THE POWER OF EXPERIENTIAL DESIGN

A dialogue on turning memories, travels and cultural encounters into spaces that resonate over time

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In Episode 6 of Schueco India's Inside View series, The Power of Experiential Design, presented in collaboration with Architecture+Design and Lifestyle Asia India, the conversation between Maroof Umar (Cultural Storyteller), Joya Nandurdikar (Founding Partner, Untitled Design), and Haresh P. Lakhani (Founder, HP Lakhani) explores how travel, memory and cultural context leave lasting imprints on design. Together, they reflect on the ways spaces are shaped not just by what we see, but by what we carry within us.

MEMORY AS A MAP

For Maroof, memory is where the process begins. “You start remembering those moments and you start going through dada ki ghadi, dadi ki chadi, right? All these small, small elements and I'm very close to these things,” he says. These keepsakes, seemingly ordinary, carry extraordinary weight. They are not just objects but vessels of family stories, and their presence shapes how we interpret space.

It's why he believes storytelling is inseparable from design. “Whenever we go to any city, I feel every city has its unique identity, and the majority of that identity comes from the architecture and the color palette that each city has,” he notes. In his hometown of Lucknow, winding lanes carry memories just as houses do, each façade telling its own tale. For Maroof, design that acknowledges these stories becomes a part of the lived narrative.

TRAVEL AS EDUCATION