Women who Inspire me

In lieu to the last blog where I talked about being inspired, it turned out to be happy coincidence that the first blog in the series is about women!

Happy International Women’s day ladies!

 If you look around the world, women have been making their voices heard, putting points across and taking the lead in some of the most influential circles. The role of a women in any profession is no more a supporting role but a leading one. 

So when you set out in search of a strong woman you don’t have to look far away. 

She is right there -

In the form of our mothers who can juggle the most difficult tasks and make it looks like a breeze.

In our sisters who gives you half of their cookie,

In a friend, the one who gives you a shoulder when your are heartbroken. 

It is You and it is Me.

One such example who stands out for me is right here in my office - Leena. 

A partner at Sandarbh Design Studio, she is a pro multi-tasker. Intelligent, energetic and beautiful - Leena is constantly persuing new fields to excel in. She's been a model and a VJ, she now focuses her energies on Architecture, Photography and Classical Dance. 

Besides breathing life into every interior design projects she works on, She also brings to life memories as a professional photographer at Red Max Images – a firm that she co founded (you can check out her photography skills here).

But more than all this, she is a great mother to all her kids - 2 and 4 legged :-)

And if you think that this wasn’t enough, she bakes some of the yummiest goodies for all of us at the office! 

Leena is a great example of a woman who truly believes that the sky is absolutely no limit and lives by it! A woman can have a social life, a family life and be kickass in her job.

Leena, thank you for being such an inspiration.

Happy International Women’s day!

Color me Inspired

I often wonder of those moments where inspiration struck people and it completely changed their lives.

The Eureka! Moment.

Imagine the utter joy they must have felt. The extreme sense of awe and amazement. The vision of inspiration may look different to everyone. But I am sure this is something we wait for in life. The sheer happiness of a simple idea forming in your head. That moment of Eureka! That will finally move you forward.

However, often feel like we are stuck in a loop, or end up doing something generic or something that might not give us the satisfaction we expected. Let me tell you, inspiration is not hard to find.

Hence, for the next few days I am going to write about these little moments of inspiration or things, moments and or people in the office who inspire me each day and push me to move forward.

Maybe, Dear Reader, it may help you in your endeavor. And if not that, you may end up with a sweet story.

So ending it on an inspiring note.

Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

-Roald Dhal

I hope you believe in magic.

Intern or Architect?

It has been two months since I joined the office. At this point, I don’t even feel like an intern anymore. When someone says, experience is the real teacher, know that they are the wise ones.

Only in the office have I realized architecture is so much more than Neufert’s and Time Savers. It may hold different meanings for every architect.

In Sandarbh, I am getting to learn the very same. The kind of architect I want to be. Like a render it’s getting clearer by passing time. As of yet it is around 40% done and things are taking form.

So for now, architecture is about molding space according to a client’s personality, needs and habits.

Imagine a space, made just for you. Doesn’t it makes you feel just so darn special?

However recently I have had a wakeup call from the college. Once again they are trying to reinforce their ideas, requirements and deadlines, expecting me to comply from 2000kms afar.
Till now, I had forgotten I was even a student, trying to get 25 credits by the end of my training and finally passing my semester.

I was an architect at Sandarbh, working with other skilled architects, getting things done. I got to apply every skill I have learnt in college and expand on things I am good at! And though the consequences are real while working in the office, so is the work I do and the people I meet.

If you love architecture then you must know, as fun as college maybe. Working as an architect is so much more!

Mukti!

Out of all the clients we currently are designing for , one has a very different set of requirements which is less related to their professional needs and more with their breed. Two human parents with 20+ dogs - they warned us and gave us multiple hints that their kids could turn out to be a little tricky to deal with.

"A family of dogs - how hard would it possibly be to design for them?" we assumed when the project began.

So we designed beautiful large kennels , with ample space for our clients to play around and sleep and finally invited them in.

Little did we know that canine clients are extremely different from human ones?

One of them turned out to be an escape artist. Swift and athletic, she would sneak out of the enclosure - ready to explore the surroundings. So, in an effort to curb her fleeing instincts, we began to bring in design changes into their home. After multiple brainstorming sessions and discussion with her human parents, we tried one technique after the other. 

Since the wire mesh that acted as the gate was the perfect surface for her to insert her paws and climb out, this was changed into FRP sheets.

Did that work?  Well, mischievous as she was, she still found her way out of her home - again. But this time she jumped over a 6ft wall that enclosed her wall. 

