At the Architecture and Design Film Festival’s Pavilion Park Mumbai 2026, Suchi Reddy unveiled SIFT, a multisensory pavilion that transforms one of India’s most familiar domestic objects—the rice sieve—into an immersive architectural spiral. Supported by Godrej Properties Ltd, the work invites visitors to move through concentric layers of woven bamboo that modulate light, sound, and motion, evoking Mumbai not as a static city but as a living system of circulation and becoming.
Known for her research-driven approach rooted in neuroaesthetics, Reddy approaches architecture as something that begins with the body rather than the skyline. SIFT is inspired by the chalanee—a humble rice sieve found in kitchens across India—and elevates it into a spatial metaphor for the city itself: filtering, sorting, and holding multitudes at once. As visitors step inside the pavilion, they are drawn inward, gathered by a spiral that slows perception and heightens sensory awareness.
“SIFT begins with the body,” Reddy explains. “The rice sieve is an object we handle almost unconsciously, yet its rhythm, texture, and sound are deeply embedded in memory and care.”
Neuroaesthetics, Sound, and the Architecture of Calm
Suchi Reddy, “SIFT,” 2026. Photography by Ram Rahman. Courtesy of Suchi Reddy.
At the core of SIFT is Reddy’s long-standing belief that “form follows feeling.” The pavilion’s porous bamboo surfaces filter daylight into shifting patterns of shadow, while reflective materials catch movement and vibration, turning visitors themselves into part of the installation. The experience is further shaped by a sonic environment composed by frequent collaborator Malloy James, inspired by the rhythmic “swish” of rice being sifted.
Together, these elements create what Reddy describes as a “primal calm”—a bodily response that counters the sensory overload of dense urban life. The pavilion’s center becomes a place of pause and reflection, echoing the psychological role of home and ritual within the chaos of the city.
Suchi Reddy, “SIFT,” 2026. Photography by Ram Rahman. Courtesy of Suchi Reddy.
“By enlarging and inhabiting [the sieve], we activate a sensory language the nervous system already understands,” says Reddy. “The spiral form, filtered light, and sonic environment work together to slow perception and steady the body.”
This approach draws from Reddy’s broader work in neuroaesthetics, a field that examines how built environments shape emotional and physiological responses. From her collaborations with Google to healthcare prototypes designed for healing, SIFT extends this research into a civic, publicly engaged form—architecture as a tool for collective well-being.
A Living Stage for Mumbai’s Future
Suchi Reddy, “SIFT,” 2026. Photography by Ram Rahman. Courtesy of Suchi Reddy.
Installed as part of Architecture and Design Film Festival’s Jaquar Pavilion Park, SIFT was selected by an international jury chaired by curator Aric Chen, with members including Hans Ulrich Obrist and Lesley Lokko. Yet its impact extends beyond the festival moment. The pavilion is envisioned as a permanent work, set to be reinstalled in Godrej Properties’ forthcoming sculpture garden in Mumbai in 2027, embedding it into the city’s evolving cultural landscape.
Conceptually, SIFT draws inspiration from Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City and Bernard Tschumi’s call to bridge form, use, and social value. As visitors encounter one another through layers of transparency and concealment, movement becomes performance and architecture becomes a living stage—activated by bodies, memory, and shared presence.
In an era increasingly dominated by digital abstraction, SIFT proposes a quieter but no less radical idea: that the future of design may lie in re-engaging the handmade, the familiar, and the sensory intelligence of the body. By transforming an everyday tool into a site of collective reflection, Suchi Reddy offers a vision of architecture that doesn’t just represent the city—but helps us feel it.
Suchi Reddy, “SIFT,” 2026. Photography by Ram Rahman. Courtesy of Suchi Reddy.
