New-Delhi-based designer Nikhil Paul spent many summers in Chandigarh while growing up, a fact he once mentioned in passing to Ygaël Attali. Recalling that conversation—though it happened years earlier—the co-founder of Galerie Philia invited him to participate in Héritages, a show to celebrate 70 years of the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille and its architect, Le Corbusier. The modernist housing complex, which was completed in 1952, was the French architect’s first large-scale project in Europe. Radical for its approach to communal living, the self-contained structure included everything from shops to residences, and even an outdoor gym, nursery, running track, and paddling and swimming pools on the roof.
The exhibition, which runs till 2 July, features eight international designers, each of whom have contributed a new work that reflect upon the French architect’s oeuvre. The works are split between two rooms of an apartment within the UNESCO heritage site—Resonances, which features creations inspired by Le Corbusier’s legacy, and Dissonances, with displays that critique the architects’ theories. “Le Corbusier is considered one of the most influential historical figures in contemporary design. Either by affiliation or disaffiliation, the ensemble of works in this exhibition questions his work and his legacy, and intends to respond to his theoretical but also polemical genius,” says Attali.
Paul Matter Studio‘s entry occupies the former and is the studio’s first floor lamp, a necessity for this, “extremely site-specific piece,” as nothing could be suspended or attached to the walls within the space. Titled Envol, it comprises a burnt brass stand with patinated iron arms that span 10 feet and end in blown glass spheres. “This is the fastest we’ve made a design,” says Paul, with the brief coming to the studio in early 2022. He explains that the lamp draws from Le Corbusier’s Modulor (a system that combines the golden ratio with the proportions of a six-foot-tall man) and the rotating Open Hand Monument installed at Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex. “We wanted to design something along the same lines–which opens up into a space. We’ve taken the two ends and exaggerated proportions, but it’s still proportional, to make it more functional,” he elaborates.
Taking inspiration from the span of thumb to the little finger, Paul used aluminium mock-ups and honed the final design. Given Le Corbusier’s own use of primary colours, the designer says he thought of incorporating them into the light fixture but dropped the idea. The ultimate design then is a coming together of Paul’s meticulous minimalism and Le Corbusier’s rigorous proportions.
