Doshi Levien at Grand-Hornu Images, BE — A preview about their process, background and passion

Doshi Levien is a London based design office, established in 2000 by Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien. Doshi Levien’s work celebrates the hybrid and explores the coming together of cultures, technology, story telling, industrial design and fine craftsmanship. Working across disciplines and industries, they make their own rules that are based on extracting as much richness as possible out of an idea. Doshi Levien work with a selection of renowned companies including Moroso, Cappellini, Intel, Authentics, Kvadrat, Camper and BD Barcelona. Doshi Levien has been the focus of on-going and intense interest in the media, generating significant editorial value for their clients.

Nipa Doshi has curated the show of Europalia India at Grand-Hornu Images, BE, “Living Objects Made for India”  which takes place until 16 Feb 2014.
She explores in this exhibition which will be highlighted in our Winter issue of TLmag the link between Indian handicrafts, design and cultural identity.

In the streets of Ahmedabad, where she studies at the National Institute of Design, she discovers the local savoir-faire, especially in textiles, as well as these day-to-day objects that are part of a country’s cultural identity. Nipa brought back a lots of objects from this travel to India back to the Grand-Hornu. Marie Pok, director of GHI, suggested to her and Jonathan to focus on a selection of objects selected from households, bazaars and other boutiques that abound all over the Indian territory. Being typically very simple, these objects are used every day in the kitchen and for cleaning, meals, bathing, prayer sessions, divine cults, weddings and other celebrations. Some of them are assemblies or hybrids that are combining various functions. By their view on the selection and a personal scenographic concept, Doshi Levien reveal these objects under a new light.

In the video we show here, the designers talk about their working process, the way they got involved in industrial design since a young age and how they look at it now.