Spectrum
'Colour is not just colour, but mood, temperature and structure. Colour is a major element in scale. How obvious it is that colour has its various connotations - hue, value, and intensity.'
- Van Day Truex
Colour is the key! There isn't a better way to add warmth and style while making a design statement. Colour can be soothing, calming and even exciting. Experience how architectural detail is highlighted by the language of colour!
Karim Rashid earned a reputation as a style setter and rule breaker. His iconoclastic design ideas are not for everyone, but he can always be counted on to push the decor envelope.
Like his designs, Karim Rashid is not the one to be modest. As he claims, his mission is nothing less than to make everyone's life better through design. According to him, design is not about shapes or forms: it is a cultural critic, a way to transform society. He is best known for bringing his democratic design sensibility to the masses. His design has the power and the influence to actually make very large social and behavioural shifts in the world. And design, he thinks, is a very nice tool, an instrument really to shape human behaviour.
Karim has become one of the world's most well known designers. The so-called "sensual minimalism" characterises his style—be it the feminine curve of a wooden lamp stand or the optical pleasure embedded in a glass-stacking table.
Rem Koolhaas was born on November 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He is a famous architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Rem Koolhaas founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. He graduated from the Architectural Association in London and in 1978 published Delirious New York, a Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. In 1995, his book S,M,L,XL summarized the work of OMA and established connections between contemporary society and architecture. He heads the work of both OMA and AMO, the conceptual branch of OMA focused on social, economical and technological developments and exploring territories beyond architectural and urban concerns.
Italian architect Giorgio Borruso is principal and founder of multidisciplinary design firm Giorgio Borruso Design, whose work ranges from architecture and interiors to industrial design. His innovative projects for such clients as Fila, Snaidero, Fornarina, Miss Sixty, and Paul Frank have been seen in over 800 publications, have been featured on television programs, and have received over 80 international awards for architectural design and brand development. Several projects are featured as part of permanent collections of the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the Red Dot Museum in Essen, Germany.
Giorgio lived and worked in Italy, Spain, and Germany before moving to Los Angeles in 1998. He has taught and researched at University in Italy and the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences globally.
The young and multi-faceted team at Lotus Design Services explores and breaks barriers through a cross-disciplinary design culture in an attempt to find the Indian paradigm in contemporary and global design. Headed by Ambrish Arora, Sidhartha Talwar, Ankur Choksi and Arun Kullu, the 15-member design team at Lotus hails from diverse disciplines of architecture, interior design, furniture design, & graphic Design. In the 6 years of its existence it has come to specialise in creating boutique experiences in the domain of interior design & architecture specialising in retail, hospitality and corporate spaces. Committed to producing a result that derives itself from the context of the project, the team prides itself in the fact that it has no signature style. Imbibing the team member's individual strengths across disciplines, the vision of Lotus is to constantly explore new paradigms in an inherent desire to stretch the boundaries of what is acceptable or even possible.
Their projects have won numerous awards and have been extensively published in various publications in India and abroad.. Some projects completed by Lotus in the past include Khaaja Chowk, Magique restaurants in Delhi, the Good Earth & Rivet stores in Delhi and Bangalore, the Rohit Bal, Ashima–Leena Stores at Emporio in Delhi, etc. Lotus has expanded its scope to providing architectural consultancy. Projects currently under execution include a 40 room boutique hotel in Jodhpur, residential buildings in Delhi, the Hard Rock Café Delhi, an eco resort in Himachal, a school in Jaipur, among others.
Founded in 1998 by Rok Oman and Spela Videcnik, Ofis is an architecture studio based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Ofi s’s work negotiates between performing arts, set design and architectural projects of different scales. Born in 1970 and 1971 respectively, Oman and Videcnik studied architecture at the Ljubljana School of Architecture and at the Architectural Association in London.
Sachin Agshikar studied architecture at Sir JJ College of Architecture, University of Mumbai and was awarded with Gold Medal in 1991 for his final year design thesis. Prior to setting up his own practice in 1999, he worked with architects Uttam Jain and Charles Correa on diverse projects ranging from institutes in Pune and Chennai, resorts in Goa, houses in Malaysia, a church in Kerela to the Brain and Cognitive Science Centre in USA. He was also actively involved in several invited competitions like the Legislative Assembly of Goa, Islamic Art Centre in Doha, Quatar and the Ismaili Community Centre in Canada.
Partho Guha graduated from faculty of Visual Communication of National Institute of Design (India) in 1989 with specialisation in communication through films and other narrative media. Partho specialised in corporate branding, brand communication and experiential design projects. He focuses on design strategy and user centric innovation. He often engages in cultural studies & spirituality.
Over the years Partho has helped in formulating brand and innovation strategy for a diverse set of clients in pharmaceuticals, automotive, banking, engineering, FMCG. Notable projects include Electronica, Bilcare, Goodknight, Bajaj Auto Limited, Commonwealth Youth Games 2008.
On several occasions he has presented at various education and professional forums on design, user centric innovation and Indian culture. Recently he made a presentation on the Indian scenario in ‘Emerging Asia and Design Business Strategy’ at the world Design Forum at Korea.
The German firm founded by Rudiger Kramm and Axel Strigl in 1980 always regarded architecture as an expression of a society's cultural performance. It sees the ever-growing influence of a medium in which hyperlinks are more important than spatial matters. It also sees an opportunity for the humanisation of life spheres through the use of digital technology, alternative energies and conscious building materials. The firm believes that thought and operating processes based on cybernetic principles make it possible to render the increasing complexity of incidents and/or events foreseeable or avoidable.
Al-Abbas Mosque is a testimony to the living traditions and architectural achievements of one of the world’s earliest civilisations. By the 1980s, the ceiling was suffering from rot and warping. In 1985, the Yemeni Government asked the French Centre for Yemeni Studies in Sana’a to help preserve it. The ceiling was dismantled with funding from UNESCO and removed to the National Museum at Sana’a. In 1987 the French Centre asked archaeologist and conservator Marylene Barret to carry out the restoration of the ceiling, which took three years. The cleaning and restoration was a slow, painstaking process, and the importance of preserving the history of the ceiling was respected. Major repairs were also required on the roof, and the decision was taken to restore the fabric of the building itself. Marylène Barret undertook this work with Yemeni architect Abdullah al-Hadrami, together with a team of French and Yemeni archaeologists and the best local craftsmen, who completed the restoration project in 1996.
Claude Cormier spent the first twenty years of his life on the family farm in rural Quebec and the past twenty in the city of Montreal. He studied agronomy at Guelph University, Landscape Architecture at the University of Toronto, and History & Theory of Design at Harvard University. In 1995, Cormier founded his Montreal-based landscape design office, which now comprises a team of six diverse landscape architects, all well-travelled individuals. They work on many projects types, from metropolitan planning mandates to temporary installations for garden festivals and everything in between.
Over the past decade, the firm has produced an iconic body of work that has been recognised nationally and internationally. Cormier was selected as an Emerging Voice for North America by the Architectural League of New York, and his firm’s projects have garnered honours from organisations that include the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, the Montreal Institute of Design, Heritage Montreal, and the Quebec Association of Landscape Architects. Cormier has taught at the University of Montreal and has lectured across Canada and the United States.
