The collection consists of three mini planters, based on Indian water towers, and two vases based on the metro flyovers that dominate the landscape of many an Indian metropolis.
Siment miniaturises functional and architectural features like pipework, ladders and stairs, rendering them into decorative elements. The vases and planters were 3D-printed; silicone moulds were made from the prints and then cast in concrete.
Siment will launch during London Design Festival 2018 at the exhibition ‘Edit 18’ at twentytwentyone, River Street. In addition, there will be an immersive window display at twentytwentyone, Upper Street, where the collection will be available to buy.
Collection details
According to Spandana Gopal, Founder of the design studio, the pieces represent the blurring of function and decoration that is synonymous with India.
“We became fascinated by these incredible Brutalist structures,” he commented. “Despite their original purpose, they have now been absorbed by their present environment, in a way you don’t see elsewhere in the world. There are many cases where people have taken it upon themselves to decorate these structures, to paint and maintain them. The fact that someone has taken the time to decorate something that was intended as a purely functional structure, is an attitude particular to India.”
With advances in the technology of water pumping, many of the public water towers are now defunct.
As a result, they have taken on inventive, secondary functions, serving as an ornament to the neighbourhood, masquerading as a canvas for political posters, allowing themselves to be organically reclaimed by nature.
Tiipoi conducted a photographic study of the forms of the water towers, and pillars in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. The water towers were then categorised into three key styles, and the metro and flyover pillars into two. After an iterative process, a 3D file was then drawn that visually encapsulated each of the five categorised styles.
Siment miniaturises functional and architectural features like pipework, ladders and structural ridges, rendering them into decorative elements.
Working closely with a manufacturer in Mumbai, each of the designs were 3D-printed, moulds made in silicone and then cast in concrete. Due to the level of detail, each piece is poured by hand on a vibrating table to make sure the concrete flows into every corner of the mould.
Gopal continues: “At Tiipoi, we like to tell stories about India as it is; nothing hidden, nothing tidied. These Brutalist structures offer honest insight into the living and breathing cityscapes of the country. With Siment, we enjoyed playing with the concepts of function and decoration. The emerging relationship offered us an imagination of how purpose redefines itself every generation.”
Siment aims to explore transforming concrete from a material of pure functionality into an opportunity for decoration.
Background
India’s relationship with concrete began with the infrastructural buildings of the Public Works Department, in the early 1920s under the rule of the British Raj. With a desire to create an aesthetic unfettered by traditions of the past, a vision for the future was manifested in Le Corbusier’s design for Chandigarh, which was built just two years after partition in 1949. Through the boom years of the 1990s, huge urban redevelopment took place with concrete again becoming the material of choice. These lumbering structures soon populated cityscapes – their grey monotony sitting at odds with India’s tendency towards vibrancy and decoration.