Landscape architect Kunaal Maniar has often underlined the value of creative inspiration in all his projects. It’s not just immeasurable botanical knowhow that Maniar digs in with rigour, but also a private repository all his own. It’s as if he has preserved — and continues to build upon — a mental catalogue replete with odd strands of conversations with strangers, insistent tappings of childhood memories, sundry observations made during travels, the chaos of bird sounds, and wisdom handed over by farmers to fuel his artistic vision. The artistic borrowings from myriad fields, be it craft, fashion design, or culinary art, either end up as subtle tributes or become richly pronounced motifs in his bespoke landscapes and lush green sanctuaries.
“Creativity can’t be compartmentalised, it’s important to look outside the boxes we put ourselves in,” insists Maniar. As if in reciprocal fervour, to celebrate World Landscape Architecture month in April, he invited seven of his maverick artist friends to respond to a garden he designed in Alibaug, a quaint coastal town South of Mumbai. That the site brimmed with cross-disciplinary conversations and collaborations was only to be expected. The resultant output showcases diverse expressions in materials as varied as textile art, basalt stone, ink on paper, precious stones, and even pastry!
Maniar has exclusively shared with ELLE DECOR India the sumptuous works and the different concepts and insights that fuelled each interpretation.