Rugberry Universe
Homes, makers and the craft behind the rug.
A fire in 1981 destroyed over half of a furniture factory near Basel. The rebuilding, one architect at a time, made the Vitra Campus a pilgrimage, and a lesson in calm floors under loud architecture.
Chandigarh Modernism, Built for Sun and Shade
Chandigarh was drawn by Le Corbusier and built by Pierre Jeanneret, whose teak and cane chairs now go to auction abroad. Where the material vocabulary of the modern Indian room came from.
Dinner Under Jaali Light at Indian Accent
Indian Accent now cooks inside a hotel wrapped in stone jaali screens, in a room of marble floors and white linen. A lesson in restraint, and in continuity after a famous chef moved on.
The Textiles That Made Fallingwater a Home
Fallingwater is told as a story of concrete over a waterfall. It was also a family home, and its client commissioned a Wright office hung with hand woven textiles. Why even this house needed cloth.
Mexico City After Barragán: Walls, Light and Volcanic Stone
Mexico City is often reduced to a pink wall. Walk from Barragán's house to El Eco and the volcanic stone of the Anahuacalli, and the real subject is mass, shadow and plain floors.
The Quiet Saudi House of Khaled Hashem
Khaled Hashem has built a practice in Jeddah around open plans, few objects and gallery like volumes. What minimalism means in a culture of generous hospitality.
Tropical Modernism Began With Shade
Tropical modernism began as a colonial tool and was then claimed as the look of independence, from Ghana to Chandigarh. Why shade, air and local material were political before they were a style.
Bijoy Jain and the Studio Where Builders Draw
Studio Mumbai is admired as a near spiritual practice of earth, lime and bamboo. Its real subject is labour, and the people who make what Bijoy Jain designs.
Sangath, Doshi's Studio Pressed Into the Earth
B.V. Doshi set his own studio into the ground to escape the Ahmedabad heat and roofed it in vaults of white mosaic. Sangath argues that a modern building can be cool, communal and handmade.
Eileen Gray and E-1027, the Architect Who Began With Rugs
Before she built E-1027 on the rocks at Roquebrune, Eileen Gray ran a weaving workshop in Paris. The house reads differently once you know she began with the floor.
Lunuganga, Geoffrey Bawa's Fifty Year Garden
Geoffrey Bawa bought a rubber and cinnamon estate in 1948 and spent his life editing it into rooms of lawn, water and shade. The source text for tropical modernism, before the label.
Laurie Baker's Kerala, One Bare Brick at a Time
Laurie Baker spent four decades in Kerala asking whether each part of a building was necessary. His rat trap walls and brick jalis cost less and breathed better. A history of the idea behind the br...
Bombay Deco: How a Reclaimed Shore Became Modern
Bombay Deco rose on land pulled from the sea, with ship rails, portholes and Indian names. Facing the Victorian Gothic across the Oval Maidan, it shows how a city argues with its past.
