IAmbani Residence, Mumbai
OUR PRACTICE
As our name suggests, we are all about aircraft. It's where we began 27 years ago, it represents 90% of our project history - and it's absolutely "where we live"! However, we have practiced across other disciplines, including Private Motor Yachts, Land-based Residential projects and even a palace. All such projects were outgrowths of our aircraft projects in cases where our customer asked us to get involved. It's always a high compliment when a customer is so happy with their aircraft, that they request our help on another of their properties - and we're always delighted to accommodate them!
And Therein Lies The MAGIC
Our Studio
The RRAD studio is today is very different than when we first formed back in 1991. In those days, we maintained a full-time staff of seven and in a suite of offices adjacent Addison Airport in the upscale northern suburb of Dallas. But in 2016, we decided to adopt a new business model - one that closely mimics the film industry. Why? Because as all small creative studios know, it's challenging to maintain a steady flow of projects and the necessary cashflow to keep it all afloat and at the same time applying the proper focus to each customer's needs. In short, our long history has taught us a thing or two - namely that collecting a fee in order to simply pay bills is not what we want our primary motivation to be.
Instead, we wanted to select projects based on the merits of the customer and the brief that defines their vision. When we're presented with something exciting and compelling and that challenges our creativity - these are the projects we seek and it's the only motivation that should matter. The business model that filmmakers use supports these goals by allowing us to be selective about the projects we accept, maintaining the freedom to pass on opportunities simply to meet short term financial goals. But the key in making this work is the team you have - and the team we have, has been built over 27 years. So, when the votes were tallied, we all agreed that the freedom to choose great, exciting projects and conduct them one at a time, as independent projects - was the breath of fresh air we all needed. In the years since, we evaluate opportunities, put them to a vote and accept the project only if we all agree. It has been liberating to say the least and now when we enter into a new project, we do it with fervor and excitement. We know our budgets, we know our timetables and milestones, we train ourselves on the needs and desires of our clients and most of all, our entire focus is on one single project. As with the film industry, we assemble the best of the best - colleagues whose talents and relationships have been been forged over 2+ decades. And therein lies our new secret weapon - creative independence and singular project focus.
Details, Details, DETAILS
As the old adage goes. . . "The Devil Lives in the Details" - and that may be true for attorneys and nuclear physicists, but for us, it's our playground - where the magic lives! Creating architecture, applying materials, banging out test renderings and everything else it takes to arrive at the overall room or cabin, is one thing, and it's enormously satisfying - but that's really where the fun only begins for us!
Customers may not be acutely aware of it, but it's really where the fun is for them as well. Once our customers walk onto the completed aircraft for the first time and take in the visual impact of their interior - it's the beginning of a whole other set of discoveries. Small details, be them functional, aesthetic or both, are the little layers of discovery that delight the senses over and over again - the things our owners and their guests discover at altitude while enjoying a glass of wine as the sun seeks across the Adriatic in route to Rome. It's that perfect way the sideledge quietly opens at the press of a finger, revealing everything you need just at hand, in just the right place and with movements that neither require thought nor the slightest of effort.
This IS where we live. There's no devil here - only delight!
INSPIRATION and Mood!
Not a single celebrated accomplishment of man ever began without inspiration. Before Leonardo ever took chisel to stone, he had had produced a thousand sketches and spent countless nights imagining his finished creation. Frank Loyd Wright produced more than a third of his work between 80 and 91 and the simple reason is that inspiration continually swirled around and within him, only growing more fervent as the years wore on. My favorite FLW quote is:
Few put it so eloquently, but every impassioned designer on the planet understands and lives by this. For Mr Wright and so many others before and since him, investing in beauty means the creation of it. And to ignite creation, there must be inspiration. It fuels and lives within every project. But when it comes to customers, it's about capturing their vision, their inspiration - and in the modern world, we do that by creating mood boards. And when we get it right, we can instantly see it in their faces. Inspiration can come from anywhere but the harnessing of it starts with boards like the ones below. They are a critical beginning component in demonstrating to our client's that we "get" their vision and are now prepared to move forward with the creation of their dream.
Concept sketches live in our studio. They may be old school but everything begins by putting pencil to sketch pad. It's our visual language.
