1)
How NID Ahmedabad started:
1950s were post independence days
and hectic rebuilding of India under Prime Minister Nehru's leadership was
taking place.
At the 'Textiles of India'
Exhibition in New York, Pupul Jayakar met Charles Eames, a world known designer.
Pupul Jayakar was a doyen of Indian culture and close associate of Indira
Gandhi, the would-be prime minister. She envisioned Design as an essential
component for India’s Development. She had influenced the Indian
government to invite Eames to India to advise us how design can help India's
development goals and how to go about it.
In 1958, Charles and Ray Eames
visited major Craft centres in India and presented their 'India Report'. The
report was very evocative and general and the interpretation in terms of
specific physical plan / finance was left out..
Based on that report, NID was
established in 1961. The government considered 3 Indian craft centres for
locating the institute – Hyderabad, Muradabad and Ahmedabad.
The illustrious Sarabhai family which owned
the country’s prominent textile industry, Calico mills, had exceptional
foresight, took keen interest in establishing NID in Ahmedabad and offered free
land. Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian space science, belonged to the
family.
It was the time of Cold war in world
politics and the Nehru cabinet adopted nonalignment policy for India. Thus,
Ford Foundation became major fund provider in India. Museum of Modern Art
(MOMA) New York had sent their “well designed objects” travelling exhibition to
India. The exhibition was sent to Hyderabad, Muradabad and Ahmedabad and finally
the entire collection was donated to NID.
Gautam Sarabhai, the owner of Calico
mills, was its first chairman and Gira Sarabhai, the Founder of Calico Museum
of Textiles, was the first Executive Director.
Finding of design faculty and design
students for this unknown domain of education was the biggest challenge.
Three innovative strategies were
adopted by the management.
1. To invite top designers from abroad to visit NID to work
on National level Projects. The Indian students would learn from them as
trainee apprentices.
2. To invite best teachers from abroad as visiting faculty
to teach at NID for short periods. Some of the best design schools such as Ulm,
Royal college of Art were contacted.
3. To start stipendiary post-graduate programs in different
disciplines for creating teachers.
For this, graduates from related fields such as
architecture, Fine arts and engineering were invited. .After completion of the
PG program, the best among them were sent to great world design schools for
advanced studies.
The Industrial Design Program at NID
started in 1965- 66 with 12 students, (engineering /architecture backgrounds)
and Kumar Vyas was their only full time teacher. Sudha Nadkarni after his
studies at HFG Ulm, joined as second teacher in 1967.
The other disciplines were:
Communication Design program and Ceramic Design program led by Dasarath Patel,
Textile Design program led by Helena Perheentupa (Finland) who decided to stay
permanently in India. The Dean was Prabhakar Bhagwat, landscape architect.
Gautam Sarabhai envisioned the NID
building to speak for itself and reflect the innovative nature of Design. He
appointed N.S.Ramaswamy, Director of I.I.T Rourkee as structural consultant. It
was an experimental building with non-reinforced brick domes, column structure
and rose-wood panels. While the building was under construction, the education
and consultancy work commenced under the hired first floor of ‘Sanskar Kendra’
museum designed by the world famous French architect, Le Corbusier.
On the advice of eminent
educationists such as Yash Pal, NID chose to award only UG/PG level diplomas in
order not to compromise its quality standards.
2)
How IDC Mumbai started:
Adarkar's background was Art
and it was his idea to establish Design as a department in
IIT.
He was shrewd enough to foresee the
uniqueness of design and felt that Bombay, India's commercial hub should
get such a unique privilege than Ahmedabad. He prevailed upon Brigadier
Bose, who was then Director of IIT to start Industrial design Centre as part of
IIT.
In 1968, a team of experts led by
Adarkar, visited NID to check the Industrial design program there. I
personally answered the queries of the group about the program which we were
undergoing then. (A G Rao clearly remembers this.) Subsequently, in 1969
Adarkar invited S.Nadkarni, with A.G.Rao, and Maniram Cattopadhyay from NID to
start ‘Industrial Design Center (IDC)’ at IIT-B. By that time we all have
completed our PG level studies at NID. Uday Athvankar, a graduate of
architecture, after his advanced studies abroad, was also taken as faculty of
IDC.
