Hindu pol. The part of it which is right next to the Darwaza is mostly residential. One can see the space in the first picture collage above. The figure right next to it shows the part of the scaled model that represents Targaravad.

RAHMAN POL

Rahman Pol is the Muslim pol. The part of it which is right next to the Darwaza is mostly commercial. One can see the space in the second picture collage above. The figure right next to it shows the part of the scaled model that represents Rahman Pol.

When I decided to work with this particular space and religious conflicts in the old city, there were a lot of things running in my mind. Random thoughts about this entire Hindu-Muslim conflict would occupy my mind every now and I didn’t know what to do with them, so I decided to write down whatever came to my mind. My notebook became full of random thoughts and scribbles. Sometimes it used to be certain lyrics from coke studio songs and other times it just used to be words that didn’t make any sense.

After putting everything down on paper I tried to put all the written things into some kind of order to make some sense out of it. The image that one sees below was an outcome of this exercise. These were used later in the final outcome as something that would probably make people think and question their thoughts about each other.

Once I decided my concept and put my thoughts down on paper, I started making some explorations on the decided concept using textiles. One thing that was fixed was the use of a mirror and the other thing that I had to decide on was the if I wanted to add some colour or not. I finally decided to use pink as one of the colours along with all the whites and off-whites because it is the colour of ‘manjha’ something that binds both the communities together. Uttarayan is a festival that both Hindus and Muslims celebrate with the same zeal and it is something that both of them would relate to and hence I thought that the colour pink could be put forward as the colour of syncretism.

What you see below are different ways in which I have tried to combine mirrors with different types of fabrics. Many samples put here are attempts at ‘aabla bharat’ (traditional Kutchhi embroidery that includes stitching mirror pieces onto fabric) using different sizes of mirrors and different fabrics.

I developed my prototype based on the sample on the extreme right. In this case the mirror is not stitched on the fabric rather it is a separate layer. The second layer is a fabric panel with a circular cutout in the centre where a translucent fabric which allows the onlooker to see the mirror. The translucent fabric makes the image of the person in the mirror hazy thereby supporting the text. The idea is to make the person see a silhouette and not an exact image of their face in order to establish that everyone is the same.

After deciding on how the final outcome is going to look like, I finalised the text. It was the same as mentioned on the samples but I just converted the text into Gujarati to fit the context better. Also instead of one I decided on making two panels, both of them with one half of the entire text. This decision was made so that there is one panel on either side of the door and both the panels complete each other in some way.

The text was screen printed on the fabric panels and it was later adorned by some simple running stitches. Following are some images that demonstrate the process of the making of the final prototype.

It was this design project that made me question what a Designer does and if at all it’s relevant. There was a point where whatever I thought to put up in the chosen space seemed to be pointless and worthless. The space on it’s own seemed to be complete, and everything else was just like an extra add-on which didn’t really do anything for the space or the people who inhibit the space. Everyone was happy with how things are in the pol and they didn’t feel any need for a change so how can we as strangers put something in an unknown place which according to us is going to benefit the locals in some manner. This question of mine is still unanswered but maybe it’s supposed to be this way.

This project of mine, like many others, is still a work in progress. There is so much that can be done to improve the panels so that they fit the actual space better. What one sees here was all that I could do within the given time period.