Bringing art and design together

“As long as people understand each other’s calibre or the lack of it it’s easy to work together.”
‘Artists by passion and architects by profession’ that is how Lijo Jos and Reny Lijo, who run LIJO.RENY.architects, like to be acknowledged as. The works churned out from their small studio, has been instrumental in influencing the way contemporary architecture is practiced in Kerala. Architects Lijo Jos and Reny Lijo from LIJO.RENY.architects talk about their designs, projects and how working together can be made simple.
Interest towards architectureArchitects Lijo Jos and Reny Lijo always had an interest and keen passion towards art and designing. For Lijo who was into art. Instead of gaining knowledge of art in an institution, he had other plans he wanted to explore it in a manner that would give him a sense of personal association with art. He decided that if he would learn something that would be in the field of design and wanted to explore/extent his interest in art. As a student of architecture he grew up making weird structures as a part of school projects, which prompted me to take up architecture as it satisfied all quarters. On the other hand Reny had always been fascinated by interesting designs (not just buildings) and her dad being a structural engineer, she was inclined towards that field, but felt it lacked a creative edge to it which she was sure she could fix it with architecture.
Evolution in the field of architectureFor Lijo his school gave him various platforms other than academics, it helped him develop interests in art and theatre. Reny’s dad had ignited the spark in her which led her to the fascinating world of designing. Lijo has always been inspired by art and artists more off than architects and architecture. During his college days he used to visit various exhibitions in his love for art. He once visited an exhibition of German art in Bengaluru hosted by the Max Muller Bhavan. One small piece by legendary artist Joseph Beuys was a great influence for him. His focus towards architectural thesis changed after this visit and as a result he started to research on ‘installation art in detail. This was not a big thing in India. He was fascinated by the possibilities that it offered as it primarily dealt with space and the viewer, a common thread it shared with architecture.
Reny as a student of architecture was influenced by the boldness displayed by Ar. Philip Johnson through his Glass house and the horizontal proportions of Ar. Frank Lloyd Wright’s many residences. Followed by Ar. Luis Barragan and Ar. Marcio Kogan this inspiration drew her closer to the kind of designs she wanted to design.
Major projectsOne of the very first projects that they did,(which was for Lijo’s brother), soon after forming LIJO.RENY.architects, had won them two awards – the ‘IIA Kerala Chapter Award for excellence in Architecture’ (2007) and ‘JK State Architect of the Year Award (2008)’. Until then Kerala never had a history of contemporary architectural practice. Though there were lone examples here and there, it was not available in the public eye and hence general practice here was limited to either traditional or pseudo-traditional. As this project was widely accepted and published it propelled us as one of the important contemporary practices of Kerala.
The second project that brought them critical acclaim was ‘the green roof residence’. Unfortunately this project was not completed to their satisfaction, though it helped them explore an area/language in design that was new to Kerala. Their recent project titled ‘the running wall residence’ was also noted and brought them two awards – ‘All India Stone Architectural Awards (2012)’ and the Golden Leaf at the ‘IIA Kerala Chapter Award for excellence in Architecture’ (2012).
Working togetherAs long as people understand each other’s calibre or the lack of it it’s easy to work together. They know exactly how much they can push each other’s limit to achieve productive/satisfying output. When they are doing art they take responsibilities of areas each one is good at. There may be this topic or issue that, one of them or both of them are interested in. They discuss it in detail and later leave themselves free to formulate individual idea after which the strongest idea takes over. This base material is then further refined considering the execution and the presentation aspects. The process is slightly different when they deal with an architectural project. One of them (based on availability when the project comes in) works on the base concept and the other person reviews it later. By doing so, they see the project in two different perspectives and later refine the project considering the observations made during these reviews. The end result of such a partnership will always been satisfying

42