Bijoy Jain fonds

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Part of

• Fonds: Bijoy Jain fonds, 2008-2015

People

• Bijoy Jain (archive creator)

Title

Bijoy Jain fonds

Dates of creation

2008-2015

Form

• archives

Level of archival description

Fonds

Extent and Medium

• 335 drawings (including 259 digital reproductions and 42 reprographic copies)
• 109 photographs
• 67 models
• ca. 60 artefacts and realia
• 13 photobooks
• 9 textual records
• 7 video recordings
• Gift of Bijoy Jain in 2014.

Scope and Content

The Bijoy Jain fonds at the CCA represents eight projects dating from 2009 to 2015, a selection that emphasizes Jain’s interest in the typology of the courtyard. Several of the projects—the Weavers’ Studio in Dehradun, the Saat Rasta live/work complex in Mumbai, and a house in Chennai—were in the design or construction phases at the time of the acquisition. In this sense, the fonds documents not only Jain’s most recent built work but also his ongoing research and the wide range of tools he deploys from project to project. Other projects include the Demolition Series, research documenting conditions created by building demolition in Indian cities; a speculative proposal for migrant housing in Mumbai and Surat; the Copper House II, in Chondi, outside Mumbai; and the Ahmedabad House.

Comprising digital and hand drawings, models, photographs, video recordings, material samples, and reproduced notebooks and sketchbooks, the fonds reflects Studio Mumbai’s varied, adaptable working style. For example, the ten “tape drawings” are detail and elevation drawings made from masking tape on large plywood sheets; craftsmen building Saat Rasta create these drawings during the rainy season, when paper becomes too humid to handle on site.

Almost all material from the fonds was on view at the CCA in the exhibition Rooms You May Have Missed: Bijoy Jain, Umberto Riva (4 November 2014–19 April 2015), the first exhibition in North America focusing on the architect’s output.

Reference Number

AP182

Arrangement

Fonds is arranged into two series.

Biographical notes

Bijoy Jain (Indian architect, born 1965 in Mumbai). In 1990, Jain received a Master of Architecture degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., where he studied under Studio Works founder Robert Mangurian. He worked in the model workshop of Richard Meier in Los Angeles until 1991. Jain then formed a small firm in London with a colleague from Meier's office before returning to India in 1995, opening his own firm, Bijoy Jain Associates, in Nagaon, outside Mumbai. In 2000 he founded Studio Mumbai with many of the craftsmen who had been working with him since his return to India. Jain’s work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the 2010 Venice Biennale, where he exhibited a mock-up of the Studio Mumbai workshop in Alibag. He has taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Yale University, and the Università della Svizzera Italiana.

Conditions governing access

• Access by appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction

• Contact the CCA for copyright information and permission to reproduce (reproductions@cca.qc.ca).

Custodial history

The documents in the Bijoy Jain fonds were transferred by Studio Mumbai/Bijoy Jain to the Canadian Centre for Architecture in 2014 in preparation for the exhibition "Rooms you may have missed : Umberto Riva, Bijoy Jain", presented at the CCA November 4, 2014-April 19, 2015.

Archivist's note

• The fonds was processed by Brian Mekis in 2015, after much of its contents was presented in the exhibition "Rooms you may have missed : Umberto Riva, Bijoy Jain" at CCA,

Credit line

When citing the collection as a whole, use the citation: Bijoy Jain fonds, Collection Centre Canadien d’Architecture/Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal.
When citing specific collection material, please refer to the object’s specific credit line.

Language of material

Materials are in English and Hindi.

General note

• Much of the information on the architect Bijoy Jain, and on the projects in the fonds, was drawn from: Zardini, Mirko. Rooms You May Have Missed. Montréal : CCA, 2015.