Life, the universe and everything: A Wknd interview with architect Bijoy Jain

He has designed furniture for Hermès, luxury homes and hotels. But the shapes he has formed aren’t his true legacy, says Jain, 59. Read about the idea that is.

Architect Bijoy Jain likes to say that his materials of choice are air, water and light.

(Photo courtesy Fondation Cartier / Thibaut Voisin)

His latest exhibition, Breath of an Architect, has been on display at Paris’s prestigious contemporary art museum, Fondation Cartier, since December 9 (the show concludes today). And it is an embodiment of these elements, arranged over two floors.

The centrepiece is a giant orb of bamboo, smeared with cow dung, entwined with thread and coloured with turmeric. It sits in a bamboo enclosure that