A decade of growth and learning. A decade of reflections. A decade of projecting ahead.

Reminiscing while confidently looking ahead, global architecture and design firm UHA marked 10 years of "constructing excellence" in India with their Reflection—Projection retrospective hosted at the STIR Gallery in New Delhi, India. Held from November 3–26, 2023, the redolently named architectural exhibition sponsored by Porcelanosa and built by Modern Exhibit was articulated deftly through custom-made, sculptural architectural models conceived by India-based studio Loco Design, accompanying the presentation of 69 projects (realised and in development) by UHA, measuring, interrogating, and classifying key facets of their creative journey so far.

The '24-hour' studio comprising a multilingual team of architects, creatives, computational designers, interior designers, engineers, project managers, technicians, as well as visualisation artists, extends and collaborates across seven time zones to transform urban spaces and shape experiences through contemporary architecture and design. “With offices in the UK, India, Cyprus, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, and Taiwan, UHA tailors city-specific approaches—global experience married with local knowledge—to a multitude of communities, clients, and partners,” they relay.

Co-curated by Jonas Upton-Hansen (founding director), Ricardo Mateu (director), and Joseph R. Goodwin (head of brand and creative), UHA’s retrospective of design and delivery across and beyond India, in commemoration of the 10^th anniversary of its Mumbai office, congregated projects from over 150 sites across three continents, spotlighting six major urban centres from Moscow to Cyprus, Greece to Mexico, and multiple cities pan-India including Delhi NCR and Mumbai. These extensive projects, spelt through a comprehensive gamut of architectural photography, drawings, diagrams, sketches, models, digital and physical screens as well as VR headsets, showcased the motivational and substantial lenses through which the firm approaches and manifests its expansive oeuvre, those of Community, Data, and Experience.

These ‘individual prisms’ furthered and held true within the design of the exhibition space spanning 265 sqm, its succinct lighting design carried out expertly by vis à vis. "The exhibition is formed around spaces framed by these lenses, exploring issues of climate and community, response and responsibility,” reiterates the renowned London and Mumbai-based architecture and design firm. Therein, the architecture exhibition uncovered “nuanced approaches in perspective and understanding, shedding fresh light on expected outcomes and inviting viewers to consider human-crafted landscapes with new eyes,” they elaborate.

In the last 10 years, we have built something up, to be able to make a difference in the next 10 years. So, the ‘projection’ part inquires—we’ve gotten to this point, where are we going next? – Jonas Upton-Hansen Founding Director, UHA

“Since opening in 2011, UHA [has] grown from a team of two, working on house extensions in London to a global studio collaborating across seven offices. The variety of purposes, breadth of scale—from 90 sqm to 9,00,000 sqm—and longevity of their work, highlight that with UHA’s global vision, [as] they continue to retain a local commitment across their expanding team. They are currently delivering Delhi’s tallest tower, located in Karol Bagh, and Mexico’s first LEED for homes residential development,” they continue.

Designed by Goodwin, Lizzie Sharp, Leo Liao-Briere, Rithu Roy, Gianluca Malvestio, and Tamika Batalova (UHA), Reflection—Projection was equally and consistently passionate in its presentation, aesthetics, and intent. For the same, Mateu and Upton-Hansen provided a comprehensive walkthrough to the STIR team led by Amit Gupta (Founder, Editor-in-chief, STIR), who interviewed the directors about the exhibition’s thoughtful features, the firm's ethos and genesis, on practising sustainability, as well as the fertile and promising architectural landscape of India.

Goodwin, who led the team at the STIR Gallery to conceptualise and bring Reflection—Projection to fruition, conveyed to STIR how this journey commenced back in December of 2022 when a Google sheet mishap led him to stumble upon the incorporation date of UHA’s Mumbai office, and its imminent 10^th anniversary. “However, it was only confirmed in June following an exhibition pitch to the directors as a way to lift the curtain—and equally, hold up a mirror—to the way we work in celebration of a decade of commitment and growth in the Indian market,” he said.

While considering multiple event formats, approaches, and locations to manifest this endeavour, UHA had an ‘energising’ and fruitful meetup with Gupta and Samta Nadeem (Curatorial Director, STIR) in London, where the commitment was etched to undertake and realise their retrospective exhibition in India. Upton-Hansen further relayed his thoughts on the exhibition’s location, which comes full circle (as conveyed by its moniker and typography) by commenting, “India was the first country to actually give us a chance. Our first project as UHA was in India.”

The architectural model as an author, a visual, and an expression

Models, in essence, perform handsomely and simultaneously as representations of both, theory and reality, abstract and otherwise. In architecture and design, especially, the form and nature of model-making, physical or digital, handmade, or machine-led, assay beings that bring comprehension to concepts, ideas, and reasoning, wrapping definition, materials, scales, and visual beauty around them.

Gurugram-based Loco Design’s intervention for Reflection—Projection was one of creative intention and artistic expression, utilising their expertise in carpentry, glass production, metalwork and craftsmanship: from stacked sheets of solid glass to jagged beings in stainless-steel embodying heavy sharpness, to utilising materials such as sand to evoke the earth, Loco masterfully visualised and presented through these sculptural designs, the global firm’s ‘architectural intent’ through the years.

