“A room of my own” is a cabinet designed by London designer Nipa Doshi of studio Doshi Levien that is accessible from two sides, acting as a dressing table and a writing desk to encourage quiet moments of contemplation and self-expression.
The work is reminiscent of her work Le Cabinet for French porcelain factory Sèvres, which she described to me during an interview in Sydney in 2023 as being inspired by the shapes and silhouettes of modernist architect Le Corbusier’s work in Chandigarh.
Like “Le Cabinet”, “A room of my own” was inspired by architectural forms in post-independence India that meld European modernism with the local culture. The form of “A room of my own”, however, is more inspired by the Indian kaavad, a portable shrine that unfolds to create a temporary site of worship.
“A room of my own” was commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), as part of its annual Mecca X NGV Women in Design program, and pays homage to the influential women in Nipa’s life. The name is a reference to Virginia Woolf’s famous essay “A Room of One’s Own”, in which she states that women need space and independence to write.
“My first memory as a child was a group of my Mum’s friends, a multigenerational women sitting together in a circle every afternoon talking at the top of their lungs,” explains Nipa in a video interview published on the NGV website.
“There was that real sense of community, of women supporting each other and I think that for me was a very important memory of female solidarity and community and beauty.”
Inside the cabinet are hand-painted portraits of women she has known and admired, while accompanying the cabinet is her first typeface, also drafted by hand.
More on A room of my own
Read my 2023 interview with Nipa Doshi for architectureau.com
