Nipa Doshi: Das House

When invited by IMM Cologne to design their ideal house, Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien opted for a tangible dream. "It was of the utmost importance that the house would be part of a dense and populated urban fabric, a mixed urban fabric made of shops, laboratories, residences, markets, populated streets as you'd find in Rome, Shanghai, Tokyo or Mumbai," explains Nipa Doshi. The result is a house that the designer of Indian origin defines as "having grown organically," respecting the duo's approach to design. Nipa and Jonathan opened their studio in London in 2000, in an old Shoreditch warehouse. From the beginning, their work has been positioned at the intersection of different cultures, in-between technology and narrative, industrial design and refined artisanship. Das Haus was an occasion to redefine the traditional subdivision of the domestic space, restructuring the house to include functional areas rather than rooms: areas to eat, cook, sleep, work, socialize… interconnected areas, where diverse ideas and points of view can take place.

Elena Sommariva: It seems a house full of memories...
Nipa Doshi: Full of memories real or imagined, of spaces where we've been to and spaces we would like to be in. In a way it is looking back but it is also looking forward. When we started thinking of the inside of the house, it really started from the configuration inside and the social dynamic of a house and we really wanted to challenge what are the different spaces in the house, so more than thinking of rooms, we thought of the activities in the house: sleeping, eating, cooking; rather than bedroom, kitchen... We really wanted to play with this idea of how the spaces are connected one to each other. How these activities are connected to each other. The outside of the house is really the result of the special arrangements inside.
It does not mean to only have inside things that are strictly needed for use. We wanted to create a really fluid relationship between different activities in the home. For example, you have the salon, a place where to have a really nice tea and to welcome guests, but you also have the salon which is linked to the sleeping area which not only for sleeping, but in the daytime could become a platform for socializing, to have friends around and to be close to your family.

Apart from yours, how did you choose the other pieces of design?
Some of the pieces we actually have in our home, for example the Marshmallow Sofa. The bed is new, it's the project we made for our house. There's also this idea that you display things and you enjoy them, rather than hide them in cupboards. The table again is a place for socializing and the bed is not July for sleeping. The fabrics we used are from Moroso. Central to the house there is the courtyard. So when you are in the rooms you have a sense of the outdoor space. There's a bathroom cabinet put in the context of a bedroom. Again, we're challenging the notion of products from one space to the other. The idea is that you could have a cup of tea in the morning sitting on the bench, looking out into the courtyard.

The ability of furniture is to actually create a space. We also liked the idea of well-being inside the house. You don't need any furniture, you sit and just relax and stay with yourself. You have a sort of well being area with a spa we designed to link it to the outside. The idea of well-being challenges the materiality. Steam, shower with lights, aromatherapy. Making the connection with the cooking space, we have spices we can apply to our body, following Ayurvedic principles.

How are the rooms linked one to each other and with the outside?
The idea also that at all times times, in all rooms, you are always looking out into the courtyard. We also made this wall creating a relationship between the daybed, the living room and the cooking room. This is the public face of the house, where we sell things, we have almost the idea of a shop, with products we designed for Authentics.
This idea of having a sofa in your garden. To seat outside and to really enjoy the save you are in. And that's it really. The lights are the ones we did for the Camper shop in Rome.

You mixed a lot of different cultures here, why?
I think that every part of the world has its own really, really inspiring things. You go to India, for example, and you see the street culture, you see colours, you see how open people are. When you go to Italy you see the lovely courtyards, the Mediterranean plants. We are bringing the best of different cultures into our house.

Are there also few pieces specifically designed for the house?
This table is the idea of two tables coming together for staying with your family, working, eating, sitting, also bringing the family together. The top is made with Terrazzo and marble.
And then the dressing space. We developed a new prototype of a dressing table with BD Barcelona. Again the idea is to enjoy all the jewels. We are also doing another collection with them for Milan.
Things are telling our story as we have collected them from around the world, you have to display them in order to enjoy them.

Three years ago you had a baby, how did this event change your way of designing?
I think it made me more focused as a working person, I am more prolific for sure and it's a very good thing.

Are you working on new projects for the Salone?
Yes, we are working with Moroso, with which we are going to launch a new project; and BD Barcelona, and I think another big project but it's not for sure yet.