Germany India- Infinite Opportunities. A labour of love

I very rarely talk about work on my blog. Mostly because my blog is an escape from my work. But in true follow my recipe style I felt this project had a place on the blog for all its heart and warmth.
The Germany India- Infinite Opportunities is a two year long cultural program held in all major cities in India. Performances, music, dance, theater, photography and many such collaborations and cultural exchanges. The Urban Mela is a traveling festival across 5 major cities around India- Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Pune. Its consists of these beautiful jewel like pavilions designed by German artist Markus Heinsdorff. Each pavilion is given to a German partner company to showcase the idea of sustainable cities.

I designed the Deutsche Bank Pavilion along with my team at Ogilvy Action. The few of us involved in the project ideated, curated, wrote, designed and provided technical specifications for the exhibition for the Deutsche Bank Pavilion.  The idea was to curate a set of projects created by various innovators who are designing objects, systems, ideas that would make better living in the our crowded urban scenario. Windowfarms, Green Karbon- On urban biodiversity, $300 House contest winner, Solar Lantern, Solar Plane, Dream In, A sanitation project,  The waterfront reclamation project. The pavilion becomes a place to exchange ideas and thoughts on how to make better cities.
Many projects are brought alive through interesting interactive ways. Such as the Green Karbon project culminates in a photo contest challenging people to capture biodiversity in their cities. The window farms is currently growing eggplant and chilies and a dream tree that invites people to tie their dreams on a tag. Many projects were Deutsche Bank supported and some were just people that we believed in. Shagun Singh of Designwala helped us curate and reach out to the various innovators so that we could showcase their work.

In the process of design, I went through several layouts trying to create the best narrative possible. What works with what. Working with German organizers for the festival was also interesting as they had several processes in place such as understanding our electrical requirements etc. All in all it was a great learning experience.

On the opening day, when I walked into the Pavilion it was a moment of pride. People were walking through, looking, reading, understanding. Our super college kid promoters did an excellent job thoroughly explaining each project to the visitors. People looked engaged. I was amazed with the windowfarms. It was brilliant - it worked. There was also a baby eggplant growing. The dream in tree was filled with dreams. Though only 50 sq m this Pavilion was a labour of love. It had heart.

The Urban Mela is up till Sunday April 22nd at Cross Maidan at Churchgate. Do go see it. Its stunning- in the evening all the various pavilions light up. Some of the others were also interesting. There is a beer garden  serving Erdingers and bratwursts.


The painstaking process of construction of the pavilions and some initial design drawings. I was not involved in the final installation of the pavilion.
Do participate in the photography contest for Green Karbon.

Some acknowledgements are in order. My Ogilvy Action team - Nyka, Aarti, Khushboo, Shripad, Shrikant, Vipul and Rahul. Our various support people the photographers, website designers, AV makers. The organizers of the Urban Mela. Though there are many here to thank I especially want to thank Jenny and Henning. And of course our client at Deutsche Bank to give us this opportunity- Linus, Reshma, Ajay, Madhav and Mike.
Thank you for this opportunity.