Intelligent things

There's more to products than just looks, designer Ayush Kasliwal tells Abhilasha Ojha. There’s also history and local craftsmanship.

We won the UNESCO Seal of Excellence in both 2006 and 2007. This year, we just got lazy,” chuckles furniture designer Ayush Kasliwal, who is just back from an art show that he sponsored for the Jaipur Virasaat Foundation in that city.

Though he personally doesn’t like participating in design shows or competitions (“there’s more to products than just looks, which seems to be the main criteria for most competitions,” he says), the UNESCO Seal of Excellence, Kasliwal insists, is different from other design contests that take place in the world. “This award doesn’t [just] consider how this product looks but also takes into consideration the local economy and cultural ethos, and encourages craft-workers to use traditional skills and materials to create products that can have a global impact,” he says.

Kasliwal, who began working independently after interning with renowned architect Pradeep Sachdeva, remembers how difficult it was to start from scratch. “I began work as a contractor,” he laughs, while talking about how he would introduce detailing in his work: “I’d give a sink in copper or even plan flush handles differently. I just grabbed every opportunity I was offered.”

Kasliwal adds that the philosophy of his work has been to facilitate ideas which draw on local craftsmanship and represent its major advantages. Little wonder then that Lau Diya and Trinetra, two products from Ayush Kasliwal Design Studio (AKDS; started in 2006, it’s run by Geetanjali, Kasliwal’s architect wife) won the UNESCO Seal of Excellence.

While Lau Diya, conceived by Kasliwal (“We worked on refining the concept for six months,” he says) was made by the skilled craftsmen of Jaipur, the overall idea was to gild the product with 24-carat gold/silver leaf (“a dying art,” confirms Kasliwal). Similarly, Trinetra — the third eye of Shiva in Indian mythology — a set of eye-catching brass pods suspended one below the other, has been handcrafted by the Thathera community of Jaipur. The brass pod can be hung outdoors as a lighting product or double as a vase.

Some of the designer’s forthcoming projects include creating furniture for Delhi’s Ambassador hotel and doing the interiors for Nalli Sarees’ Lavanya store in Bangalore. He’s also designing private residential homes in New York and Chicago, while also working on a multi-cuisine restaurant in Jaipur.

In addition, Kasliwal supplies his products to The Conran Shop, a reputed name in contemporary and exclusive furniture and home furnishings with outlets in London, Paris, Tokyo and New York. Additionally, the company’s products were exhibited at the Talents A La Carte section of the acclaimed exhibition “Maison et Objet” in Paris in September last year. That apart, Edition Nouveau Objet, a leading design company, launched Ayush as a designer, alongside others like Arik Levy and Paola Navone.

In Jaipur, AKDS is a brand to reckon with, but Kasliwal hopes that craftsmen will find many more patrons. “We have a very long way to go,” he says ruefully, and hopes that design from India will be commissioned more often in different parts of the world.

While his vision has seen bird cages translated into outdoor lamps, there are also candlestands in stone, old wires put together to create tables... The studio has also adapted Damascus metalcraft, dating back to the Middle Ages when it was used to make swords, armour and shields for battle, into utilitarian yet exquisite cheese and butter knives.

“The idea,” says Kasliwal, “is not about making pretty things; it is about making things that are intelligent, things that have a reason to be, things that solve common day-to-day problems that few had ever thought about.”