The Evolution of Indian Urban Interiors From 1989-2009

8/9/2019 The Evolution of Indian Urban Interiors From 1989-2009

1/11

Evolution of the Urban domestic interiors from 1989 to 2009

History of Design

Sumegha Mantri

Exhibition and spatial design

2009


2/11

As the title suggests, this essay traces the evolution of the 'Urban' Indian home in the

lasttwo decades.

In these twenty years,I have lived in four housessituated in twoof India's largest cities

Kolkata and Mumbai. The cities aredistinctly different from each other. Kolkata on theeastern coast is the Capital city of the state of West Bengal. Even though the

predominant living culture is Bengali, many other communities like the Marwaris and

the Chinese call the city their own. It's a large city, with a huge population and a wide

economic divide between the rich and the poor. The state has been under the CPI (m)

government for long - twenty five years under its Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. Therefore,

the common way of thought is in the communist direction, even though the Marwaris

of Kolkata are well known for their entrepreneurship. The city harbours a rich cultural

and social diversity andpeoplehavean interest in the arts and sports. Also, it'sthe cityof the Metro and the maidans, a city that runs at its own pace the fast and slow co-

exist, like the tram and the metro. It does not push its citizens into a frenzied

timetable. On one hand there would be children leaving for school at sunrise, and on

the other, most of the local shops are closed at noon, for the shopkeepers to go home

and enjoytheir mid-day siesta.

Mumbai on the western coast is the city that never sleeps. It's a fast city, with local

trains zipping to get people around. Mumbai is the commercial capital of the country,

and unlike Kolkata which is peacefully cosmopolitan, I have known Mumbai to be

grudgingly cosmopolitan, especially in the recent years, after the change in name

from Bombay to Mumbai. It is the city of Bollywood and the city of dreams. And in

being the city of dreams and possibilities, Mumbai faces large urban migration and is

cramped for space. The suburban areas are a tessellation of faster and ever higher

growing skyscrapers and places like the Dharavi slum, where people do not have the

resources to build skywardsare cramped at theground level.

It is very important to know the context of the urban settings in which the homes are

based, because a lot of what is inside the home is directly influenced by the conditions

outside, in thecity, in thecountry andin theworld.


3/11


4/11


5/11


6/11

Personalization of the space. The posters show the influence of cable

television and the opening up of the economy to let entertainment from

other countries come into the Indian market.

The wall finishes have undergone a substantial

in the past two decades. From simple white

lime finished walls to special paint andtextures on todays walls. People have started

using bolder brighter colours and textures on

their walls. Companies like Asian Paints have

not only reinvented their technology, but also

redefined the way in which the urban India

homeis coloured.

2009 - Mumbai

2009 - Mumbai

2009 - Mumbai

2009 - Mumbai


7/11

2009 -Mumbai 2009 -Mumbai

In the above images, notice the change in the floor pattern and tiling.

The windows - punctures in our box like homes have also changed. The

image from 1991 shows a grilled window in the background, with a hingedframe system. In the image from 2009, the window lacks a visible grill on the

inside. The glass is smoky black and not transparent, mounted on a sliding

window system.

Both the houses are apartments - parts of larger community dwellings,

building. The house in the 1991 image is on the third floor of a five storey

building. The present house is on the eleventh floor of a thirteen storey

building. The view from their respective windows is starkly different.

1996-Kolkata

1991-Kolkata

2009 -Mumbai

There has also been a change in the choice of upholstery for

the sofas.This being influenced by a greater variety of fabrics

available in the market and also the changing trends - of

matching theupholstery tothewall colours andtextures.


8/11


9/11

At this point of time, the television and phone used to occupy centre-stage in

most homes. They were usually placed in the main hall or the 'drawing room.'

The phone was usually kept on a small mat, on a side table surrounded by a

telephone directory and a writing pad and a pen stand. Often, one could also

find photo-frames and show pieces around the device telling of theimportance that thedeviceoccupied in outeveryday lives.

The design of the actual device has also changed from the turn dial to the push

button. The telephone looked as if it had undergone a rigorous diet

programme and had become sleek and lightweight. The cordless phone

evolved some years later and made life free from wires. This was the precursor

for the mobile phone. It meant mobility within the house even when on a

telephonic conversation.

This is also the time when the

'Intercom' evolved. Rooms in the

same house had separate devices

all connected to a single

telephone number. Incoming callscould be transferred from one

room to another at the push of a

button. There was no longer a

need to call out to the person.

This caused further segregation of

the private space within the

house and the family. The privatespheres of people shrunk from

being the entire houses, to being

individual rooms within those

houses.

Intecom

The cordless

phone

Kolkata - 1996


10/11

Simultaneously, at about the same time and more so in the late 1990s, the

mobile phones had also stepped into the Indian market. They were expensive

luxuries then, with exorbitant incoming and outgoing call charges. The device

itself was a bulky mobile phone with antennae and a fraction of the features

thatthe i-phone offers today.

However, with competition in themarket andtheadvent of technology, mobile

phones have now become ubiquitous. As families have nuclearized, its

members feel an increasing need to stay connected and to feel the security of

that connection. Mobile phones networks are a physical manifestation of this

connectivity.The landline telephone is slowly on its way out for the urban,

upper middle class home and so is its function of tying and unifying people andspaces in the urban household. In many households today, all its members

possess mobilephones, sometimesin a grouptariff plan that suits their needs.

To conclude, the mobile phones have better connected the world, but have

simultaneously further defined the boundaries of 'private-space' within the

home. The number of phones per-capita have substantially increased and

parts of this private sphere have also proliferated into the virtual worldthrough online social networking. One can now reach the required person

directly, without having to pass through thefamily members. With themerging

of the technologies of the internet and the mobile phone into one small

handheld device, this segregation of private space within the house has

become evenmoreprominenttoday.

Http://kottkegae.appspot.com/images/iphone-parallels.jpgHttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/

58/Nokia_5110.jpg/450px-Nokia_5110.jpg]

The evolution of telephones over the years - form, function and technology.


11/11

REFERENCES

Books

Das, Gurcharan. 'India Unbound - From Independence to the Global Information Age,' PenguinBooks, 2000.

Varma, Pavan K. 'Being Indian - The truth about why the 21 century will be India's,' Penguin

Books, 2004.

Web references

Communications in India:'The Indian Telecom Industry', report by Vatsal Goyal and Premraj Suman ,Consulting Club,IIM

Calcutta:

'Sam Pitroda's OneWallet: Doing It His Way,' case study by Enric Gili Fort, Dan Greene, Rishabh

Singh & Albert Wang, Illinois Institute of Technology, Institute of Design. Spring 2006:

Sam Pitroda Wikipedia:

'The telecom journey', by B.S. Padmanabhan:

'Enhancing telecom access in rural India: some options', by

Paper presented at India Telecom Conference Asia-Pacific Research

Center, Stanford University, November 2000.

Image Credits

st

Subhash Bhatnagar Indian Institute Of

Management, Ahmedabad. ,

All other images have been taken by Sumegha Mantri and other members of the family, unless

specified otherwise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_in_India

http://www.iimcal.ac.in/community/consclub/reports/telecom.pdf

http://trex.id.iit.edu/~enricg/portfolio/case_study/OneWallet_Case_Study.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Pitroda

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2020/stories/20031010005111800.htm

The Evolution of Indian Urban Interiors From 1989-2009

Documents

Transcript of The Evolution of Indian Urban Interiors From 1989-2009