Reviving traditional crafts through design | The Way We Make

Vernacular crafts have always been very sustainable because predominantly they were a response to the resources available naturally. And they would also be practiced in a way which allows those resources to be replenished regularly. Hi, this is Deepthushvi. And this is Abhirup. We welcome to our space. This is the vernacular model based in Bangalore, Hanoi. And we are a tiny studio which operates from this very interesting location that is almost at the edge of a lake. The practice started with the intention to bring back a lot of the simpler things we had as a part of our everyday life. It was almost like a journey to figure out the aesthetic and the technique separately. A lot of our design kind of stems from our understanding of the craft itself. So whenever we are working with any sector, we kind of try to understand how they perceive a certain product that they're working on or how they perceive their craft itself. And we try to document that and understand it and distill it in a way where it is more about a technique that inspires us to design and to reinterpret the craft, if you would say. So for us, the process begins with a lot of travel, sitting with the artisans, understanding how they are working, how the material is behaving, a lot of intuitive exploration on the ground. So our studio right now is, you know, it's a set of clusters of artisans. So the core cluster, which is based out of Bangalore, is about 12 people. There are 12 artisans and we have another three people for the design team. Workshop come office itself is something which we continuously build upon. As said, it is about 17,000 square feet beside a lake, but we like to keep it empty. The idea always was that how can we connect with the land the same way we connect with our work. It was not about building a very typical shed and then working in darkness in that. It is something where as and when we grow, the spaces slowly add on and increase. So the open spaces, I think also helps us in a lot of our exploration, which needs a certain amount of sunlight, air, natural elements and things like that. And it's also a nice point for us to connect with the artisans.