Sanjyt Singh and the art of being in a good space
Meet the architect who is making waves with his weirdly pretty objects, and marrying fantastical designs with inescapable comfort and luxury.
In Architect Sanjyt Singh’s radically visual world, weird is pretty, up is down, and extra is essential. Also, absolutely nothing bears repetition. Manifesting his clients’ stories as stylish addresses, the Delhi-based designer behind the design studio Spaces + Objects calls himself more of an interpreter.
“Design, to me, is an expression of one’s taste. And if it doesn’t create conversations, it’s not design,” he declares. “That doesn’t necessarily mean it should be avant-garde. It must have a story,” Sanjyt adds.
From conjuring up Swiss-style chalets in the heart of the capital, to surreal homes inspired by Alice in Wonderland and jewellery house Tiffany & Co., there’s little that Sanjyt can’t pull out of his magical hat, er, vision. Au contraire, the weirder the ask, the more he is spurred on by it: his current project is “sexy chalet-meets-Hussein Chalayan’esque-meets-nature.”
There appears to be a method to his madness: Sanjyt’s work has won him many accolades, including a spot in the Top 50 Next iGen Designers 2019, and a double feature (in different years) in the top 100 interior designers in the world category by the Andrew Martin Interior Design Review, amidst others. The luxury interior designer claims he has only two cardinal rules when it comes to design—going big (“I’ve always felt that your home should be an extension of your style.") and including art (“Take risks, mix eras. Art brings life to a room and also adds colour and inspiration. It builds a confident living environment.”).
Sanjyt is also focused on developing his own idiosyncratic objects, the most recent being a series called 'Thinking Faces', which is inspired by both real expressions and the visual voices inside one’s head. A self-proclaimed creator since his childhood days, which were spent in his mother and father’s garment and handicrafts exports factory, Sanjyt remembers interacting with overseas buyers and even designing products for them “on the spot”. His inspiration, since then, has come from a bemusing array of people: from the pattern drafter at his parent’s factory (who taught him the foundation of construction), his mother (whose “artefacts had to be kept at a specific angle” and “dinner had to be laid in a certain way.”), to Tom Browne, Peter Marino, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Montgomery, and Jaime Hayon.