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Crafting Spaces for Connection and Well-being with Malik Architecture People
Malik Architecture is a Mumbai-based studio that stands at the intersection of architectural brilliance and natural inspiration. The firm was founded by Kamal Malik and portrays the relationship and deep connection to the pristine landscapes of Shimla, his hometown. Throughout the four decades of practice, Malik Architecture has been pioneering award-winning structures and consistently pushing design boundaries with innovative materials and techniques.
The winners of Hansgrohe presents The D/List 2023 Second Edition
As we revel in the celebration of transcendent design excellence at Estella, Mumbai, we proudly announce the hansgrohe presents The D/List 2023 - Second Edition. The night unfolds with a palpable sense of anticipation as we prepare to unveil this year’s distinguished winners. Congratulations to all The D Listers, and here's to a future filled with more groundbreaking designs and innovations that will continue to shape our world.
Mumbai Architecture City Guide: 20 Projects in One of India's Most Populous Cities
Walking through the streets of Mumbai, India, is an experience unmatched anywhere else. The energy of India’s largest and most populous city is palpable through the people, their activities, and most importantly, the built environment. The city’s dynamic culture is evidently expressed through the structures that dot its landscape.
"IF.BE" in Mumbai Shortlisted for Cultural category
Malik Architecture has reimagined a historic site in Mumbai's Ballard Estate as IF.BE (Ice Factory Ballard Estate). Formerly the Ambico Ice Factory, the 140-year-old structures have been restored around a large Banyan tree growing in the courtyard. The aged buildings, not to mention the Banyan roots growing within them, demanded that the restoration take a meticulous, hands-on approach.
The Stone House in Jaipur reclaims sandstone as a favourable building material
A building made entirely in stone architecture is not an entirely unique concept. In the modern world, however, it is a rare concept. In traditional Rajasthani architecture, stone has been a primary building material, with palaces made entirely of stone. The dawn of postmodern architecture slowly reduced the regal material to a cladding medium and has since been traded out for either the more convenient ‘tiles’ or the seemingly more luxurious marble.
Mumbai: Old villas, ice factory make space for Art, Architecture & Community
The third such spot is a 10,000 sq ft space in the dockyards of Ballard Estate, which is Mumbai's oldest ice factory, before it fell into disrepair.
Here's how an old Ice Factory in Mumbai was transformed into a cultural hub
By Avantika Shankar “IF.BE” stands for Ice Factory Ballard Estate. “The dot—that gap between “if” and “be” symbolises time,” explains Malik. “If and be—the possibilities.” test
"House of Voids" in Delhi Shortlisted for Urban House category
This project appears to be a hovering monolith differentiated by its mediation with internal and urban space but is realised ultimately as a series of internal spatial shifts that bind the house with nature and light.
Stone House in Jaipur, Rediscovering Sandstone as a Building Material, becomes finalist for The Plan Award 2021
Rajasthan is synonymous with sandstone as a building material but sadly, over the last few decades, this material has been reduced to a 'cladding 'medium and its potential as a robust and sustainable structural element has not been explored.
Kamal & Arjun Malik, In Studio with Kohler
Located in a quiet corner of one of the busiest cities in the world, Malik Architecture surrounds itself in stories and rich history. "Every day it's good and refreshing to be here, you never feel like it's getting old and stagnating," says Arjun Malik. The two creative minds tell us more about how it feels to come back to work after two lockdowns.
AD100 2021: The definitive list of the 100 most influential architects and interior designers in India
Project in Focus: House Of Voids, Delhi: With their design for this New Delhi residence (below), Malik Architecture tempers the building’s connection to nature. A central courtyard is structured as a labyrinth of lateral and vertical volumes that dissipates natural light across the interiors, while also balancing the temperature within the house.
House of Three Streams by Malik Architecture
The topography of the land, the material memory of the surrounding forts, the light of the forest, and the deep-water discharging ravines have created a dominant palimpsest of contextual parameters onto which the house has been woven.
The House of Three Streams, A House Woven into Landscape, wins The Plan Award 2020 under villa category
The house occupies vacant spaces between areas of dense vegetation to prevent the cutting of existing trees. This allows the natural flow to thrive and enhances the experiential contact between built space and nature, improves the micro-climate and amplifies the cooling effect of the prevailing breezes.
Ahemdabad International School, By Malik Architecture
Discovery articulated through the assimilation of accumulated knowledge and its evolution through its future extrapolation forms the core of the educational process. The interrogation of the physical environment as a space of discovery and reflexive learning points towards the language of a matrix with nature at its nucleus.
