BENGALURU, 20 JAN

The galleries at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath in City have been buzzing with students, enthusiasts and professionals, all eager to dive into the world of bricks, mortar and imagination over the last two days. The Parishath is hosting a three-day exhibition titled ‘AVANI Exhibition 2024’ organised by Kozhikode-based Avani Institute of Design.

Celebrating the beauty and brilliance of architecture, the exhibition showcased a stunning array of designs and prototypes. Interactive installations transported visitors into immersive experiences, blurring the lines between art and reality. For aspiring architects, the exhibition is a goldmine of inspiration. Workshops conducted by renowned architects such as Sanjay Mohe, Tony Joseph and George Seemon offered valuable insights into the creative process of designing buildings and architecture.

 “The main theme of the exhibition is ‘Where do we belong?” said Michelle Leander, the co-organiser of the exhibition, who is also a student of the institute. “That is a question we as architects ask ourselves. When we build something, it should not be a random building at some place, it should have some kind of context, be it micro-context or macro-context, as to where it comes from. Each building has its vernacular style and features,” Leander said.

The designs on display were based on two themes — ecologies of adaptation and postcolonial pedagogy. In the ecology of adaptation, the ecology of the animals and humans are all able to adapt to that space or the surroundings easily. Postcolonial pedagogy examines the effects of colonialism on the built environment. This theme explores the ways of thinking about built form and space as cultural landscapes.

“The target audience of this exhibition were architects, but we received people who come to the Chitrakala Parishath regularly and even people who write thesis about architecture had attended this exhibition as well,” she added.

Anjali Sujat, an assistant professor at the Avani institute and also the organiser of the exhibition, emphasised how the exhibition was set up by the enthusiastic students within four days. “This is the first time we organised this exhibition in Bengaluru, and the crowd has been amazing till now. We will be having more activities and workshops lined up for tomorrow (Sunday),” Sujat told Salar News.

Leander said they have hosted this exhibition at Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Coimbatore. “This is the fourth exhibition that we have hosted in Bengaluru. Each place has its own significance but as far as I have noticed, the exhibition that was held here was the one where we had the most number of sheets used,” she said. In architecture, sheets are used to arrange and present drawings, plans, and visual elements.