"Our role in this collaboration was one of a co-author, where concepts were visualised through a series of large-scale models. In visualising, we become the translator, expressing intent through sculptural interpretation, where materials and forms create experience. To narrate this experience, we thought about the materials and what they would potentially convey,” explains Parminder Pal Singh, co-founder of Loco Design.

"Our work often blends craftsmanship and technology to produce new languages, and it is this juxtaposition that inspires us to innovate. In unifying traditional techniques such as shou sugi ban with technologies like 3D printing, we present new avenues of craftsmanship. Reflection— Projection [brought] this approach to UHA’s architectural intent,” he adds.

Visibly excited and relaying UHA’s intention of the displayed models, Upton-Hansen told STIR, “[with these] how [could] we excite people? How can we do something a little differently, and talk about the feelings that the buildings evoke, rather than doing just a miniature replica?” The process was quite fun and old-school according to Mateu, who shared how the models gained form, with them sitting down with Singh and his team, their pencils out to think, tinker and scribble concepts, into realising “not just architectural models, but pieces of sculpture, pieces of fine craftsmanship.”

Reflection. Projection. Collaboration.

"When designing a retrospective exhibition, there is a duty to seek a balance between sentiment and curation, reflection and projection; and it was the latter relationship that continued to resonate in both internal and external discussions,” Goodwin expounds. According to him and the UHA team, instead of approaching the design exhibition as a display case, it became increasingly more interesting and imperative for them to frame their creative processes, finding where their prime design drivers overlapped, and examining how these decisions impacted their built and unbuilt works.

Defining these factors through the lenses of Community, Data, and Experience resulted in a spatial sequencing which brought to focus each of their design drivers, allowing UHA "to reflect on what role each has played over the past decade, and project what impact they will have in the next," he tells STIR.

“The STIR Gallery was a gift, an almost perfectly square, top-lit space with an exposed mono-pitch roof. This varied ceiling immediately led to the formation of a consistent datum for all additive elements in the space. Instead of dictating a curated journey, we prioritised user flexibility in navigating and interacting with the space. This led to the creation of key moments that allow sight lines—in the case of the oculus and screening wall slot—or encourage meandering—in the case of the plinths, curved partitions, and feature models,” Goodwin elaborates on the exhibition design.

For Reflection—Projection, UHA also crafted anew, bespoke shelving, seating, as well as screens to establish a cohesive and consistent visual language across all its elements, in tandem with subtly demarcating the myriad sections, “communicating the fluidity of the intersections between the design drivers across our proposals,” he explains.

“In the experience-driven area of the exhibition we talk about UHA transforming ideas into spaces and, for the first time, the exhibition provided us with the opportunity to spatially explore the pivotal role collaboration plays in that. From commissioning multi-continental photoshoots and locally crafted bespoke models to displaying over 40 minutes of video footage and a digital twin of the exhibition in virtual reality, the exhibition acted as a stage for spotlighting where we are today and where we aim to be tomorrow,” Goodwin adds.

As the walkthrough advanced, it became increasingly apparent how UHA was, and continues to strive for human-centric designs while incentivising sustainable architecture with their mode of client interactions as well as constructing across the world—dramatic buildings that carry their weight in distinct personalities with ‘lingering atmospheres.’ As Mateu shared, “Sustainability is good business.”

Sustainability is everyone’s problem—we all need to do our bit, from architects, builders, and consultants—it needs to be the big effort of the next decade and beyond so that we have a liveable planet. – Ricardo Mateu, Director, UHA

“In the last 10 years, we have built something up, to really be able to make a difference in the next 10 years. So, the ‘projection’ part inquires—we’ve gotten to this point, where are we going next?,” Upton-Hansen observed, while Mateu added, “The ‘reflection’ is us contemplating on the last 10 years, where we started and where we have got to, our journey through steep learning curves, responding to India’s culture and environment through our designs, adapting to it, while ‘reflecting’ on creating something new with a bit of an international feel. Reflection—Projection [catered to] an opportunity to look back as well as an opportunity to look ahead.”

Later in the evening, Gupta summarised the concise endeavour by emphasising the rallying nature of the collaborative to the gathering, “Collaboration is the backbone of creative industries—do not take lightly the power of networking. As we witness here at Reflection—Projection, it is through extensive, cross-disciplinary collaborations like these that we connect the dots, bridge closer to each other, and together, achieve resilience and active creativity.”

"We are immensely proud of our journey in India, and in fact India will always remain central to our firm as it was opportunities here which enabled us to truly grow the organisation to what it is today. It’s about increasing our capabilities, about increasing the quality of our projects, and it’s about collaboration. Collaboration is incredibly important for us and a lot of the projects you’ll see here are the results of long-term collaborations,” Upton-Hansen continued. “Reflection—Projection is a testament to the incredible collaborations, inspirations, and partners that have shaped our work, and we are excited to share our vision for the next decade and continue our commitment to creating spaces that transcend boundaries and enrich lives,” Mateu concluded.

Tap on the head banner to view the full video interview with Jonas Upton-Hansen and Ricardo Mateu.