Tag Archives: travel

a haveli and a guest house

16/03/2008 DesignFlute 2 Comments

Arts Reverie

Arts Reverie is an exquisitely restored 1920’s haveli in the heart of Ahmedabad’s old City. It is run as a centre for creative arts professionals. In the heart of the bustling city this special guest house offers a unique home-stay experience.

It fosters international exchanges, a place where visual artists, writers, poets, musician, dancers, playwrights, visiting curators, academics, journalists, photographers, cultural study experts, architects and other creative professionals can stay.

Arts Reverie is set in the heart of a traditional pol or enclosed neighbourhood. The house is a ground plus two storeyed structure with a floor area of 325 sq. mts. It represents the typology and evolution of traditional havelis with a grand facade with elaborate stucco work and decorative pediment.

Originally belonging to a Jain jeweller, the restoration of the building was carried out by the Ahmedabad Heritage Centre as part of the Indo-French Cooperation Project. Traditional elements co-exist with modern conveniences such as a wire-free environment in contemporary interiors.

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knock, open the window

do I know these lanes

11/12/2007 DesignFlute 3 Comments

courtesy Kiki van Eijk

I have never seen so many colours in a city architecture ever before.

Have you?

courtesy Michael R. Swigart

May be you know a lot about San Cristobal de las Casas, a city in Mexico.

I did not know until a few days ago.

courtesy Alma Roma

Ever since I saw images of this colourfully rich city, I feel haunted. Yeh haunted!

I ask myself again and again – do I know these lanes?

courtesy esterpics

India is full of colours too. But no I haven’t seen these palettes.

Yellows, blues, red, greens, violets in every merry hue. All the contrasts, new combinations you can check in San Cristobal.

courtesy TommytheA

If you see any colour or shade missing do write to me, I will post them for you.

Though I am an Indian colours do not easily attract me but I do not mind these colours. In fact San Cristobal colours are mind boggling for me!

Do check all the links (all credits for these colourful photos go to them), they have many more wonderful photos. (as if my post is not exhaustive enough!)

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barren walls

glimpses of Goa

22/10/2007 DesignFlute 5 Comments

Baga beach

I still have a few conch shells and pebbles I had picked up from beaches of Goa when I went there as a teenager. There was no Konkan Rail at that time and so no Konkan Ghat stunning scenic beauty on our way to Goa from Mumbai. But I remember being surrounded in the mist of ocean while coming back at night by bus.

Through these random images I hope you get the whole picture of Goa- today and history as well as architecture. The Portuguese encounter in Goa has ensured uniqueness in culture and architecture.

raj angan (courtyard)

This is a traditional Hindu courtyard surrounded by a colonnaded gallery called ‘chouki’.

velha Goa-old Goa

the Portuguese lady by famous Goan artist Mario Miranda

fishermen @ Zuari river Goa

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Indian interiors & architecture

house of mud

30/09/2007 DesignFlute 18 Comments

‘Bhung’ or mud hut a traditional construction in Kutch is an engineering wonder.

Here are the mud houses or bhungas and glipses of people of Kutch.These traditional circular homes withstood the devastating earthquake (2001). They are also considered cyclone proof. They can be constructed with local material.

The colourful and one of the extremely rich in crafts region of Gujarat (India) is Kutch. Many communities and tribes in this region have their own distinctive styles in textiles, embroidery and handicrafts. Each community and tribal group has its own lexicon of motifs and embroidery stitches.

Bharwaads

Rabaaris are the ones who decorate the insides of their mud-and-thatch huts with ‘lippankam’ or mud-mirror work; the Bharwaads are seen in their exquisitely embroidered dresses and clothes; the Meghwaals decorate the exteriors of their mud huts with alluring patterns; the nomadic Jaths whose subgroups include the graceful Fakirani Jaths, live in huts made of coloured reeds. And you can see a group of Jath women walking along the road in their brightly coloured and beautifully embroidered costumes.

Meghwaals

What makes the `bhungas’ so strong?

Their circular design and the steely mesh of mud plaster and twigs make them resist any wind pressure and quake. The `bhungas’, which ‘even a king would envy’ for its elaborate design and artistic elegance, have a light dome-shaped bamboo and thatched roof and a circular wall plastered with mud, twigs and dung.

Their thick walls keep the interior cool when the temperature rises to 46 degrees celsius in summer and warm when it drops to two degrees in winter.

Above image is part of permanent exhibitionin in the Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig in Germany.