MII_Women in design.indd 1 94 Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh Uttar Bhadohi, in manufactured was Arora, Kangan designer London-based by in Milan delMobile2013 Internazionale at Salone SuchiReddy Architect Opposite page: page: Opposite This kilim 19/11/16 12:21 pm PHOTOGRAPH: HAZEL THOmpsON REIMAGINING From low-cost housing and restoration of presidential palaces to traditionally crafted modern products and space-saving kitchenware, Indian women are changing the world of architecture and design, one sensitive solution at a time. By Divya Mishra DESIGN 95 MII_Women in design.indd 2 19/11/16 12:22 pm f design may be defined as an activity undertaken to solve problems, then Indian women have been doing it since the Paleolithic era. Consider the cave paintings at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh. Among delicately rendered scenes of war and revelry are several drawings of humans hunting (and being hunted) by the local fauna. No one knows who drew these figures or why but I have a theory. I believe these Ipaintings were the efforts of Paleolithic women to not just document their lives and beliefs and to communicate with each other but also to mark their existence for future generations—a Paleolithic “I was here”, so to speak. Ever since, Indian women have been getting things done in ways large and small, and it has almost never been easy. In 1972, when the then 16-year-old Sheila For the longest time, architecture and design were considered the most Sri Prakash was being interviewed for “masculine” of the arts. Probably because historically, things were built more admission into The School of Architecture as a show of strength and dominance, rather than for the people who needed and Planning, Anna University in Chennai, and utilised it. Women were often actively deterred from taking up these one of the professors on the panel professions, with certain older practitioners believing that their designs were (probably the kind sent by the gods to weak because they factored in their clients’ needs. Fortunately, things are now test you) asked her if—because of her changing, with the old order reluctantly coming to the realisation that their apparently inconsiderate ambition—she sensitivity-as-weakness philosophy might wasn’t depriving a male candidate of a seat. not actually produce the best designs. What “For a young girl with stars in her eyes, I really wasn’t ready for that kind of a shocker! question. I told him that I was very serious about my profession but what he What is unmistakeable is that women’s asked me that day just made me more determined,” says Prakash. Despite designs often come with a certain her class having a dispiriting gender ratio of five girls to 60 boys, Prakash thoughtful consideration of environment graduated with flying colours, and within a year of graduating, set up India’s and usage—both aspects often incongruent first women-led architecture firm in 1979. Her now 37-year-old practice has with looming skyscrapers and large- been responsible for some of India’s most sensitive architecture, and Prakash scale infrastructure built purely for herself is seen as one of the world’s leading experts on sustainable design. commercial purposes. When they do She’s also part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the design skyscrapers using the same material Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security forum for the 2016- palettes (glass, concrete and metal) as 2018 term. their male contemporaries, the results N Although the women’s liberation movement had been in place across URMA the globe for over a decade by the ’70s, the state of things was dismal R B : even internationally. In the late-’70s, when designer Sunita Kohli arrived in Cairo for a meeting regarding a hotel she was commissioned to design SHEILA SRI PRAKAsh’s GRAPH O in Al-Arish, on the Mediterranean coast, she was faced with a roomful of T O PH incredulous men. Shocked by the fact that they were now expected to deal 37-YEAR-OLD PRACTICE TS with a woman (the very thought!) and, perhaps doubly so, because she was C wearing a sari and sporting a braid that went down to her knees. “But once IS RESPONSIBLE FOR E the discussions and design work began, they recognised and were respectful rchit A of what I brought to the table,” says Kohli, generously. A self-taught designer, SOME OF India’s mosT Kohli has since earned a reputation as a leader in restoration of historical hilpa interiors and architecture, and in 1992, became the first interior designer SENSITIVE ARCHITECTURE OF S OF Y to be awarded the Padma Shri. Partly responsible for the second restoration T op row, from left: Sheila Sri Prakash; Sunita S E and decoration of Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2010, she has broken stereotypes Kohli Opposite page: This Vadodara