An Offering of Light and Cardboard:

by with No Comment Projects and Case study

-How a Temporary Cathedral Became a Testament to Collective Resilience

 

Where the endeavour began:

Some projects begin with operations on scale or site.

But some must respond to discomfort.

Through its incubation, process and even execution, certain ideas evoke a sense of intrigue.

This one challenges the norm unapologetically, flipping the general mass that we constitute when referring to a building.

Courtesy: Bridgit Anderson
Project: Shingeru Ban Architects

In Conversation with Shigeru Ban:

From humanitarian shelters to institutional structures, his work has always been a mode of service and attempt to restore dignity for the ordinary.

Even here, his relevance remained philosophical more than formal:

  • Value does not originate in expense.
  • Structural clarity can feel deeply humane.
  • Temporary architecture can carry emotional permanence.

 

The Experience of Lightness:

What if something associated with packaging could instead hold space? What if light, rather than mass, became the primary building element?

Standing within such a space, one becomes aware of small things. The material feels approachable, almost familiar. 

Yet it has transformed. In strength, stability and its story.

You begin to pay attention and linger differently now.

Other conversations that quietly shifted:

Not every staggering breakthrough has to be vivid to our attention or niche. 

Beyond structural experimentation, the project unsettles a few habits of thought:

  • That durability alone determines architectural worth.
  • That refinement must appear heavy or expensive.
  • That sustainability is a technical checklist rather than a sensory condition.

It also repositioned the scale, influence and impact of craft, enabling a larger population to explore beyond the ‘convention’

 

A Measured Offering: Overview

By working with cardboard and light, the project reduces itself to essentials — surface, structure, atmosphere. The Cardboard Cathedral was never trying to impress.

It sought to refine the meaning behind its program, in an evolving manner.

The intention was not to dramatise fragility, but to understand it. If cardboard became the medium, light became the language.

 

Courtesy: Bridgit Anderson
Project: Shingeru Ban Architects

 

Smell practiced through Architecture

by with No Comment Allied Design

The Forgotten Sense in Spatial Design

We design for what we see and are able to then converse with.

We refine what we will guide the way of the place.

We measure what we hear and control it to our needs.

But smell has always remained muted in its intentionality, present surely by the simple nature of materials and abundant context that surrounds us. However not as consciously curated as the rest of them.

As architect Juhani Pallasmaa writes, “The door handle is the handshake of the building.”

If touch is a handshake, its scent remains as the afterimage: the trace that lingers long after departure.

Ritual and Fragrance in Indian Homes

In many Indian households, scent structures the flow of the day.

The smoke of incense in the morning.

Camphor during prayer.

Jasmine near a window.

Dried Spices blooming.

A decorated kitchen full of mixed goods and flavours

Closets surrounded by sharp and distinct essence.

Courtesy: Pexels

Architecture could support such moments even at smaller scales: through recessed niches, transitional spaces, or breathable partitions that allow and encourage inhabitants to participate in such activities of diffusion without any confinement.

The Psychology of Scent

Because these plug-ins are not decorative gestures, even the most subtle and non-powering Smell can bypass logic.

It moves directly to memory and emotion. Familiar fragrances signal safety, continuity, belonging.

Ventilation is something designers strive to work with and this can be another passive layer that influences this dimension.

Designing the Invisible

To design with smell is not to artificially scent a space. Material memory, surface ageing and care of your space extends far beyond visual repairs. Oftentimes, a sudden difference in smell appears as the primary hint of an environmental shift.

Courtesy: Pexels

We ask designers to move beyond surfaces and instead engage with the atmosphere they create for this.

Overview

Olfactory design in architecture challenges us to expand spatial awareness beyond what is visible. If scent shapes memory and emotion so powerfully, should it remain incidental?

The question is not whether architecture can influence smell, but how intentionally we are willing to design for it.

Purposeful Hospitality goes beyond a room..

by with No Comment Design Trends

Hospitality begins not with square footage, but rather intent.  In a climate where spaces are heavily curated, measured, and deeply personal how do we make them responsive to temporary and diverse shifts of mood and temperament?

Making Room, even when there isn’t any:

In a setting where every corner already carries function and memory, making room for a guest is more about accommodation — spatially and emotionally.

However, much of the  Indian context sustains in an environment of high-paced rigour and work. Among nuclear families and larger durations outside their personal four walls, even a curated home might make the idea of guests feel like an after-thought.

Yet for some, owing to many reasons, it remains a non-negotiable that often challenges the core assessment of such projects.

Living Compact Realities

The phrase “Atithi Devo Bhava” — the guest is equivalent to the divine — is not decorative rhetoric.

Our present urban reality might feel like a resistance to this generosity. Yet that has only allowed us to evolve our ways of thinking, better integrate layouts and ultimately make the best use of our spaces.

In this environment and economy, dedicating a permanently vacant room to occasional and differing visitors might feel indulgent and a tad bit excluding from the spatial narratives at play.

Hospitality in Multifunctionality:

The contemporary guest room now begins to justify its existence in daily actions. No longer choosing to remain a static chamber, it becomes adaptive.

