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Interiors

India’s emerging market for high-end, homegrown design

Designers from Delhi to Chennai are responding to demand for custom-made furniture and decor

An interior in Chennai designed by Viya Home, featuring its brass Colosseum coffee table and Persepolis table lamps ©Viya Home

DECEMBER 15, 2016 by: Trish Lorenz

“The word ‘design’ isn’t really part of the culture in India,” says Rashmi Varma. “Although

beautifully crafted products have been made here for centuries, I would say that a design

industry, as we consider it in the west, only really began to emerge in the last 15 years.”

Varma, co­author of Sar: the Essence of Indian Design, is a textile designer who works with

artisans and craft organisations across India from her base in New Delhi. Also in the capital is

Gunjan Gupta, who founded Studio Wrap in 2006 and was one of the earliest proponents of

developing a contemporary Indian design aesthetic. Gupta found initially that the market for her

products was export­focused. “Contemporary Indian furniture did not exist 10 years ago,” she

says. “Locally, there was a lack of confidence in the design process and objects made in India

were not considered desirable.”

Today, fuelled by a vast domestic market that is experiencing both economic growth and

increasing interest in home decor, the sector is growing and changing quickly. Studio Wrap is a

case in point: about 80 per cent of its current clientele are local. “We have been through the cycle

of importing Italian design but that’s not seen as cool any more. Now it’s cooler to ask an Indian

designer to customise a space for you,” says Gupta.

Designer Vikram Goyal is founder of Viya Home, a Delhi­based practice that designs interiors

and furniture. The company has both domestic and international clients — recent projects

include homes in Chennai, Mumbai and New York — and the group also works with local artisans

to create custom­made furniture for its residential and retail customers.

“Five years ago, most high­end interiors in India looked like clones of one another: large minimal

spaces with furniture and lighting imported from the top Italian brands,” Goyal says. “But

recently tastes have become more sophisticated. There is a greater degree of individuality and

adventure and an appreciation of homegrown Indian design. Spaces are looking more

interesting.”

Young designers are also experimenting with a more Indian identity in their work. Farzin

Adenwalla founded Bombay Atelier in 2013 and creates handcrafted furniture and lighting. Her

Agarbatti table (from $900) references incense sticks with its elegant metal feet, and her brightly

coloured metal Namaste chair (from $250) evokes the traditional palm­together greeting.

Adenwalla sees this as a promising time for young creatives in India. “We have the opportunity to

look at how we are living and what is relevant today,” she says. “It’s not about copying western

influences any more but about developing our own identity and pushing traditional craft into

more contemporary styles.”

Although a national visual style has yet to fully develop, a focus on craftsmanship and local

materials is beginning to emerge as a key part of the Indian design vernacular.

Architect Rooshad Shroff (http://rooshads.wix.com/rooshadshroff) launched his studio in

Mumbai in 2011, following degrees at Cornell and Harvard and stints working with Zaha Hadid

and OMA, Rem Koolhaas’s Rotterdam­based practice. Along with interiors for commercial clients

such as Louboutin, he creates bespoke residential spaces for private clients and also has a

limited­edition furniture collection, including an Embroidered sofa (from €22,000) and bespoke

hand­carved marble lightbulbs (from €690).

“Indian design is more about the act of making rather than an aesthetic,” says Shroff. “It’s about

handmade and local materials such as marble, wood, leather and brass. Traditional Indian motifs

such as paisley print are still referenced but in a more pop­art way.”

Working on an Embroidered sofa, from €22,000, rooshads.wix.com

Designer Manasa Prithvi of Ira Studio takes a broader perspective, reflecting India’s multi­ethnic

society of 1.25bn people and 22 official language groups. “Indian design is as complex and diverse

as the country itself,” she says, “but generally it is infused with craft and is inspired by vernacular

objects. It’s about reinterpreting these objects; there’s a nod towards tradition but products are

more contemporary and functional for life today.”

Ira Studio creates handmade, limited­edition and bespoke products using traditional crafts, such

as its teak and brass Tekku stools (from $775 each). “In the past, the concept of luxury in India

was all about ornate pieces and surface embellishment. Simple and refined design wasn’t seen as

value for money. That’s changing and young urban consumers particularly are beginning to focus

more on quality and simplicity,” says Prithvi.

It is young urban consumers who are likely to drive the design sector in India. According to

Euromonitor, the country’s median income per household is set to increase by almost 90 per cent

in real terms by 2030, with the number of middle­class households exceeding 90m (up from 74m

in 2014).

Blue/Mint Coconut Palm Pickers cushion, £52

Coral Coconut Palm Pickers double quilt, £187, safomasi.com

Many western companies, such as Ikea, UK retailer Habitat and US brand West Elm, source

products in India, and Ikea plans to launch a series of stores in the country from next year. If

others follow, it will be a strong impetus for growth in the national design industry.

At present India has relatively few design retailers, online stores such as Indelust being the

exception. The company sponsored the This is India exhibition at this year’s London Design

Festival (http://next.ft.com/content/19d647da­62e4­11e6­8310­ecf0bddad227), presenting the

work of 12 designers including Studio Objectry, metal specialist Taamaa and textile (http://next.f

t.com/content/f2b6e154­6213­11e5­9846­de406ccb37f2) designer Safomasi.

The show was curated by Spandana Gopal, founder and creative director of the Anglo­Indian

design group Tiipoi. “The wealthy elite travel abroad, have context around design and now want

to buy Indian design,” she says. “But the middle class can’t afford to do so at the moment because

the work of independent designers tends to fall into the luxury price bracket. I think it’s only a

matter of time before designers begin to find ways to reach a broader local audience.”

Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to

distribute to others. © The Financial Times Ltd.

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