3. Interior Display
Aarushi Kalra
I am an Interior Designer and an Architect, recently graduated from the MA Interior Design at Royal College of Art. Prior to RCA, I completed my undergraduate studies in Architecture from Sushant School of Art and Architecture (India); and worked as a senior designer for RMDK Architects (Delhi, India), a well-known name in hospitality and retail design.
In just 4 years of working, I was named as one of the upcoming designers to look out for by Edida Gen Next by Elle Décor in December 2016. I was also named as one of the top 100 Design Divas in India by Good Homes Magazine and Home & Design: Trends in February 2018.
My undergraduate thesis, “Adaptive Reuse of the Rajghat Power Plant”, gained wide appreciation and was featured by A as Architecture Magazine in February 2018. While at the RCA, I received a distinction for my dissertation, “It was a dress that triggered it all…A personal exploration of Fashion and Architecture” (2019).
Recently, one of my projects at the RCA, ‘The Art of Disinformation’, was published by The Design Collective, India for their feature on Unbuilt Projects in April 2020.
Currently, I am focusing on new project collaborations with fellow RCA graduates. I am also working on exploring the correlation of different forms and materials in an experiential context – as a series of sculptures and installations.
“Giving people a small ‘ ! ’ moment.” - Studio Nendo
This statement has helped shape my approach to design and has been at the centre of my design process. I aim to design spaces that inspire and excite.
Having trained as an architect, my work aims to be methodical, and my vision of interiors seeks structure. I like design to be curious, introspective and inquisitive, that delves into an idea bigger than just spatial experience.
Studying at the RCA has pushed my understanding on how various spaces can be imagined and interpreted. My projects here have explored the boundaries between architecture, interiors and other fields of art and design, opening my mind to infinite possibilities.
Having grown up in India, a diverse country that is perennially trying to strike a balance between tradition and modernity, I try to bring a unique perspective and a complexity of thinking to my work. I enjoy making spaces that are complex in conception but are easy to experience and engage with. The Display Platform has helped me develop this art of storytelling through a multi-layered spatial design language. My designs’ complexity lies in the nuances of the narrative that reveals itself through a simplistic imagery and relaxed storytelling. Some might say that a recurring theme that runs through all my projects is the duality of perception.
I want people who experience my designs to feel small “ ! ” moments intuitively.
What is the Architecture of a Digital Space?
“Translating the digital into the physical”
Border&Fall is a website and digital-only platform who challenge preconceived notions of the sari as a traditional, outdated or gender specific garment. Their mission is targeting a global youth audience to reinvent and change this perception through artist collaborations and creative multimedia such as talks, films, and exhibitions.
This project was conceived as a space to encapsulate both the essence of Border&Fall website and the Sari, a place for boundless creativity, adaptability and flexibility. The space derives its identity in the interplay between the ideas of a sari being a 9-yard-long blank canvas for personal expression and the website being an infinite blank canvas for a multimedia-rich user interaction.
Border&Fall as a concept space with its structure and systems, enables the stories of the collaborating artists to shine through, just like a weaver weaves new stories on a highly mechanised loom. The design philosophy of the store is to allow collaborators a blank canvas, indeed a ‘magic’ canvas on which to display their work. An elaborate system of invisible jigs, fixtures and pulleys ensure that the space is able to transform to respond to the most dynamic of spatial configurations.
The space treads a balance between the space’s digital and physical (tactile) elements by creating a strong and clear dialogue between the two; allowing it to offer itself as a blank canvas, nimbly taking on the identity of the voice(s) and the programme it represents. The space in essence, thus, mimics the fluidity of a Sari, acting like an architectural, ever changing display, with a vivid and mesmeric user experience
