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Fables in form

Attiq ahmed’s designs bring together mughal and british colonial era influences

Design, much like other manifestations of art, has the power to be at once culturally rooted and universal. This is the thought that strikes you when you look over the latest work from Pakistani designer Attiq Ahmed’s design studio, Turning Tables. This recent collection of lamps, tables and more made him a winner in the Young Talent category at the 13th Annual Elle Décor International Design Awards. “This line is extremely close to my heart, also because it’s our first collection,” Ahmed says, as he retraces his design journey with us.
With a degree in Urban Design from Columbia University, Attiq’s initial forays into the world of design were a series of market surveys conducted on request, intended as much to help people asking him for furniture suggestions as they were to broaden his own information spectrum. “My entry into the field was quite incidental, really. But once I began, what I was doing grew into architectural projects and eventually, the whole line that was realised last year,” he shares.

The award-winning collection, in keeping with his own inherent design aesthetic, draws upon influences from the Mughal and British Colonial periods. Ask him how he brought two rather distinct design languages together and he points out, “You know, this is something peculiar to both India and Pakistan, intrinsic to our collective subcontinental reality — our existence already incorporates both influences together. If you look at Delhi or Lahore, you’ll find them both woven together like so many varied narratives to form one seamless present. The combination wasn’t something alien to me, therefore, and wasn’t at all difficult to work with. I mean, one has grown up seeing old colonial furniture inherited from grandparents, walking through the Lahore Fort and so on. In both cases, you’re touched by the sensory experience of interacting with that furniture and architecture respectively.”

Besides his historic-cultural roots, Ahmed’s background in architecture seems to have fed into his design sensibility in several ways, including in his choice of material. His new line uses wood, metal, brass, marble. “I think the materials I use are a natural result of having been trained as an architect. I’ve had to study materials and their qualities, and you learn to innovate on their inherent weaknesses or strengths with time. While making furniture, so as not to restrict the imagination, I have been factoring in that training and thinking about the various materials suited to specific designs, their availability and so on. A lot of it is really procedure-based design, where I sit with my entire team when we have an idea, draw up a sketch and just toss the ball around till something takes shape that I’m keen on taking further,” he explains and goes on to add that another signature aspect of his design aesthetic is an undercurrent of luxury.

He elaborates, “I think there’s a sense of restrained glamour in my design sensibility that keeps showing up in what I create. I do also find that all the pieces are designed as sculptural objects. That is again owing to my training as an architect, as well as my interest in painting and sculpture. All of it seems to have come together into one cohesive spectrum.”

Attiq, who deeply admires the work of designers Marc Newson and Konstantin Grcic, is at present working on the upcoming Turning Tables line that will be out next year, aside from heading the third year architectural design studio at National College of Arts in Pakistan.

( Source : deccan chronicle )
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