Welcome to the guided tour of Hyderabad's latest open cultural space — an event and coworking space, a gallery, studio facilities and retail outlets — all rolled into one. As soon as you enter Jxtapose, located in the posh suburban neighbourhood of Jubilee Hills, you see a sizeable event and retail space. Make your way up the ramp and you’ll enter a semi-open area that houses the studio and a not-yet-ready kitchen. You’ll also find a conference room, a mini theatre, the pantry and a few private cabins inside. And upstairs is the coworking space (Good luck working with a killer view of the city right in front of you though!).
It took six architects and a civil engineer about four months to transform this (approximately) 4,500 sq ft space into what it is today, says Gayathri Kondepudi, one of the co-founders. What united them was their college thesis. "Our topics were around coworking and community spaces, and for research purposes we travelled to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai to check out a few spaces. That is when we realised that we need something like this in Hyderabad," says the 24-year-old, stating that they were inspired by Lamakaan, another open cultural space at Banjara Hills. But the Hyderabad-based architect urges us not to compare the two as, "Lamakaan is the heart of all creative spaces in Hyderabad." But they sure want to stand out, she asserts.
And how do they want to stand out? If you are a furniture designer and you need to make a model, you can use their studio. If you have products to display, you can use their gallery. If you want actors for your play, find them here. If you want to host a workshop, look no further. Gayathri lists how Jxtapose is a space where, "anyone can do anything, as far as art is concerned." And if you don't know where to begin, don't worry, they have advisors on board who can help you figure it out. Metal art pro Shivarama Chary, artist Harini Ghanti and one of the founders of T-Hub, Srinivas Kollipara are some of these advisors.
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It is quite the collaborative space, after all when different people meet, collaborate and innovate, the products turn out so much better, right? Gayathri asks us. They even want to encourage lesser known workshops like image theatre, miniature models making and velvet painting, even at the risk of having just two or three participants. "Just a few days ago we hosted a crazy, hands-on metal art workshop where they were welding right in front of us," says the co-founder excitedly. There are so many architects, designers and freelancers who need space to just do their thing and Jxtapose wants to be that space. "We want to create a third space, which is not quite like an office or a house but feels like both," she concludes.
Check them out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jxtapose/