Architecture & Design Excellence for House of Three Streams
As a home for 4 generations, it behaves like a condensed village, allowing for private and communal life. The massive load-bearing “ Fort” wall that traces the ridge between two ravines anchors the house, from where lightweight pavilions flow outwards to occupy natural clearings within the forest.
Malik Architecture wins Aces of Spaces Awards
"The founder and principal architect of Malik Architecture enters our Hall of Fame, thanks to his architecture that makes innovative use of local, sustainable as well as more contemporary materials."
An Exprience That Changed My Life- By Kamal Malik
Some experiences are truly life-changing. Something similar encouraged Ar. Kamal headlines a thought-provoking concern on whether architecture is about style or lifestyle and discusses factors that affect the way buildings today are styled. ‘An experience that changed my life’, a presentation by Ar. Kamal Malik.
A Staggering Retreat in Western India Follows the Contours of Hills and Forest
Father-and-son duo Kamal and Arjun Malik weave House of Three Streams, a 12,000-square-foot weekend home for their families, into its natural environment.
The Worlds Most Extraordinary Homes - India S2E6
Caroline and Piers, hosts for ‘The World's Most Extraordinary Homes’ visited the countryside pad The House of the Three Streams, which is little more than a roof and no walls.
Residence 2 at Alibaug By Malik Architecture Published in "Brutalism Now and Then"
A second home on the same site as house no. 1 was commissioned only weeks after construction began on the first house. We were now faced with the conundrum of creating a complementary foil to the distinctly extroverted structure that was perched on the apex of the hill.
Architectural Voices of India: By Apurva Bose Dutta
A blend of Contemporary and traditional Ethos brings 19 illustrious architects from 17 architectural practices of India across generations on a common platform, initiating a valuable discourse on architecture as a subject and a profession.
AD50 2017 Avant-Garde: Malik Architecture
The bold, experimental & innovative- By Gauri Kelkar. “We first understand the context, which can be quite elastic depending on the project, and analyse the existing archetypes and improve upon them. Nature also serves as a nucleus, and determines the path of a project,” says Arjun...
K-Lagoon House by Malik architecture
The home presents an interesting concept which seeks the existing trees and foliage of the site. This was achieved by creating a fragmented or decentralized complex of structures interconnected by deeply shaded walkways. This idea of ‘fragmentation’ inadvertently led to the development of courts that form green spaces.
K-lagoon at Alibaug by Malik Architecture
The concept echoes a deep understanding of centuries of traditional ‘Konkan’ construction techniques albeit interpreted in a contemporary syntax. The site is deeply forested and we knew that we wanted to achieve the final product with a minimum impact on the existing flora, without disturbing nature’s equilibrium.
Critical Review Truth, Trusses and Fair Opinions
The tenth edition of the 361° Conference 2017, titled ‘Architectural Revolution’ presented the opportunity for several prominent architects from around the world to set a stage for thought-provoking dialogue on the reactions to the challenges of designing in the digital century.
Weekend House in Alibaug by Malik Architecture: In conversation with Arjun Malik
Located in Alibaug, a district located three hours from downtown Mumbai and formerly an agricultural and fishing zone, the home is situated at the top of a hill overlooking the Arabian Sea and the skyline of Mumbai to the west.
Feature: Alibaug Residence by Malik Architecture
The site for this home is a hill in Alibaug, one which enjoys a stunning view, not only of the rolling contours surrounding it but of the sea and the skyline of Mumbai in the distance. Conceptually, the design of the home is a departure from the “stepped terrace” typology that one would conventionally employ on a heavily contoured site.
Lupin Research Park by Malik Architecture
A terracotta-coloured earth wall bounding the edge of a research complex in Pune, India, vanishes into a hillside. Designed by Malik Architecture, the research centre for pharmaceutical company Lupin also features an open amphitheatre, water fountains and an auditorium inside an aluminium cube.
GMS Grande Palladium by Malik Architecture
Pointed cantilevers project above an office block that is sandwiched between a corporate complex and a slum in Mumbai (photographs by Edmund Sumner).Designed by Indian studio Malik Architecture, the GMS Grande Palladium building has a faceted exterior of tessellated glass and ridged aluminium.
House at Alibag by Malik Architecture
This jumbled house in India features an elevated steel tunnel, bridged corridors and a rooftop swimming pool on stilts. Designed by Indian studio Malik Architecture, House at Alibag is located on a hilltop facing the Mumbai skyline.
