Matharoo Associates & Artize 'UN-WRAP' boundless space at ADFF:STIR Mumbai

The singular architectural element—the wall—comes alive through movement: through the subtle shift in the natural light on the wall’s material, or bustling life around it, linking architecture to its context. This intrinsic relationship of the built environment to motion, captured most fittingly in moving images and film, forms the crux of the curatorial brief for the JSW Pavilion Park, part of the activations planned by STIR at the South Asian premiere of the Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF). On view from January 10-12, 2025, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai, the diverse pavilions centred on Frames of Reference are designed by leading architects and designers from India and beyond. The installations will take over the open-air plaza and the experimental garden at the venue as the hub of public encounters during ADFF:STIR Mumbai's three public days. Responding to the cinematic sequence and its ability to shift viewers’ perspectives in the blink of an eye, UN-WRAP by Gujarat-based Matharoo Associates in partnership with Artize plays on the idea of a stationary, freestanding object.

Building on a distinct architectural language that champions frugality and the intrigue of monolithic form, the facade of the architectural pavilion is bare. Instead, as the visitor discovers on moving inside, the solidness of the form is subverted by a lightness and a hollowed-out interior space. Taking the disorienting device of the Klein bottle as design inspiration, and guided by a fascination with mechanics in architecture and a sense of methodical whimsy, the genius of the pavilion hinges on a pivoted door. Just as the four-dimensional existence of the Klein bottle has no distinctive inside or outside, nor a distinguishable beginning or end, the interior of the pavilion design seems never-ending, wrapped unto itself. While visitors enter the space on one side of the pivoting door, once shut, it unveils another seamless pocket of space. The simplicity of the revolving device turns the pavilion into a subtle choreography of spaces.

Orchestrated not only through the active mechanical element, but the minimal design of the installation also employs the sun's motion passively to create a sense of shifting perspectives; revelling in the minutiae of movement. As natural light filters through the sinuous surfaces of the open-to-sky space, it transforms from minute to minute, never the same. In this way, the design also challenges how the spaces around it are experienced. Much like sequences in a film, this shifting point of view allows visitors to gradually un-wrap a sense of discovery and drama through the design.

The Ahmedabad-based studio’s skill in the craftiness of working details and the fabrication of moving parts is appropriately staged with the pavilion design, cleverly using the falseness of the blank wall to play on visitors’ perceptions. Augmenting this fantastical conception is the design team’s partner for the pavilion, Artize, by Jaquar Group. The luxury brand—created by and for design connoisseurs—is established on the notion of reimagining bathroom spaces as a luxury that is ‘Born from Art’. This lofty aim is facilitated by the brand’s innovative range of products that feature art-inspired shapes, minimalistic forms and meticulous finishes. Artize’s support for the pavilion underscores both the brand and the designers’ penchant for spatial fluidity and a sense of drama in design.

“The space wraps itself, with changing frames of reference, however never-ending. Like in a film, there is a constant change of perspective through movement, [which is what] the pavilion strives to celebrate,” lead architect Gurjit Singh Matharoo explains to STIR. Seemingly closed off from the rest of Pavilion Park, UN-WRAP manages through clever manipulation to divulge layers of its monolithic space, challenging the idea of how space is occupied and how it unwraps in three dimensions.

For more information, visit the ADFF:STIR Mumbai website for key highlights of the festival, including the 20+ films, 10 cinematic pavilions, special projects the ~log(ue) programme, media and press coverage and more. Stay tuned and keep an eye out for ADFF:STIR Mumbai 2026.