Gallery Magazine features a guest architect every issue to showcase original or unpublished work in the form of a magazine. The second issue, published in July 2023, features India’s Studio Mumbai. Completed with a box of contemplative landscapes, this issue’s “Recollections” is both a box of curiosities and the ever-evolving content of Studio Mumbai.
It is the culmination of a long conversation between architect Bijoy Jain, who leads Studio Mumbai, and art director Taku Satoh. Their conversations become vessels for contemplative landscapes. It presents itself as a non-referential, composite work. Within this space, diverse contents converge to establish new relationships, evoking thoughts and possibilities.
The 31×24.5×6cm, 2.3kg plywood box opens to reveal 16 artifacts, 5 booklets, a red sealing wax, and a Tusar silk cushion. The booklets include an accordion book, a dialogue book, and a dictionary, while the short sentences on the cards explain Studio Mumbai’s philosophy. “Civilization blooms on fluid currents, ebbing and flowing, transforming itself in the process. Air, water, and light are our essential construct.”
Studio Mumbai’s focus on the environment and materials is evident in its contemporary architectural designs, which explore our relationship with nature and utilize natural or local resources such as stone and wood. Limited to 1,000 copies.
Studio Mumbai is an architecture practice in Alibag, India, founded in 2005 by Vijoy Jain. A small group of carpenters and masons handle both design and construction. Their work is a blend of tradition and modernity, local materials and Indian craftsmanship, and attention to detail. Their work is inclusive and attentive. They first made a name for themselves at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010 with their installation ‘Work-Place’, and later designed the M Pavilion at the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne, Australia, which was shown at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale and again at the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennale. In 2018, he won a competition to expand and renovate the Beaucastel winery in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, owned by the Perrin family.
