Doshi Levien: Design is a bridge between cultures

Born in two different continents, Indian Nipa Doshi and Scottish Jonathan Levien were clearly meant to be. Although being separated by ten thousand kilometers, during  their teenage-years in the 80s they used to listen to the same music and cultivate a passion for design. 

Nipa’s aunt lived in a house designed by an assistant of Le Corbusier’s, while her grandfather was a collector and got her used to living surrounded by beauty.

"Design for me is very much about caring about our everyday environment and how I do things, whether it’s how I lay the table, how I make the bed, or even enjoying the simple gesture of cooking. Design seems to permeate everything we do.”

She studied at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, founded on the principles of Charles and Ray Eames, and in 1994 left India to enroll at the Royal College of Art in London. There she met Jonathan Levien, who was born in the land of whiskey and had spent years working as a cabinet maker before turning to industrial design and working as an apprentice at Ross Lovegrove’s studio.

A few years after their graduation, in 2000, the two married and decided to also work together. Since then, the London-based Doshi Levien studio has been designing furniture for Moroso, B&B Italia, Cappellini but also projects for some of the most important museums worldwide. Their creations combine their complementary skills: an in-depth knowledge of materials with the understanding of the value of color, the importance of both shape and decoration, craftsmanship and industrial production, ancient and innovative techniques.

A proof? The Impossible Wood chair signed for Moroso in 2012: Despite looking and feeling like wood, it is made of an ultra-modern bio-plastic, polypropylene, by injection molding.

For the same brand, the studio designed a range of sofas that are now iconic, My Beautiful Backside. A soft, curvilinear and colorful sculpture based on a painting of a Maharani sitting on a palace floor and surrounded by cushions.

The Chandigarh sofa and armchair are another celebration of India, this time inspired by the modernist city designed by Le Corbusier in the 1950s.

Paper Planes has a totally different style, more geometric, rigorous and contemporary:

One of their most famous creations for B&B Italia, the Almora lounge chair, is again inspired by India.Awarded with the Interior Innovation Award 2015, it took two years in the designing and making and is made of leather, shearling, wood and plastic. Its project aims to recreate the sensation of being protected as well as the experience of viewing the snow-capped Himalaya mountains from a town in its foothills, Almora, while wrapped in a soft and warm blanket.

For the fiftieth anniversary of B&B Italia, Doshi Levien designed Tabour, a trio of foot stools in oval, square and triangular shapes that resemble primeval sea creatures.

And then the Do-Maru chair and Maru table, available in two sizes of which  the smaller version in 16 colors:

Color, along with the embroidery technique, is also what makes the Rabari rugs for Nanimarquina stand out. They come in three versions and three sizes, each one handmade in India in an embroidery workshop owned by one of Doshi’s relatives, using traditional hand-knotted and hand-woven Sumak techniques. "The spontaneous compositions of the rugs embody the serendipity and freedom to improvise inherent in each step of a handmade piece; joyful, irreverent and unique."

The same spirit pervades the Maya collection for Hay: 13 mirrors that look like small gems with geometric shapes, that can be combined to create constellations. A real museum piece, since the original idea was conceived for the Copenhagen’s Arken Museum of Modern Art in 2012.

The Uchiwa chair takes its name and shape from the typical Japanese fan made of paper and bamboo. Doshi and Levien spent seven months to develop this project to combine comfort and affordability.

The inspiration for the Capo chair for Cappellini is even more unusual, a gentleman in a suit and felt hat.

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