Those were the only design faculty.
The other technology/ science
graduates were appointed to staff their workshops/ studios or to teach
non-design subjects such as Ergonomics, Science and Liberal arts, production
engineering, Ceramic technology etc.
IDC started only with Industrial
design discipline at PG level initially. Other branches were added much later.
IIT being a premier institution, its
graduates were automatically awarded degrees.
3) How CDI (Craft Development
Institute), Srinagar started:
In
2000 June, the
development commissioner, Handicrafts, Tinoo Joshi commissioned NID to look
into the various problems faced by Kashmiri Craftspeople and how Design may
help the people who are suffering due to economic depression caused mainly due
to frequent terrorist activities in the J&K state.
NID formed a senior designer project
team as below for the task. I volunteered to lead the team because i was moved
by the plight of people of Kashmir. I always wanted to do something in this
vital area.
S.Balaram...Principal Designer.
(Project head)
Aditi Ranjan...Principal Designer,
Textile design (member)
Saumyajit Ghoshal, Chairman,
Outreach, Bangalore centre (member)
The team was assisted by two Student
teams which visited Kashmir and conducted field research and documentation of
major handicrafts of Kashmir covering:
-
Walnut wood carving
-
Embroidery
-
Papier- mache and
-
Copperware
The project team made several visits
to Srinagar, held talks with Zahid Hussain, Deputy General Manager, J&K
handicrafts corporation, important craftsmen and examined market outlets and
existing infrastructure. During one of our visits, very close to a craft shop where
we were researching, there were two bomb blasts.
In 2003 a feasibility report was
written by myself and was discussed with various officials concerned in
Kashmir. It was then submitted to the DC (Handicrafts) which was accepted after
due consideration. The report
recommended establishing a ‘Craft
Development Institute (CDI)’ in Srinagar with a focus on marketing and
modernising of Kashmiri crafts through design inputs to improve the incomes of
the people. It was ‘design for economic development’. NID was asked by DCH to
implement it.
In 2004 I formed an expert team to
help CDI in the initial years. After interviewing several candidates, Shaariq
Farooqui was appointed as the first Executive Director of CDI.
4) How D.J. Academy of Design,
Coimbatore started:
In 2003.NID- Bangalore undertook a professional job of 'Design of Comber Machine' for LMW, Coimbatore. A team led by Dr.Saumyajit Ghoshal, Head of NID-Bangalore centre visited LMW in Coimbatore and made a presentation. Dr. Jayavrthanavelu, being a wildlife Photographer, appreciated the importance of aesthetics in Machines and wanted to take the idea further.
So in 2004.Captain P.A.R Kumar,
pilot and CEO of DJAME informed DJ about NID Ahmedabad and a visit by LMW team
was arranged. The team included DJ, Sanjay, and Captain Kumar. An MOU with
NID (Dr.Darlie Koshy was the Director) was signed.
Based on the MOU, on 5th
July 2004, a one year (3 trimesters) certificate program called DFPD (Design
Fundamentals in Product Design) for graduates of engineering and for
working engineers was launched by GKD charitable Trust.
It was named D.J.Academy of Design. The idea was to create some
aesthetically sensitive engineers which LMW and other industries can employ in
the R&D. It was located in the Othakkal Mandapam campus, next to Premier
Mills in a building designed by renowned Architect Rahul Mehrotra. DJAME was already functioning there offering
MBA program.
I was deputed by NID to conduct the inaugural,
'Design Overview' course for the first batch of 12 engineering graduates. Thus
I was the first design faculty (visiting) of DJAD.
Simultaneously, two young graduate
engineer interns from LMW, Gautham and Ashwinth had been sent to NID for a special
2 semester Design program offered by NID as part of its FDP (faculty
development program). Ms.Seema also had undergone the same program..
In 2005 I took charge as the first
Dean of DJAD. It was my brain-child to
turn the program into undergraduate level and post graduate level education
programme.
I persuaded NID and
D.Jayavarthanavelu about the need for such fully fledged Design program in the
south.
