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    Hriday Gami: Name to know

    AUG 18, 2016 | By Nishita Fiji
    CLOCKWISE, FROM LEFT Hriday Gami’s Godrej Design Lab 2016 winning product Kinderwagen was created for an international board school in Ahmedabad, who approached him for an innovative alternative to classroom desks; The mobile furniture set is built using a frame made by bending steel pipes into loops and has rounded wooden edges. Due to being lightweight with wheels attached, kids can move it around as desired; Hriday is a trained architect who switched to furniture design and was declared as one of the eight winners of Godrej Design Lab 2016.
    A trained architect, Hriday Gami spent his college years doing hands on work in the field of architecture. It was only after he completed his studies that he realised his inclination towards furniture design – mostly because the architecture and construction field was much too slow for the fast paced creative. “I realised that design is a much quicker way to learn as architectural projects take years to materialise,” he reveals. This is when Hriday decided to make a switch to furniture. “I wanted to sail quickly,” he confessed.
    Earlier this year, he was declared as one of the eight winners of Godrej Design Lab 2016 (a product design competition held in association with ELLE DECOR India). His winning product was Kinderwagen, a children’s school furniture piece he created for an international board school in Ahmedabad, where Hriday was then running a furniture workshop. With education becoming a collaborative process rather than a monotonous one, the institution approached him to find an alternative to conventional school desks and benches.
    Kinderwagen is a mobile furniture set built using a frame made by bending steel pipes into loops and has rounded wooden edges. Due to being lightweight with wheels attached, kids can move it around as desired. “The main objective of this design was to create a space that the child could occupy and feel a sense of belonging towards,” he expressed. But when pieced together, the individual hexagonal tabletops form a larger table where children can work alongside one another, thus promoting shared learning.
    Previously, he has done smaller projects including stackable stools, dining chairs and a table for the National Centre for Performing Arts. “The common thread that I was trying to develop in all of these was a manufacturability that we could achieve, while also keeping everything human and warm, instead of being industrial,” he disclosed.
    He does not intend on making luxurious products that only a handful can afford. Premium, maybe. But not unattainable. “I’m not going to use high end wood, if it’s unnecessary. As long as I’m able to use wood and it serves the purpose, it’s fine.”
    After his success with Kinderwagen, Hriday recently joined the Godrej Innovation Centre. This has allowed him to create products that reach a large number of people – a big change from his previous workshop setting. Due to the amount of time and energy he puts into each product, he wants them to reach the maximum amount of people possible. “So that’s the plan,” he concluded, “to reproduce not ten, but ten thousand and twenty thousand of whatever I create.”
    Website: www.behance.net/hridaygami
    Also read: 6 new coffee tables to chat around