Our philosophy
EAST ISLAND is a laboratory of ideas, projects, education, information, art, architecture, crafts, photography, and biodiversity preservation. A laboratory for designing and building ecological and sustainable homes. Spaces to live and enjoy. The conservation of nature, the territory, and cultural and anthropological wealth are the focus of research.
Anupama Kundoo
“Designing spaces for living, in the broadest sense. Like bees and ants, human beings need protection from the weather and a place to carry out their activities. So for me, architecture is a very basic profession, to provide shelter for people. We live in a world where people are bored, always need new things, and only look at the surface of objects, the color, the shape... I think the challenge of architectural design is to create spaces where there is nothing. Space, which is more important than materials, can create a mood, a sense of harmony. It influences behavior. If you live in a respectful space, you will act respectfully. It has that power, and architecture should encourage and stimulate the good life. We build buildings, but in reality, life is built.”
“Good design is invisible. You can't explain exactly what makes it good; you feel it. It's like saying 'the food was amazing,' but not because of the parsley, turmeric, or garlic, because of everything… synthesis is the most important thing. One of my values is thinking holistically. Architecture is the science or art that deals with the synthesis and harmony of all the things that comprise it. Our projects must be carried out with full knowledge of the social, political, economic, and environmental context. Only then can the most appropriate decisions be made. The more informed you are, the more values you will reflect in your work. We live in a society with an economic crisis and enormous environmental problems, and yet many architects escape this reality by designing superficial things without taking the context into account.”
“I've turned down some projects, and there are clients who have turned me down. You don't have to do desperate things to avoid losing a client. So far, I've never had to accept a job that compromised my values or just to make money, not even when I've had financial difficulties. Everything you do creates a path.”
And how can that beauty be applied to architecture?
“If we architects create a kind of beauty in a profound sense, we can help lift people out of misery. If you're in a beautiful space, you can automatically feel it. It's powerful, it moves you, you can't help but notice it or care. Beauty appeals to the spirit.”
“Beauty as a tool to end misery.”
"In Japan, even garbage bags are tied with art…."
Wabi-sabi, the Japanese term that seeks beauty in imperfection.
“Minimalism suggests that we reconnect with ourselves, that we are able to connect our happiness to our own being, and that this happiness does not depend on the excessive possession of things.
We are the generation with the greatest abundance at our fingertips in history. We've never had such broad access to food, clothing, hygiene products, transportation, or travel. Every object is now more accessible to us than it was centuries ago.
We've never had as many things as we do today; yet we don't live in a time of plenitude and happiness. The same is true of access to education, healthcare, security, or even improved life expectancy. We know we're fortunate and that our present is much better than in the past, but we also feel a deep sense of loneliness, emptiness, dissatisfaction, and loss of interests that makes us feel increasingly lost.
The paradox of thousands of people who inhabit this planet is that, despite being surrounded by objects, we are unable to value them and, far from perceiving the abundance of our reality, we feel a great sense of deficiency, based on never having enough, never being satiated, continuing to run in a competition where we always lose because we always lack something: we are never satisfied.
This contradiction we're currently experiencing, which pushes us into a lifestyle of compulsive shopping where our well-being depends on buying more, confuses us and distances us from our happiness. We've become so detached from the little things that we walk on quicksand every day. We live surrounded by all the things we need, but we don't feel or perceive them that way.
Shopping generates a short-term burst of happiness in us, a pleasant and positive feeling that fades minutes after completing that new purchase and, in some cases, leaves many people bankrupt before the month even begins. As we become increasingly lost, we need this short-term burst of happiness, even if it's just to feel satisfied for a few minutes.
Luis García Vagán “THE ART OF NOT HAVING TO HAVE EVERYTHING”
Warm minimalism