home by taking on assignments and going on site visits in places such as Uganda, was designed by K2India, set up by Sunita UR CO T Iraq and Pakistan during those countries’ most unstable periods. and Kohelika Kohli 96 MII_Women in design.indd 3 19/11/16 12:22 pm MII_Women in design.indd 4 PHOTOGRAPH: MONtsE GARRIGA 19/11/16 12:22 pm 97 WHAT IS UNMISTAKEABLE IS THAT Women’s DESIGNS OFTEN COME WITH A CERTAIN THOUGHTFUL CONSIDERATION OF ENVIRONMENT AND USAGE 98 MII_Women in design.indd 5 19/11/16 12:22 pm MII_Women in design.indd 6 PHOTOGRAPH: HEDRICH BLESSING; R BURMAN Mumbai, restored by conservation architect Abha architect conservation by restored Mumbai, Clockwise from top: from Clockwise Lambah; Abha Lambah; Mathew; the Aqua tower in Chicago, designed by Jeanne Jeanne by designed inChicago, tower Aqua the Mathew; Gang founder of London-based lifestyle brand Tiipoi brand lifestyle London-based of founder Opposite page: page: Opposite N arain Lambah; product designer designer product Lambah; arain The corridor of the MCGM buildingin theMCGM of The corridor Spandana Gopal, designer and designer Gopal, Spandana N N eethu arain arain 19/11/16 12:22 pm are things of beauty, like Jeanne Gang’s and somehow, I think this is much better than taking her to piano lessons.” 82-storeyed building in Chicago, called In her own 22-year-old practice, which is largely dominated by women, Aqua. Considered the tallest building in Lambah has tried to create a more women-friendly work environment the world designed by a woman, it appears by having the option of working remotely where possible, and in one case, to live up to its name, giving Chicago’s even setting up a makeshift crèche in her office for an employee who’d used skyline what looks like a standing column up her maternity leave. of gently rippled water that magically also New York-based architect Suchi Reddy, founder of Reddymade houses humans. Architecture and Design, feels that women have to work twice as hard as men In 2004, the late Dame Zaha Hadid to be treated as equals. “The onus is on us to prove that we are smarter and became the first woman to win the Pritzker more creative. The real disadvantage is that innovation by women architects Architecture Prize, long considered the is not really in the public eye.” Nobel for architecture, effectively storming Aside from large scale projects, Reddy’s firm has worked on residential and the last bastion of sexism in the field. It commercial interiors as well as furniture designs and artistic collaborations. had been a long time coming, not least Oddly enough, this diverse portfolio has tended to limit her firm’s client base. because the selection process over the 37 “The issue we run into sometimes is that people like to categorise, and we try years of the prize’s existence has not been to defy categorisation.” without controversy. In two years—1991 Despite the roadblocks, Reddy is grateful for her chosen profession. “It and 2012—the prizes were given to has given me a deep appreciation for creativity of all kinds, and I can safely architects Robert Venturi and Wang Shu say that I am never ever bored.” Her firm’s latest project, a large loft in the respectively, ignoring their spouses Denise Murray Hill area of Manhattan, uses materials such as translucent concrete Scott Brown and Lu Wenyu, both of whom with embedded fibreglass fibres, electric glass that can go from clear to opaque were equal partners in the practices. But and carved Corian contrasted with stones to create a jewel-like home. things are looking up, albeit slowly, and When Spandana Gopal studied design at Central St Martins in London, largely because of the efforts of the women the gender ratio in her class was equitable, and she feels that design practitioners themselves. practitioners, in London at least, comprise an equal mix of men and women. Conservation architect Abha Narain Gopal launched Tiipoi, her London-based lifestyle brand, in an effort to Lambah was once told that she would change the perception of Indian design internationally. Her designs use have to marry an architect if she meant traditional materials (copper, wood, brass to practice. Lambah studied architecture and glass) and Indian manufacturing at what was possibly one of the most liberal educational institutions in the techniques but reflect an aesthetic that is country then—the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, and purely contemporary. Along with the task courtesy that education, always thought of herself as an architect, rather than of translating Indian design sensibility for a “woman architect”. She admits that architecture is not entirely conducive an audience who sits outside of its context, to child-rearing and family life, which results in a high drop-out rate among Gopal faces a second challenge: “There is women in architecture.