We wouldn't give up.

An additional 2ft was added to the wall to make it a high 8ft wall. "This one would definitely work", we hoped.

So what does she do? Taking it as a challenge, she found a guava tree within the compound, cleverly climbed it - and with a bark that said," No way you are stopping me" - happily jumped out of the wall.

How could we stop her? She was Mukti - the dog who was named freedom.

Things they don’t tell you about Client Meetings.

As an intern, I have a few preconceived ideas about professionalism and the corporate world. Of-course recently (Ahem! Today) most of them were proven wrong and a few were validated.

And so, here are a few things that you will never learn in college about client meetings.

Professionalism is a bore

Sure sounding like a professional is necessary however if you overdo it you might just turn out to be a bore. In a first client meeting, it is not only important to establish the fact you are competent enough to do the job however it is also important to be a person they would want to work with. Project yourself as someone they want to hire just for the person you are, even before seeing your work.

Be firm yet funny, sound professional yet peppy.

Have a clear Vision

Sure, a firm handshake is necessary when you meet the client. However it is also necessary to remember that a single handshake is not how you judge the person!

It is necessary to have a clear vision of what you are pitching. Know what you know thoroughly but since it is a first meeting be malleable to the client’s inputs.

Always assume your clients are smarter and they will chew you up if you slip.

Don’t make excuses

It is also necessary to know your strong points. If you are by chance caught off guard by something you were unaware of don’t try to act smart. Your clients are not stupid. Just admit you were uninformed and you will look upon it.

Don’t make excuses!

Have ample of photographs

You work in a very visual field. Have several mood boards ready just for pitching ideas, even if they are quite vague.

By showing enough pictures you will somewhere arrive with at least one picture with the client’s tastes and their needs. For the next meeting build on that.

Be clear with the timing!

I cannot stress enough on this point. When scheduling people often underestimate the total time required for designing.

Make your clients aware of the way you work, and the kind of timeline they should be expecting. It is very important to make them aware of the process, and that it may take time to come up with their dream project.

This way even though they might have underestimated and made errors they would still have time to update their schedule on time.

Holi Hai!!!

Team Sandarbh wishes you a very Happy Holi! May this festival not only bring prosper and happiness but all the colour you need in your life!!!

Pictures By: Jamsheed

Starry Night

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

“It often seems to me that the night is even more richly colored than the day, colored with the most intense violets, blues and greens. If you look carefully, you'll see that some stars are lemony, others have a pink, green, forget-me-not blue glow. And without laboring the point, it's clear to paint a starry sky it's not nearly enough to put white spots on blue-black.” (678, 14 September 1888)

These were the words by the infamous artist Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo, describing his now widely appreciated Starry Night. Enigmatic and one of the most famous work of expressionism is now housed in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City since 1941.

While watching the painting there are various thoughts and emotions that come to mind of the observer. There is a constant feeling of movement. The widely perceived silent night sky seems to be bustling with movement in the artist’s eyes. Moreover, while there is movement in the sky the village below seems unaffected and rather stagnant.

The duality of this motion and rest is what gives the painting a balance. Such turbulent movement in the painting also depicts the inner turmoil and the tempestuous nature of the artist’s mind.

After a breakdown resulting in self-mutilation of his left ear, Vincent Van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole lunatic asylum on 8th May 1889. The year that follows, the artist produced some of the greatest works including the Irises in May 1889, the blue self-portrait, etc. The starry night was painted around mid of June. He wrote to his brother, Theo, to state he had a new study of the Starry night.

He spent a great deal of time studying the view from his ground floor studio in the hospital and depicted it at different times of day under various weather conditions. “These are exaggerations from the point of view of the arrangement, their lines are contorted like those of ancient woodcuts” (805, c. 20 September 1889) he said to his brother in one of his letters which told that he was aware that these paintings were an exercise for developing a style.

The Starry Night is his extensive observation of the night sky, he left Paris and moved for a more rural areas in south France. He could now spend hours contemplating the stars without the interference of gas or electric street lights.

“ This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star which looked very big” (777, c. 31 May 6 June 1889) He wrote to his sister Willemien van Gogh from Arles.

What one might observe is the striking contrast on the canvas. The starry night and the swirling galaxies along with the small lights in the village are brightening the rather dark theme. It gives the feeling of hope. The theme of redemption or the idea of a happy ending.