ISBN: 9781840007800    Publisher: Reader's Digest Year of publishing: 2015     Format:  Hardback No of Pages: 176        Language: English

India's renowned palaces and forts, its Mogul splendours, and the colonial architecture of the Raj are justly famous, but since the 1990s a new, different, and exciting movement in design and architecture has emerged. India Modern is a stunningly illustrated exploration of cutting-edge homes, bars, restaurants, hotels, and spas, revealing the innovative ideas being introduced not only by Indians, but also foreign architects and designers who have moved to India. Over the four chapter - "A Break with Tradition", "Reworking the Idiom", "Courtyard and Tent", and "Retreats" - photographer and author Michael Freeman examines the ways in which contemporary design and architecture in India have blended international influences with that country's cultural heritage, spirituality, mythology, and esoteric sciences. India Modern features work by rising stars such as Rajiv Saini and Aniket Bhagwat. The former established his reputation with the simultaneous conversions of a traditional family home in Delhi and an 18th-century Rajasthan fort. In each, he employed hs trademark use of art integrated with the structure, concealed lighting, and reference to traditional icons and motifs. Aniket Bhagwat's work includes a new country house that takes the traditional Indian principles of courtyard design and reinterprets them in a modern idiom, using a rich palette of materials from stainless steel to a cow dung.
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Michael Freeman is an international photographer and writer based in London, who specializes in travel, architecture, and Asian art. He has been the principal photographer for the Smithsonian Magazine for many years, as well as working for Time Life Books, Reader's Digest, and the BBC. He has worked as either a photographer or writer on over 30 books, including Oriental Style (Thames & Hudson), Savouring India (Time Life Books), Japan Modern (Mitchell Beazley), The Spirit of Asia: Journeys to the Sacred Places of the East (Thames & Hudson), The Modern Japanese Garden (Mitchell Beazley), Ancient Angkor (Thames & Hudson), and Design Japan (Mitchell Beazley - published February 2004).
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