Festival explores need to redesign public places

Designuru, a nine-day festival of art, architecture and design, brought people of various walks of life together to deliberate on the common desire to redesign public places. 

Minister for Bengaluru Development and Town Planning K J George, who attended the event at the Rangoli Metro Art Center on MG Road on Monday, sought the support of designers and architects for a better Bengaluru. 

Organised by the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID), Bengaluru, the festival is a citizens’ initiative to make people a part of an art and design-based platform. The minister said the government was trying to cope with the dynamically changing requirements of the city. “It is wonderful to have the design fraternity come forward for a collaborative endeavour. The government will do its best in taking forward such initiatives in the best interests of the city and its people,” he said. 

At the event, a panel discussion on ‘Architecture in the city’ saw panellists expressing the need to create a common platform to exchange an idea that is inclusive of architects, the public and the government. The panel consisted of architects Sujit Nair, Vatsala Da Cunha, Deepa Mandrekar and Soumitro Ghosh and was moderated by actor Prakash Belawadi. 

“It has been an excellent first two days of the festival, the response from the citizens of Bengaluru has been quite overwhelming. Their active participation in some of the workshops like ‘Bamboo in Architecture’, Wire-bending, Pottery, etc, and in the panel discussion on ‘Architecture in the city’ is quite evident of the interest they have towards the need for a better environment around them through design. With some more very interesting days ahead packed with myriad absorbing activities, workshops and talks, the festival will only get bigger,” said Gayathri Shetty, chairperson, IIID, Bengaluru, and partner, Gayathri and Namith Architects. Dinesh Verma, secretary of IIID, Bengaluru, said, “It has been quite rewarding to see the citizens opening up to the objective of design intervention and empowerment through the Designuru festival.”