“Most Indian households use a rounded terracotta drinking water vessel — a matlo — that cools water to 14° below ambient temperature without refrigeration. Our matlo is a slip-cast version which has evolved to incorporate filtration and could be batch-produced from a mould. We propose it as an environmentally sound alternative to bottled water and electric coolers.” Via indianbydesign, photo via dezeen.

This evolved version of the traditional matlo is a prototype by designers Doshi Levien. It’s not in production yet, but when it is I’d like to have one. It gives water a better taste, prevents all that horrifying plastic waste, and also means you’re not drinking all those pseudo-estrogen chemicals that leach into water from plastic containers. Until then, does anyone know if it is possible to buy a traditional matlo in North America? If so, where? It seems as if the term “matlo” is not that universal. Vancouver has a South Asian population of 300,000 yet I can’t find one of these, which makes me think they haven’t been imported here.

These evocative photographs of the abandoned Rishikesh ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – celebrity yogi to the Beatles and an inextricable part of late 60s counterculture – are by Paul Prudence, the author of the beautiful blog dataisnature. The Beatles stayed at this ashram in 1968 to study with the yogi. He apparently disapproved of their potsmoking, though you can’t believe everything you read. John and George eventually left the ashram amidst rumours the yogi had made sexual advances on Mia Farrow, though apparently these rumours were discounted much later on. But by the time the accusations were retracted the much-publicized 60s melodrama was already mostly forgotten. The disintegrating ashram is now minimally monitored by a security guard, but an image search online shows that many travelers and photographers trespass on the place regularly, either out of homage or just curiosity. It’s a beautiful place. The Maharishi died last year at age 90 in the Netherlands, John and George are long gone, and it’s unclear exactly when the ashram was abandoned and the bees started to move in. I’m not a Transcendental Meditationist, unlike David Lynch and Clint Eastwood, but I find the architectural remains of the yogi’s ashram very beautiful and a reminder of the pervasive influence of Indian design and thought on 60s aesthetics in the west. Thanks to Paul Prudence for permission to reproduce these superb photos here.

This brick screening wall by Anagram Architects, New Delhi, is a reminder of how imaginatively this material can be used. The wall flanks the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre, a Delhi-based NGO. It’s strangely reminiscent of the wall in Harry Potter whose bricks rotate in a complicated sequence and then magically open out onto Diagon Alley. The bricks in this wall, too, almost seem to be in motion. From Indian by Design.

The textile company Anek Taanka, which means “infinite stitches,” was founded by Indian textile designer Varsha Sharma. She has said that “my challenge is to create pieces of textile that could inspire spaces to be designed around them rather than the other way around.” That’s a bold ambition but this pillow makes you think she could actually do it. Found on Indian by Design.