Awards
Collaborations
Ice Factory Ballard Estate
“The Ice and the Banyan Tree…they provided the spark of inspiration that resulted in the IFBE project”- Kamal Malik For about 140 summers, ice was served to Bombay’s well-heeled from this ice factory at a time when refrigeration was a rare commodity. This area was once a thriving commercial center owing to its proximity to the docks, the Ballard Pier Mole railway station and the many trade headquarters that sprung up here, all of which bore testimony to Bombay’s stature in the maritime world. The location of the ice factory is in Bombay’s last standing heritage precinct-Ballard Estate-buzzing with office goers in the daytime and mellow and still after dusk, the elegant Edwardian architecture and leafy enclaves staring defiantly at the concrete jungle that is the rest of Mumbai. Kamal Malik, founder of Malik Architecture chanced upon this space that comfortably straddles Calicut and Cochin Street and recalls communing strongly with the majestic banyan tree on the premises. This was the exact moment when the ice factory ceased to exist in concept and the vision of IFBE was bor
“The Ice and the Banyan Tree…they provided the spark of inspiration that resulted in the IFBE project”- Kamal Malik For about 140 summers, ice was served to Bombay’s well-heeled from this ice factory at a time when refrigeration was a rare commodity. This area was once a thriving commercial center owing to its proximity to the docks, the Ballard Pier Mole railway station and the many trade headquarters that sprung up here, all of which bore testimony to Bombay’s stature in the maritime world. The location of the ice factory is in Bombay’s last standing heritage precinct-Ballard Estate-buzzing with office goers in the daytime and mellow and still after dusk, the elegant Edwardian architecture and leafy enclaves staring defiantly at the concrete jungle that is the rest of Mumbai. Kamal Malik, founder of Malik Architecture chanced upon this space that comfortably straddles Calicut and Cochin Street and recalls communing strongly with the majestic banyan tree on the premises. This was the exact moment when the ice factory ceased to exist in concept and the vision of IFBE was born. Despite a century of decay, the site was destined to be a seed of urban regeneration and a wonderful experiment in adaptive re-use for the MA studio. The project was steeped in logistical, financial, and structural challenges from the beginning. Everything from treating decaying foundations to slow painstaking work to restore the original materials to expert retrofitting resulted in a labor of love that took almost 36 months to complete. “The thickly plastered walls were scraped scrupulously for close to 4 months alone before the first semblance of brickwork could emerge”, Arjun Malik says. The ice factory is now Ice Factory Ballard Estate. IFBE. The acronym IFBE was coined to pay homage to its location’s rich heritage; it also alludes to the independent words ‘IF’ suggestive of endless possibilities and a sense of wonder and ‘BE’ a counterweight that provides balance and (re)solutions. This is akin to the aesthetic in architecture known as a ‘Liminal Space’ which refers to a transition between two other locations or states of being. It is derived from the Latin word ‘limen’ which means ‘threshold’-the space between ‘what was’ and ‘what can be’. THIS is what IFBE represents: a platform where existing behaviors and perceptions are challenged, where open dialogue moves from the currently trending to the truly relevant, where pluralism, self-expression and innovation abound, where architecture, design and the arts finally move beyond their own aesthetically bound definition to becoming instruments that drive holistic and enduring change. Speaking of the spaces put together and individually, Kamal says with love and conviction, “No number of words can convey the hallowed, museum-like quality there.” He insists that to perceive IFBE’s spatial and personal impact, one needs to be there, in a deepening twilight, when the place is lit up in a way that reminds him of a medieval citadel. A citadel of design enquiry.
Mission and Vision of IFBE
IFBE is committed to becoming a national platform that connects the grassroots to the urban communities and engages with private and public institutions alike to promote the core values of sustainability, responsible activism and empathy (only with this can we look beyond our own needs to acknowledging and planning for the needs of society and our planet as a whole) and fostering inclusiveness and interconnectedness through themes that resonate with visitors, participants and curators alike. IFBE strives to be the proponent of ‘de-learning’ through carefully curated workshops, exhibitions, lecture series, internships and provocative conversations facilitated by global and local change agents ; through these lenses one acknowledges the current state of affairs and collaboratively, compassionately, creatively and responsibly recalibrates settings to both protect a fragile physical ecology as well as transcend myopic political and cultural narratives to build a coalition of like minded human beings and communities committed to a better world.
For more information visit www.ifbe.space
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