Ranjan Bordoloi

THE WIZARD OF FORM The success of 27-year-old furniture designer Ranjan Bordoloi can be attributed to his love for using traditional metals and handcrafting techniques to create edgy pieces.

When Assamese designer Ranjan Bordoloi set about designing his Kaathfula chair, it was the natural shape of the mushroom that served as his inspiration. Imagining what it would be like to sit on a large mushroom, he joined together individual layers of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) foam with thin metal rods to create a perfectly ergonomic and dynamic silhouette. The edgy piece of furniture won him the Design Concept Award at the Godrej Design Lab in 2016. For his Pitoloi collection comprising small stools and a barstool, he cut sheets of brass and shaped them with wooden moulds, joining the small pieces using an ancient floor-based coal welding technique. The creation made him the only Indian to bag two awards—Best of the Best and winner in the furniture category—at the prestigious Red Dot Awards (2017) in Singapore.