Design Milestone, a one-stop design umbrella will be held at Biswa Bangla Mela Prangan between December 13-15, in association with t2. The three- day event is the brainchild of Deep and Seema Gupta (founders at Media Milestone) from Delhi and Ajay Arya (founder and principal designer at A Square Designs) and Shweta Arya (founder of Ochre at Home) from Calcutta. Design Milestone is meticulously curated by Deep and Ajay and is conceptualised to step beyond the traditional showcasing of the best brands, aiming to offer unique experiences and extensions that add value to the design world. The show celebrates design and its commune in a whole new ecosystem through immersive and unique experiences that foster inspirations, collaborations, conversations and more. Ahead of their exclusive curtain raiser on December 12, t2 sat with the founders to decode the highlights of the event.
How did the collaboration between Delhi and Calcutta happen? Did you guys know each other?
Deep Gupta: Ajay (Arya) found us through Instagram and they were then looking for a PR company, This was during Covid. We just touched base and in a few days we started working together.
Ajay Arya: I have seen this trend with my clients since more than two decades. And when I mean two decades, I actually mean two decades of making these trips whenever someone is doing their home they would they make these trips to Delhi especially to MG Road, so when Deep came up with this idea, we were like why not?! Let’s get MG Road to Calcutta!
Deep: I co-created a show last year in Hyderabad called Design Democracy and I told Ajay, ‘I really want to tap into the Eastern market, are you coming on board? Let’s do a partnership. He said, ‘I am game!’. Me and him we gel very well and Shweta often used to come more like clients to Delhi and we would catch up for lunch or dinner and later they hosted us here in Calcutta. Also, Ajay has his set of connections in the city as he is one of the top interior designers. So since both of us have an interior connect, we gelled very well and came up with our dream project that is our first show in the country.
Why Calcutta?
Ajay: I feel this event is going to be beneficial for all, not only the architect interior designer community but for like the citizens of Calcutta, for the region. I anticipate a growth in real estate and the industry in Calcutta in the years to come. Since the market is widening, we need to have more shows like this and have more platforms where brands from all over the country could come and showcase to people
of Calcutta.
Deep: The design in India is very focused in Bombay and Delhi, you know there are two major ones primarily in terms of the population... What Delhi and Bombay hold, other cities do not hold that kind of population... like in terms of attendance count. When clients are investing into a brand or an exhibition they want the right footfall, they want the right eyeballs coming. Everybody has big homes, the villas especially Delhi. As a place like Hyderabad, you know these are the upcoming places where you have the larger homes. You know you have the facility of farmhouses like in Mumbai and Alibaug would have a farmhouse. Now Calcutta would have bungalows but I am not sure of farmhouse culture. So what happens is now, obviously for luxury interiors, the bigger the space, the more money you can pop in. So after seeing that there is something happening in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bombay we felt Calcutta is a very untouched market where nothing is happening. It’s like the hub for art and culture. Why don’t we explore that? That aside there’s a lot of good work. For example, Ajay is doing one of the top homes in Calcutta. And there’s Abin Chaudhuri, there’s Pooja Bihani...
We hosted all of them for our first event in Calcutta in Glenburn Penthouse and we started our journey with that event. We met the Calcutta interior designers here. We have Design Milestone Show and the Design Milestone Conclave. The second conclave was during Durga Puja, the Agamani event which was a twist to the pre-parties people do over wine and cheese.We did it at Raajkutir and had a fun element plus the art and culture vibe too. For this we flew down architects from pan India and local architects obviously. People travelling from outside loved the colonial vibe and we also took them for pandal hopping and it was some experience!
What is your vision for the show?
Deep: We want to make it a travelling show, in the sense it’s not going to be constant at one place. Calcutta is going to be constant every year. But we want to reach out to cities where design isn’t accessible. There are cities like Raipur, Indore and Ahmedabad, which has good real estate, good taste and the demand for luxury interiors. So what we want to do is every year we want to capture a new city around India.
How does this event do for the interior design community?
Deep: We are flying down 120-plus architects from India and every day we will have three-four sessions. The discussion topics will range from sustainability to ecological approaches. There are about 85 brands participating.
Shweta: For me there is a session on Calcutta’s blueprint, one that discusses global vs local and the sustainability one which I am looking forward to.
Deep: We are also focusing on highlighting ‘Made in India’ brands, there are plenty of them like Ochre At Home where Shweta has done some fabulous job. Then there are local brands like Scarlet Splendour, House of Kaji, Spacio
Balaji Marbles. Among the national ‘Made In India’ brands we will have Sarita Handa, Jaipur Rugs, Bay Window, Opulin by Sources Unlimited and RR Decor. Then there is Essentia Home, they are our VIP lounge partners. We are promoting the weavers also and so much more.
The other highlight includes The Design Maze section at the centre conceptualised and curated by Ajay Arya. The indoor maze will have installations by Beyond by Aditi Puja (Aditi Jalan & Puja Agarwal) X Goomti, Scarlet Splendour, Icon Projects (Amit Porwal) X Chandra’s Art Studio, Viraj Khanna, Spaces & Design (Pooja Bihani) X Ambuja Neotia, Shantanu Goenka and Mallika Varma.
Plus, a Bankura horse zone where eight interior designers and architects present the Bankura Horse of Bengal with their aesthetics and interpretations. Since the Bengal Biennale is happening during our show and the Bankura horse is a lovely looking structure in terracotta, so we thought why not highlight it?
Can you tell us about the showcase?
Deep: From accessories, home decor, curtains, automation, we’ve captured all different categories under interiors. Luxury home interiors for any office space or any home space, whatever you might require from Calcutta and across India, will be available.
Shweta: The idea of bringing in outside designers occurred because a lot of them are already doing projects in Calcutta, so they end up sourcing from Delhi, Bombay and other cities.
Deep: Our focus is to get East India on the map. There are so many brands that are already stationed in Calcutta but perhaps there was no platform for those brands to showcase it. Here the outstation interior designers get to see what’s there in Calcutta too and they can connect whether it is B2B or B2C. We are targeting a lot of interior designers from Guwahati, Siliguri, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi... I heard a lot of designers from Calcutta or the East are travelling to the North or West to source. But in East India there are hundreds of brands doing exceptional work.
Shweta: We have a mid-section too. You will be spoilt for choice. Even if someone doesn’t want to splurge now, they can connect and decide later.
What else is in the pipeline?
Seema Gupta: Sneha Singhi Upadhaya is curating the food for the December 12 evening. It’s by invite only. And between December 13-15, we’ll have plenty of F&B brands like Soko Coffee, Godhoraj, CoBo, Colab Artisanal Coffee, Chaupati Bites, Balaram Mullick & Radharam Mullick, Kona Dukan, Fabbrica- Originale,Oh! Salad and chef Sneha take part. We want participants from other cities to indulge in the Calcutta delicacies too.
Deep: We have competing shows in India but what makes us different is we’ve launched the first interior retail awards in the country. Usually in the industry, all the architect, interior designer communities are acknowledged with awards. So, we have tried to acknowledge all the retail brands in 13 different categories. We have a jury for that. We had advisors for the works so that our work can become more authentic. We received entries from overseas also but all the winners are from India.
Ajay, from an interior design perspective, what would say were the biggest trends this year?
With every passing year the whole trend is just moving more towards the new-age modern. And instead of sort of aping what the West is doing, why can’t we as Indian citizens or Indian designers present a modern Indian narrative? So I feel the trend is moving more towards sort of everyone representing themselves in a very modern way and I see more of that happening in 2025.
