Studio Matter, a practice that believes in the negotiation of ideals - of core values, that become the guiding principles and ways to reinforce decisions, as against a stringent Manifesto laid on a stone, was born as a publishing Studio with intention of providing curatorial and editorial services. 

The interview with the Studio’s co-founding partner Rituraj Parikh introduced aspects of collaboration and matrix working in the office where there is a continuous flux of people who bring new ideas that are tested and accepted if they do larger good to the project. These values are basic and universal at the same time where the office tends to rewrite them.

Design Process: 

Rituraj’s instinct to design is preceded by the instinct to delay the point of putting the pen to paper, where the architect deliberates and pursues writing the program brief before initiating discussions on the project. He quotes Todd and Biley’s “Slowness”, which reflects his ideology that is often put to pilot by a spasm in the office colleagues who are always excited to start working immediately. 

The design and work in the office have prerogatively modified, improved, and evolved with influence from the publishing and archiving segment. Conversations, Conclaves, and constant interviews have also shaped their work, says the architect. THINKMATTER, MERIT LIST and FLAME, the three child brains of Studio Matter thus, hold the chord for the practice in an important way.

 

On Standardization- 

With such stature and trailblazing achievements in establishing themselves as a unique studio, Matter is still imagined as a practice that aspires to grow out of Rituraj and Manasi - the principals and yearns to live outside of people. It bears no signature style or commitments to methodology, material, the visual, or the iconic and instead dwells in “ Quiet kind of work ”. The difficult negotiations that come with ambitious projects and hint in the direction to an indulgent and consumptive architecture is usually refrained by the office.

 

Collaboration and Office Structure: 

The Clients, associates, Interns, and Colleagues in the studio are made a part of the secular ecology of the office and often continue or return. The Studio has been successful in working on commissions from clients that tie up for long terms and invest in the studio beyond architecture- they attend lectures, events and provide funding too. Rituraj emphasizes his intuition which works well for client selection. The office has largely been shared by 12 people at a maximum at a time including the principals, who cohabit spaces and share books, drawings, and also screen movies sessions. The larger vision as brought to the table, within two weeks by Rituraj, is achieved through the efforts of all teams and collaborators. The architect agrees that it is difficult to relinquish the idea to have single authorship and that one needs to play the role of a “Conductor of an Orchestra” rather than an expert to make sense of everything, to collate the humongous efforts of engineers, architects, craftsmen, and many others.  

Rituraj also lists some important aspects of collaboration that are acquired- a. Complementary skills of collaborators b. To Relinquish Control, c. Forming a Discipline of having serious conversations within the project with the architects in the office (usual meetings in the office happen around the round table where everyone can eavesdrop- which becomes a way of generating transparency in information about the project,  d. To put assertion on Better Resolutions, irrespective from whom they come, e. Finding the “Middle Ground”. 

The limitations of growing beyond an office of 12 are understood and the architect gives examples of Brindaya Somaya and Kallapa Consultants and Allies and Morisson from London, to explain different models of practices that he learns from.

Lastly, The practice believes that observation, drawing, speculating are pivotal in design while investing in a corpus for emergencies becomes a good way to secure the practice itself. The cyclic and periodical work of THINKMATTER supports the practice of architecture and the two are inevitably dependent on each other, for this practice that is prompt in their outreach and comprehensive in conduct.