Studio journal
For building better spaces.
Notes from the work around the work: recent events, site observations, guides, and the detail decisions behind carpentry, millwork, electrical coordination, lighting design, materials, and interior delivery.
Explore the journalA good brief is not a style document. It is a protection document: it tells the designer what must not be lost — the morning light in the east room, the budget's true ceiling, the storage a family of five actually generates, the...
Read articleBefore a single machine is purchased, a building's orientation has already decided most of its thermal life. In a hot-humid climate like Bengal's, the working rules are old and unglamorous: keep the long faces toward north and south,...
01A diagnostic centre's interior succeeds or fails on decisions made before any equipment is unboxed: how samples move without crossing patients, which rooms need radiation shielding and regulatory clearance, where uninterrupted power...
02There is no best facade material — there is a best material for a given face of a given building, chosen for how it handles four things Kolkata guarantees: driving monsoon rain, months of high humidity, hard summer sun, and airborne...
03Kolkata is built on what the river left behind: deep layers of soft, water-laden clay and silt, with the water table close enough to the surface that most excavations meet it quickly. This ground carries buildings differently from the...
04A landscape in Kolkata is designed for two opposite failures: roots drowning in July and beds baking in May. The plant list, which gets most of the attention, is actually the third decision. First comes water — where every drop of...
05An old North Kolkata house is not a flat with more history — it is a different construction system with its own rules. The walls are load-bearing brick in lime mortar, not a frame with infill; the plaster breathes; the floors may ride...
06An office fit-out budget behaves better when it is thought of per seat rather than per square foot, because the seat carries everything the square foot hides: the workstation, its share of meeting rooms, services, storage, and...
07Eight weeks before Pujo is enough time to transform how a home feels — and not enough time to transform what it is. Painting, polish refresh, lighting improvements, soft furnishing, deep repairs to one problem area: these fit, done in...
08An X-ray room is the one room in a diagnostic fit-out that is legally a different kind of construction. Its walls carry radiation shielding — lead lining or barium-plastered masonry to specified equivalences; its layout requires...
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