A Pakistani design team is showcasing its unique installation at the first London Design Biennale which has drawn participants from 30 different countries to explore the theme ‘Utopia by Design’.
The London Design Biennale, being held at Somerset House from 7-27 September, aims to address big ideas about sustainability, migration, cities, and social equality. By displaying innovative and interactive installations and artworks, design teams from around the world are looking to stretch the limits of human imagination through an inspiring approach to design.
Karachi-based Coalesce Design Studio is presenting newly commissioned works that explore the exhibition’s theme ‘Utopia by Design’ — marking the 500th anniversary of Sir Thomas More’s book — through a classic concoction of nostalgia and tradition.
Coalesce Design Studio’s installation ‘Daalaan’ is an abstract playground where visitors are invited to revisit the utopian worlds they create as children. The installation comprises a series of fabrics with illustrations of traditional games hanging from the ceiling and seats below resembling spinning tops. The idea is to motivate strangers to rediscover the child in them; as they sit and spin and gaze up at the illustrations, they would drop their guard and travel back to a time when they were uninhibited by adult anxieties. The design team hopes that the installation would bring strangers together to discuss ideas with open minds without pre-conceived notions, just like they did when they were kids. As the studio puts it, the sheesham wood objects, spinning tops, hand-drawn art and illustrations make for a playground where “imagination has no bounds”.
‘Daalaan’ has been selected by leading architecture and design magazine Icon as one of the top six pavilions on display at the London Design Biennale. Of the 37 installations dotting the corridors and courtyards of Somerset House, the publication picked the biblical stone slab depicting a new map of Utopia from Belgium, a short film highlighting the plight of displaced Syrians from France, a fictional satellite city from Indonesia, a series of digital infographics from Mexico, ‘Daalaan’ from Pakistan and archives of Soviet design from Russia as its favourites.
The design team behind ‘Daalaan’:
Curator Salman Jawed: Co-founded Coalesce Design Studio soon after his graduation from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVSAA) in 2008. He and the studio are pioneers of product/industrial design in Pakistan. Salman and his team focus on picking up indigenous themes and merging them with “worldly” design through creation of unique furniture, light installations and bespoke products emphasizing tradition and contemporary design simultaneously.
Ali S. Hussain: Karachi-based graphic designer with 12 years of experience in design and printing.
Faiza Adamjee: Graphic designer with eight years of agency experience.
Hina Fancy: IVSAA graduate based in Islamabad who works as an independent designer specializing in print.
Zaid Hameed: Textile designer by profession with interest in indigenous crafts of Pakistan like Hala pottery.
Mustafa Mehdi: IVSAA graduate and principal architect at Coalesce Design Studio.