Design Parti

With the company’s wide spectrum of
products, it’s natural to witness hundreds of
diverse waste materials – from locks, furniture
to aerospace – amounting to a vast material
laboratory. The designers of Godrej & Boyce
look at these wastes as raw materials for their
design ideation. They explore their possibilities
– strength, versatility, textures and behaviours
– to incubate new ideas, and prototype those to
put them to the best use, which in turn leads to
zero wastage. One of their recent projects,
sculptures made out of typewriter parts, The
Lotus and the Mandalas displayed at Godrej & Boyce, stands
testimony to their commitment and vigour indesigning of the product.
expected to be ambitious and invent incredible
things. We want them to broaden their
perspective as possibilities are absolutely
endless,” he said on an encouraging note.
Product designing is indeed a niche field that has
engraved a significant mark in the design field.
Basically called industrial designing, the field
covers a broad spectrum in a world where
everything around us is ‘designed’! This
Summerlight Furniture
initiative, thus, is an attempt to raise the
awareness of good design in the world and
further offer the designers a chance to establish themselves in this
niche field.
Jha emphasises that with such vast resources available under one
shelter, “if the young designers are given an opportunity to explore
their horizon, it would open up their mind; broaden their thinking; and
most importantly, it would communicate to them that anything is
possible!”
Product designing sounds fancy and one assumes that it’s created to
the whims and fancies of a designer. But, in reality, the designer goes
through an excruciatingly painful process right from designing,
procuring of materials to prototyping the ideas, in tandem with one
another, before its mass production. So unarguably, there seems to be
a slight hitch in projecting out the creativities to the masses. “If one
has to mass produce a product, it is essential to have knowledge of
materials and their availability, the process of mass production and
availability of machines. The lack of exposure to the designers, in
India mostly, makes it difficult to prototype their ideas to life,” he
expressed.
The initiative of Godrej Design Lab involves a vigorous mentoring of
the selected young product designers and meticulous review of their
prototype – concept, material usability, technology adaptation and
uniqueness, to name a few. But more importantly, “The designers are
With this I can only anticipate an increase in the product designers in
the community and look forward to spectacular things to shape up our
world!
Hemmant Jha, Chief Design Officer at Godrej &
Boyce, has more than 18 years of experience in
architecture and design. He has a Master of
Architecture degree from Yale University and an
undergraduate degree from the School of
Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.
Hemmant is the Founder and Executive Director
of Wheelwell, a non-profit organisation
dedicated to the creation of products and
technologies for physically disabled people.
Before joining Godrej Design Center, he was the Design Director at IA
Collaborative and was responsible for conceptualising, designing and
developing products and building environments for IA's global clients.
He has also worked with Sony Electronics Design Center across Los Angeles
and Tokyo, and with Harman International Advanced Research Group in Los
Angeles.
Al Crochet
Architecture Update February 2016 23