SM.LL the essence
'Sm.ll' is a thought beyond itself yet is nothing but a ‘dot’ of curiosity. A curiosity that causes a gentle pause (.) in the pursuit of beauty.
S M . L L |(Small) is a design firm set up in 2019. We design furniture, products and spaces. In our Design process, intuition transcends all other concerns. We learn and unlearn, think and rethink our designs on loop until we generate a process for the problem at hand. So our pieces are encapsulated tales in its conception.
SM.LL the substance
The essence of culture lies in locality. Wood is a material that inspires us. Wood speaks about the history of Kerala in its most profound form thachu sasthram which exemplifies the great skill employed in creating humble objects, furnitures and buildings. Our designs pay homage to this humility in conception of designs in our history blending in with the modern materials that tie together to narrate the tales that we create.
SM.LL the premise of scale
“Nor of the small is there a smallest, but always a smaller. All things have a portion of everything. Since there cannot be a smallest, nothing can be separated or come to be by itself.” Anaxagoras Every whole has its part and these parts have theirs. S M a L L tries to unify these ephemeral infinite parts by imparting a conceptual expression to the whole.
S M . L L T E A M
Jayaprakash VN and Minu Zacharia are the founders of SM.LL. They are both architects by profession but have forayed into different fields of design and conceptual thinking. The duo started working together on architecture competitions and custom furnitures for their friends which led to the formation of S M . L L Design studio. Further they started exploring products and furnitures with strong conceptual narratives and worked through a polarity of research prototyping processes and strong intuition.
J A Y A P R A K A S H V N(Founder)
Jayaprakash graduated from MES School of Architecture. Post his graduation he worked for two years with CnT architects,Bangalore. He has been an academician since 2014 in CAT. With the seeds of carpentry sown by his father he has made varied explorations in woodworking and product design. His works include the relooped chair, Kalpavrisksha (an explorative series of stools and side tables), image of opaqueness (exploration of the seen and unseen) etc to name a few.
He has honoured with second place at TRENDZ Excellence Award for Architecture & Design competition for his entry of Re-looped chair. He is a joint winner of Lexus design award 2019 with Dr.Anooja in the craft Category. He was an official representative of India, as an interpreter for wood joinery skill, at the International Euro Skills Competition in Budapest.
M I N U Z A C H A R I A (Founder)
Minu Zacharia graduated from College of Engineering Trivandrum. She started her career as an Architect in Dubai with PNCA where she gained exposure with an International Design Studio. She worked on a scale ranging from stadiums, airports, residences and commercial projects. This was followed by a Masters at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. She got placed to DAR Al Handasah, Pune where she worked as an architect on Island projects in the middle east before moving to Kerala. Post her stint as a professional, she began her design explorations as a freelancer in Trivandrum and started working on conceptual competitions and design blogs. She also started working as a Part Time Academician at CAT and now in CMR Bangalore.
She was honoured with STAPATHI SAMMAN 2013 for her excellence in Architecture Design Studies.