THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was a carnival of art and ideas at Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan in the city, which hosted a vibrant exhibition put together by the Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) students of Avani School of Design over the weekend.
The budding architects set the mood by showcasing their creative posters, calligraphies, origami figures, etc. The creatively fuzzy aesthetics of the works on display intrigued the visitors. For example , Hathim Basheer, a second-year architecture student, worked on a symbolic representation of viewing the world through design choices. His installation, resembling dried leaves and a mirror, aimed to convey the theme of the exhibition, ‘We Belong Where’.
“When you step in front of the arrow placed before the mirror, you can see the hanging fonts behind you that read ‘we belong where’. It symbolically represents how we can perceive the world through diverse design choices,” he explained.
Interestingly, the works that were displayed at the exhibition were created by students and professors of the Avani School of Design during the Covid lockdown. It was during the online classes for the Monsoon 2020 semester that they collaborated virtually to brainstorm and bring in ideas for the exhibition.
“We decided to create a virtual world in the metaverse so that it would be easy for us to teach architecture online,” said Soumini Raja, HoD of architecture at Avani School of Design. “That is when the students developed a virtual Avani campus on the Metaverse from the institute’s studio and started playing games on it. We want to group games and architecture together and turn it into a new pedagogy.”
To bolster the students’ understanding of metaverse, the institute invited professionals from London-based Zaha Hadid Architects to offer an international workshop. The students were taught how to use MetaPlay and were also introduced to Maya, one of the most complex software used in game building.
Besides creative posters, calligraphy, origami, T-shirt printing, the exhibition had quirky and creative installations aimed to make visitors rethink their aesthetic perspectives. It also gave an understanding of what the architects have to offer in the modern world where technology is booming at a rampant rate.
Apart from the exhibition, design-related workshops were also conducted by the faculties and students to give the visitors an outline of what the school offers. Next, the organisers are planning to take the mini-biennale experience to Bengaluru.