nitin gupta for woodnews

8/7/2019 Nitin Gupta for WoodNews

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DesignsFurniture

of Nitin Gupta

By Nichole L. Reber


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To see his furniture is to see music materialised. Gupta knows exactly

how to reveal woods naturally lyrical grains and syncopated knots, be

it in a table, a childs chair, or household containers. By illuminating

the ebbs and flows, the widths and lengths of the rings in this most

natural of building products, he turns furniture into a concerto that we

listen to with our eyes. His power to illustrate woods inherent beautykeeps us visually glued to the work. The effect brings to mind the

famous quotes, Architecture is music in space, as it were a frozen

music, or Vitruvius own, The architect must not only understand

drawing, but music.

Guptin explains how he honed his lovingly creative talents. My early

training came from my dad, who gave me a lot of tools to play with

as a kid. The later part of my training has happened in my workshop

and on site. Im still learning, he says. He eventually trained and

became an architect but wanted to keep his art accessible. Thus

he started Delhi-based NGs Designs in 1998, where he designs and

manufactures his work.

Guptas skills yield multiple textures to his designs. For instance, one

may first be struck by the purposeful slopes of his curved

chair backs or by the graceful linearity achieved with what less

talented designers could scarcely make of nebulous slabs of

wood. But upon closer inspection its the attention Gupta gives

to the woods natural characteristics that bring people closer

to his work. If his furniture were children, the world would be a

better place. If his furniture were his spouse, the world would

be populated by more enlightened individuals. Like anything

one truly loves, it beckons to be touched. His occasional uses

of leather and other natural materials to complement the wood

ensure that.

Gupta explains how he lends his work this synaesthetic trait: Ilove all my pieces. Otherwise they dont get made.

While we tend to take painstaking care of the artifacts we love,

NGs Designs pieces are easily maintained. They present a

much lighter weight than one would expect upon first sight.

Thats because of his eco-friendly production methods.

We value wood. So we have created many designs that look

solid but are either hollow or have MDF as a core material,

thus making more products with less amount of raw material,

he says.

He actually hollows out his larger pieces such as cocktail tables

and reuses the hollowed-out wood pieces to make decorative

accessories. Other scraps might be used as screws, bolts or

other connective instruments to simultaneously grant stability

and lend aesthetic consistency. There are no tacky metal nails

or screws blemishing NGs designs. There are no random or

haphazardly placed details in his work. Every piece connects to

another with an engineers precision. Seeing and appreciating

these details harkens back to Guptas Danish inspirations

such as Juhl and Jacobsen. Like a Bauhaus puzzle, each

piece bears a democratic role in the composition. And like the

natural Indian inclination toward sustainable pragmatism, this

very subtle yet important detail also exemplifies the designers

concerns for making as much use of the wood as possible.

Use of various woods and materials to complement the wood

gives more flexibility to create such a diverse array of products.

Some pieces, such as chairs, feature leather. Its yet another of

Guptas methods to generate such texture and dimension with

a range of woods that he specially ships from the world over:

Nitin Gupta might be considered Indias

version of Finn Juhl or Arne Jacobsen, two

Danish Modernist architectural furniture

designers. The architect-cum-furniture

designers work carries global aesthetic

qualities and is produced efficiently andeco-logically. To experience his designs

might be to liken them to a Bauhaus

concerto.


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teak, cedar, oak, African wenge, Australian pine, American

maple. In exploring his work, one sees clearly that Gupta

carefully cultivates the personality of each wood, working with

its temperaments and strengths rather than against them.

Beyond the beauty points, whats surprising about Guptas

designs is that theyre so affordable. Its common for

shoppers to experience sticker shock at exorbitant price tags,

but in the case of these the surprise comes from the opposite

effect: theyre affordable pieces of true art. They could easilysell for thrice as much, and while he has sold some pieces to

celebrities who he wont name out of modesty he maintains

affordability as an embrace of accessibility. That philosophy

will likely secure his success when Gupta carries out his plans

to open retail stores. Prices start at `500, though of course

more customised designs are more expensive but still very

reasonable.

His prices and skill, in addition to his training as an architect,

help him to interact comprehensively with interior designers

and architects, a part of his job that wont stop once his retail

stores start thriving. Gupta has furnished entire residences

before, and his corpus includes accessories, such as vase-like vessels for display on tables or shelves, as well as murals.

Its this set of unique and varied talents that keep interior and

architectural designers returning to work with him.

They are not well trained to handle the furniture aspect.

Furniture and accessories form a very important part of a built

environment in terms of aesthetics and function. These days,

more and more people are (recognising) that importance, he

says.

That importance may come in the form of a polished wood

mount on a glass topped table or some outdoor furniture

to enhance a homes rustic environs. It may be a recliner

undulating like a flutists vibrato or a rocker sloping to an end

like a cadence. Perhaps its even a side table thats raw and

round like a polished boulder or a cocktail table blending two

woods like symbiosis. Whatever he designs, Guptas work is

a natural symphony of architecture and furniture.

nitin gupta for woodnews

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