Sunday Times E-Edition

Meet the makers

A glimpse into the public and private lives of Studio Kalki founders Nikhil and Nindya hints at a deeply holistic approach

TEXT: MILA CREWE-BROWN, IMAGES NIKHIL TRICAM Instagram: @kalkiceramics

Partners in life and business, Nindya Bucktowar and Nikhil Tricam are loath to label the facets of what they do. Rather than practising a plethora of disciplines under their Durban-based design business Studio Kalki, it’s more a unified creative machine whose working parts are complementary disciplines that blur, overlap, inform and influence the final product.

Whether it’s architecture, graphic design, leather work, painting, sculpture, furniture or ceramics — all of which fall under the young studio’s extensive output — there’ sa thread that binds them all. The duo produces with a keen sense of the connectedness of things, considering how touch will engage with their design and how that product relates to its context.

As they create, structural practices inform ceramic ones, spatial habitation affects visual art and so on. For Nindya and Nikhil, the macro picture holds as much bearing as the micro.

Under Studio Kalki, Nikhil brings a technical and design-oriented skill set, while Nindya brings operational and strategic tools, as well as a softer touch.

“We trust each other blindly and value one another’s input,” Nindya says.

Outside Studio Kalki, their artistic practices — Nikhil’s in painting and Nindya’s in ceramic sculpture — run independently. Honouring spirituality, wellness and health, the pair are determined to maintain balance, whether that means doing yoga with their team, fuelling their bodies or practising mindfulness.

“We place huge emphasis on being present and being part of the process, whether in life or work,” says Nikhil.

You may have seen, or perhaps run your hands across, their glazed tiles in one of the many establishments that they adorn, from restaurants Mamasamba and Tang, Always Welcome design store and Plato coffee, to private homes and lodges. They come alive with the shifting light and beg to be touched. Some are raked by hand, others, such as the

Kili, protrude 90° or sensuously arc in convex and concave profiles. All are steeped in South African visual language.

Their Cactus Server recently won the Nando’s Hot Young Designer Talent Search. Created to display the chain’s sauces in its restaurants globally, their timber and steel unit blends organic materials and motifs with crisp, contemporary form.

With its shell clad in handmade terracotta tiles in shades reminiscent of South Africa’s fauna and flora, the Cactus Server exemplifies Nindya and Nikhil’s characteristic referencing of local context throughout their work. Design cues are found in the colour of the earth, the shape of the landscape and the play of light that make South Africa what it is.

Their Glenwood home — a 120-year-old late-Victorian grand dame — continues to be a journey for them. Long and skinny and fronted by broekie lace, replete with original wooden floors and high ceilings, they’ve worked on honouring its story, opening up the space and creating a sanctuary in which to live, rest and work. Making the kitchen the nucleus of the home, they’ve done away with the notion of formal dining and designed a 2.4m-long steel island around which they gather with friends and family.

“Essentially, we’ve dropped a kitchen into the middle of the lounge,” Nikhil says.

Backed by a wall of their raked and glazed ceramic tiles in a deep, dappled shade of green and teamed with black walls, the effect is that of standing deep within the shade of a forest canopy or plunging into the coolth of a lake edged with lush fronds.

As a space which functions as private and public, which pools their varied collective skill sets and serves as the base for their multidisciplinary studio, it’s a home that grounds in the same way they hope their products do.

Lifestyle

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2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

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