Domus India – issue 69

“Research is indeed where architecture exchanges conservations with other cultural practices; but most importantly reflects on its own set of ideas through its own behaviour and existence. Research creates a world of its own, its own arena of action and engagement; and research is neither subservient, nor a direct outcome of practice. If research contributes to practice or emerges from it, they may be special conditions, and possibilities, but not the rule,” writes Kaiwan Mehta in his editorial for this edition of Domus India.

The issue includes a feature on eminent architect B V Doshi’s retrospective exhibition, held at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai. It reflects upon his philosophy and work, the relationship between memory and architecture, the importance of his architecture to the society, and the rapidly changing context since the early 1950s. The section on poetry features the work of Priya Sarukkai Chabria, and is inspired as much by landscapes visited and embraced as by the evocation of landscape or season in poetry, music and painting. There are two projects featured in this edition — 23/B in Ahmedabad by Snehal Nagarsheth is made up almost entirely of salvaged doors and windows. Going beyond superficial appropriation of the salvaged objects, the design upholds the integrity of the original elements by carefully articulating and organising them, while also questioning ideas such as ownership, site specificity, found objects, and memories associated with ‘home’. The second project, the House with a Veil in Bengaluru, has, as the name suggests, a veil-inspired screen on the street-facing side that adds to the aesthetics, while protecting the house from natural elements, providing privacy, and allowing the architects to open up the house on the other side into a tropical-forest-like garden.