Global Indian design

Lately, there has been a steady decrease in the trend of filling homes with inexpensive furniture and covering the walls with the kind of paintings you can buy at Ikea. Instead, there has been an unprecedented revival in the desire to collect real design, the kind you find at design galleries as opposed to chain stores. A direct result of this much awaited shift in the market is a rejuvenation of young, homegrown talent in fields like art, design and even fashion. These designers have started to create a new design language, combining century-old techniques with a contemporary sensibility and materials.
This week, I've profiled three young designers who effortlessly blend elements of architecture into their designs - Gunjan Gupta Rooshad Shroff and Yasanche. These designers create dynamic and beguiling forms that draw attention to the piece in question and simultaneously investigate ideas of spatial awareness.
These three designers have helped push the envelope of traditional design in India by steadily combining traditional concepts, material and aesthetics with international design trends.

Gunjan Gupta
The industrial designer is well known for her signature India-inspired designs. Gupta is the mind behind the iconic Bicycle throne, a chair made from assorted bicycles. Working between Mumbai and Delhi, she steers her industrial and interior design company Wrap from her 10,000 sq feet studio in Delhi. The former St Martins college graduate has been creating new work for over 10 years.
Gupta combines Indian elements and contemporary international designs.
In collections like 'Past Modern' on display at Era Studio in Milan, are pieces like the Potli chair and the Bartan Chair, works inspired from the designer's everyday environment. Material is key to Gupta's practice, her holistic and architectural approach to various materials is playful in context and form.
Gupta has exhibited her works in numerous international events and fairs from Dubai to Miami. Look out for her work at Milan Design Week.

Rooshad Shroff
Founder of a multi-disciplinary design studio in Mumbai, Shroff's practice operates between the fine lines that separate art, design and architecture.
While his practice is predominately architectural, Shroff often works with products and furniture. With a Masters in Architecture from Howard and years of work experience with renowned architects like Zaha Hadid and Inaki Abalos, it isn't hard to see an immediate influence of architectural elements in Shroff's furniture.
Shroff's C series, a range of furniture made in Burma teak wood, is completely handcrafted. Its sharp edges, unconventional forms and geometric surfaces are echoed in other pieces like the Pringle series and embroidered sofas.
Shroff's series of marble tables, for instance, opts for smooth lines and curves but appears equally architectural. It creates multiple perspective points without fragmenting the piece with an interesting play of negative and positive space.

Pablo Bartholomew at Sakshi Gallery
Sakshi Gallery presents 'The Calcutta Diaries', an exhibition by the award-winning photographer Pablo Bartholomew. The show runs until May 2 and reveals a narrative of Calcutta and its people in the aftermath of independence.