The 29-year-old Basheer Khan was recently awarded the Best Architect of the Year by the Telangana Artists Association for his eco-friendly interior designs. Significantly, he uses 80 per cent of the wood and never uses a live tree for his work. “I always use leftover wood that is the result of natural consequences,” says Basheer.
The architect, who imports wood from Bali, Indonesia, says that he got a lot of inspiration from there. “Most of my work is done on the outskirts of the city, where families want to relax over the weekends at their farmhouses,” says Basheer, whose work is eco-friendly and done without the use of machines and chemicals. “Even for the flooring and the interiors, I never use machines. Everything is done by hand,” he explains.
Basheer recently created a long dining table from a single piece of wood. “Yes, it’s very rare for a dining table to come out from a single piece of wood. Generally, people use the branches, cut them into pieces and prepare for the interiors. But I used the root as well. I found a more-than-hundred-year old tree that had collapsed in Bali in a hurricane. So I took the root and used it to design the dining table,” he explains.
As to why he imports wood from Bali, Basheer says, “It’s very cheap when compared to India, which is already running low on forests and trees. The same piece can cost five times more in India than in Bali. Besides, it’s easy to get wood from there.” So why does he do work only on the city outskirts? “My clients like to be surrounded by nature, where they can relax and unwind after a long and hectic week,” he says.
