Firm/Studio Name
Dhool Design Studio
How did you come up with the name of your studio?
When we look around us, everything is made of Dhool (Dust). Even modern materials are formed through the intervention and expansion of the limits of local materials.
The narrative of each design progress starts with Dhool (Dust) and ends with its abandonment; turning the design into nothing but dhool (Dust). The identity of the people, their activities and the spaces associated with it are often forgotten.
Dhool stands for this co-existence of the permanence and temperament of every entity in the journey of life. A reminder to use natural resources as a way to give the depleted resources back to nature. A trajectory for a more ecological future.
After all, in the end, the universe is nothing more than a collection of dust.
What determined your passion for design? Tell us about the moment when you decided this is the way to go.
Loyola Chapel by Laurie Baker has made a huge impact on us. If you haven’t visited the chapel, as soon as you enter into the hall, the design of the structure almost makes you want to leave your entire life at its doorstep and you are taken into a very different world. The design in itself makes you reach out to the heavens. We had gone in a large group and yet the space was very peaceful. The day we visited it we realized what the power of great design is, in making a very ordinary activity of praying, extraordinary.
We were both directed towards practising architecture in totally different ways. Neethi was really interested in drawing. When she first heard of Architecture, all she knew of was that in architecture, she’d get to draw her heart out. Whereas with Huzefa, reading a book by Sarah William Goldhagen, Welcome to your world, made him realise the responsibility and role of a designer in society which drove him.
What kind of projects were you doing when you first started as a designer?
We started by designing a space for people to live in. These projects include making the current living conditions better as well as designing spaces as a whole to suit the users.
What field of design are you most interested in?
We would really love to embrace all kinds of design work. Once we know what it is like to design something in particular, only then can we say. However, currently, we absolutely enjoy designing pieces of furniture.
What is your favourite book/magazine on design? How about your favourite site?
Huzefa is in love with Sarah William Goldhagen’s Welcome to your world, whereas Neethi swears by everything written in Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture.
We love reading Archdaily, Dezeen and Architectural Digest because of how updated these websites are. Apart from these, we also love going through designer websites from various fields – Fashion, Product, Graphic, Textile; and reading about them. Whichever website offers that.
What is your Signature Style?
We do not believe we have a signature style. We work on shaping our designs in relation to what the brief, site and users require us to do. The purpose of the intervention is also very important.
What inspires you to thrive in this industry? Which piece of architecture inspires you the most.
We are very excited to see what the future of architecture holds. There is no specific manual in which to use the materials that are currently available to us. Brick, for example, has been in use to build houses thousands of years ago and we still use brick in the present world. If anything, it is a technology that has changed. With the advancement of technology, materials available to us and their usage in a project will only advance with time. The future that architecture has in store for us is something we can only look forward to and keep experimenting with – the materials, tools and technology. These surprise elements are what we look forward to.
We are overwhelmed with the approach Thomas Heatherwick Studio has towards their projects. Especially the design of the Olympic Cauldron and its temporary nature. However, trying to pick an architectural piece, we both marvel at the Seed Cathedral. Even the Seed Cathedral stood for a very short period of time. It is mindboggling. The way it was created, the genesis of the idea and finally, its execution. From a concept that could have only been imagined, to its execution, providing a magical experience to the users regardless of where they are – inside or outside. This, we haven’t experienced first hand, but we surely believe it would have been nothing less than being in a fantasy world.
From your point of view, is design an art or a science?
Design is both art and science. Art is something you make when you get inspired by something, or when something makes you feel a certain way. You express yourself through art. It is a form of communication. With the design, you express with the help of spaces, you communicate a certain feeling with the space which is where it is similar to art. However, when it comes to executing the ideas, technology, materials, research and everything that goes behind the execution process, there’s a lot of science involved. This is why architectural design is a marriage between art and science.
If you had no limits (money, resources), what would you create?
If we would have unlimited resources or money as a studio, we would like to design and execute a housing project that would encourage and retain the sense of community for people who cannot afford it. We would like to work along with them and choose the most sustainable method so that nature is not brutally harmed and to avoid extra efforts or expenses put into its maintenance. We would also like to bring balance between every living organism. Space where all living beings thrive not just human beings.
What advice do you have for young designers or architects reading this interview?
We are a young team of designers ourselves and still have a lot to learn. However, within the brief period that we’ve been practising, we’d say, carefully choose the people you work with or those who work for you – the craftsmen, artisans, contractors, masons – so they are capable of carrying out the job assigned to them well. Secondly, to understand and communicate the drawings as much as is required, rather than providing unnecessary levels of details.