Inner Sanctum

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It was in 2013 when I visited Bijoy Jain, who had recently been awarded the BSI Swiss Architectural Award, at his studio in Alibagh. I accompanied the then ambassador of Switzerland who was keen to know more about his practice, having been the recipient of this prestigious prize. Until then (as he continues till now), Bijoy was the hallowed architect — elusive, reticent, barely seen in social circles in his city. The visit, however, confounded me! I expected, as one would in an architect’s studio, things related to architecture — models, architectural drawings, etc...But that was the smallest part of the studio practice. What I encountered was an experience of someone who was playing with form, material, structure, colour — all of which could well be present within an architect’s studio — yet there was something else happening.

Was I instead in a highly conceptual artist’s studio?

There were hundreds of custom-made bricks (a signature material of Bijoy’s architectural style), but the bricks were coloured in (almost) garish colours of pink, green, blue. Installed as open rooms (a section of a structure as if demolished), a cycle that was layered by bricks, large installations of rooms that embodied the memory of a panbeedi shop, the American minimalist Donald Judd-like open structure and netted tents that were temporary homes of construction workers dotted the driveway to the studio.