In 2006 I scrapped the certificate
programme and launched the full fledged
4 year UG level program and 3 year PG level program in design.
I
worked out the whole syllabus for UG and PG programmes in Industrial Design and
Communication Design based on my NID experience where I led the curriculum
review and New curriculum development group in 1997- 99.
I also charted out a 10 year
Vision road map (2006 - 2016) for DJAD which included Membership of
W.D.O (world design organisation), networking with great educational
institutes around the world , Organising International conference, Strong
Alumni Association, a unique Convocation Programme, Industry linkages etc
and got it approved by the Governing council.
The Chairman Jayavarthanavelu had
also approved restricting entry seats to 30 approx. in order to
maintain the faculty - student ratio very high, individual attention and
excellent academic standards.
I established the Design Centre at
DJAD for professional practice by faculty to keep their design skills
continuously sharpened. Through the Design Centre, we served many Indian and
overseas industries. Many design institutions do not have this practice.
Kanaka Anant was my first recruit to join DJAD
as design faculty just after her PG at NID.
First time in India, a mandatory
'Universal Design' course was introduced as part of the curriculum.
2008...... SRISHTI, Bangalore, on
its own accord came to collaborate with us.
2010.......Northumbria University, UK,
on its own accord, came forward to sign an MOU with DJAD. NU letter of
recognition is attached.
2010.......IIT, (Industrial Design Centre)
Bombay had been invited to campus to assess our design program standard. The
IIT senate later on gave recognition to DJAD program. Dr.G.G.Ray was in charge
of IDC then.
Capitalising on my decades of
association with NID, I initiated the forming of a consortium called IDEA
(Indian design education alliance) with all the reputed design institutions of
the country as its members.
Getting admission for higher studies
without a university degree was extremely tough, especially for a
non-government institution, but we took the trouble to help every graduate and
it worked even with the best design institutions in the world such as RCA,
Domus Academy and MICA.
5)
How ACADES (Aram Centre for Art, Design and Environmental Studies), Coimbatore
started:
I was relieved from DJAD on 3rd October 1918.
When I was Dean, DJAD was run like
close knit family than a cold institution and thus all my colleagues and
students felt a sense of loss. They kept asking me to start an institution of
my own so that they could join me. But I had no financial resources.
Mohan Chinnasamy, Arulappa Charles
and Kanaka Anant put huge effort and found a financier Navaneetha Sivan. A
trust had been formed and I was assured that he was reliable person and Mohan,
Charles and Kanaka were part of the trustee group.
I had agreed to take care of the
education, working 3days a week and left the administration and finance in their
hands as trustees. The new school was named by Mohan as “Aram Centre for Art,
Design and Environmental Studies (ACADES)”.
Promotion for new school was done
projecting me as the brand.
Initially Park Institution was
considered as hired campus but ultimately settled on Hindusthan Colleges
campus. The program commenced in July
2019.
12 fresh students and 24 DJAD senior
students voluntarily joined as lateral entry.
It was an experiment in holistic
design education, based on the principle of ‘a sound mind in a sound body’. The
school attempted to offer a great design education to a limited number of
students, integrated with a rigorous, exceptional life style. A regimen of diet
based on strict naturopathy principles, pre-dawn waking up, group walks,
meditation and daily discourses was part of the curriculum. Faculty and
students together sat on floor to eat.
Parents were brought to campus
frequently for regular feedback. It was
wonderful idea.
But within two months, it was
revealed to my shock that Mohan, Charles, Kanaka were not trustees and huge administrative
differences between trustee Navaneet Sivan and Mohan arose. I was horribly
stuck in between. I could not leave due to my commitment to students.
I tried my best to resolve the crisis
through my trusted NID colleagues MGD Nair and Professor AG Rao in vain. The
breakup happened. Even the name ACADES could not be retained since it was
registered with the Navaneet’s trust.
Though the salaries were not paid, I
tried to at least conclude the semester properly so that the students can join
another school. With back-breaking effort I managed to do it with juries. Parents decided to quit ACADES forcing its
closure in January 2020. I offered help to students with my personal contacts
for lateral entry admissions in other design schools.
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