In the absence of guests, it transforms:

  • a study during exam seasons
  • a home office in hybrid work cycles
  • a prayer corner during festivals
  • a yoga retreat at dawn
Studio works
Courtesy: Greenhatcch Studio

Traditional celebratory inspirations:

Historically, in Mughal residences, the Mehmaan Khana functioned in a similar way. (refer for detailed reading)

Despite acting as a defined guest quarter, it spatially integrated dedicated zones for entertaining and hosting visitors without blurring internal family life with public roles.

 

Designing for Absence as Much as Presence:

These rooms, much like the primary occupiers, become the transitional nodes of the house. Forever in a shifting state of programs, activities and moods, they are designed to perform in an allied fashion for the larger inhabitants of the house.

And at the time a guest arrives, reorient focus and present gracefully when occupied.

Studio works
Courtesy: Greenhatcch Studio

After-thought:

Culturally, emotionally, architecturally, Indian homes are made to always keep room for even sudden and unannounced guests.

This gesture is sustained today by changing a singular destination to a fluid extension of everyday life.

This has allowed for a holistic and truthful integration of the vision from the spatial designers. At Greenhatcch, we’ve often faced these challenges and our clients have always realised the weight of simple yet practical solutions that enhance the quality of life for the house and people from beyond.

‘Cloud Dancer’ moving through lived spaces!

by with No Comment Materials and Visuals

-Beyond neutral: a study in emphasis.

 

Pantone announced “Cloud dancer” as the colour of the year 2026, with designers, artists and almost everyone showcasing a diverse palette of reactions.

The official release positioned it as a restorative, clarifying white: an atmospheric neutral intended to reflect a collective search for calm and reset. (See Pantone’s announcement on pantone.com.)

This announcement rightfully spotlights the subjective nature of visual elements seen, perceived and felt all around us.

Cloud Dancer
Courtesy: Google images

Is white a choice or the default?

White is often treated as the ‘default mode’. Yet declaring it plainly as “neutral,” risks overlooking the fact that every white carries temperature, density, and reflectivity. 

The question, then, is not whether white is a colour. It is whether we have mistaken familiarity for neutrality.

 

On Being Selective With Colour:

Paul Rand once remarked, “Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.” 

Selection may appear effortless in a finished product, yet the resolutions and decisions encompassed throughout a creative journey rarely feel simplistic..

Choosing a shade, especially one that seems ‘default’ can often be an act of precision for us.

 

What does a space want to convey:

It has made for an argument on whether white or a particular variant of it demands a certain attention or simply alters how perception manifests in a space.

Sometimes to expand a volume,

Or to quieten a busy program, 

Or to let material speak first.

As designers, we would have consistently resorted to a certain “white” for countless reasons that alter from brief to brief.

Courtesy: Greenhatcch Studio

Using the right amount of ‘white’:

Often known as an excellently safe yet flexible colour, white and its family have been conscious allies in our decisions.

Cloud Dancer takes a tone typically associated with restraint and becomes a tool for emphasis. It does not withdraw into void; it behaves as a backdrop.

Effectively, this discussion is null without considering the social perception and landscape surrounding colours, which influence our minds and choices subconsciously.

Where Cloud dancer separates is weirdly in its paradox. White often associated with restraint used this way strongly advocates for reasonings and depth of thought.

 

Going Beyond the Shade:

Certain spaces often make us feel that no other texture, tone or even colour could’ve been tailor-made compared to the present visual, a credit to the designers’ commitment.

The larger perspective extends beyond Cloud Dancer or any singular tone. It questions how we assign roles to colours: when does a surface behave as void, and when does it operate as backdrop?

Courtesy: Greenhatcch Studio

After-thought:

The discussion, therefore, is not about elevating one colour over another. It is about recognising that subjectivity does not negate function.

Cloud Dancer feels familiar because designers have relied on it for years without naming it. Perhaps the real contribution is in prompting us to reconsider and broaden our understanding on what feels effortless.

A space must enable you to write…

by with No Comment Architecture & Wellbeing

-How spaces quietly influence thought, focus, and creative rhythm

Our mind is capable of visualising, sensing and evoking possibilities from mere words and thoughts. This makes the act of Reading and writing feel incredibly grounded as activities.

Sometimes external stimulus helps or deteriorates in this very process. Essentially, when we are engaged in a thoughtful action, our brain conducts an extensive mental exercise.

One absorbs while the other distills: Fragments of thoughts, ideas and inferences. In the chaos of this internal discourse, how exactly does our inhabiting spaces play a role?

The Role of the Space We Inhabit:

A desk and a chair is perhaps the most visual metric for this exercise. Yet there are the senses, light and sound, be it rhythmic or as noise of uninterrupted frequency.

Too much of it can be obstructing and yet too little of it can make us feel bleak.

But when everything does line up, our preferences balance productivity with ease. The perfect conditions do not demand acknowledgement; instead serve as the invisible component of good design.

When Space Becomes a Silent Collaborator:

In a space that best fits any user, the act of writing becomes transformative. It no longer hinges on the individual’s ability, rather good design inherently encourages participation.

The bridge between ‘Creative work’ and ‘Creative freedom’ blurs over here. Realistically, neither need any metric or scale of judgement as long as they help the participant feel accomplished.

The room here is a silent collaborator, one that doesn’t ask for credit because its role was to serve as a medium that channels productivity.

After-thought:

The space we feel best in is much more than a backdrop.. and it’s design must first understand how thoughts truly cultivate.