Jugal Mistri, Founder & Principal Architect, JMA Mumbai, sees mood boarding as an evolving narrative that starts with the site’s history, culture, and climatic conditions. His approach is deeply rooted in sketching, using hand-drawn concepts to capture the essence of a project before transitioning to collaborative digital tools. By combining traditional physical models with advanced techniques like laser-cut and CNC modeling, he ensures that form and proportion are meticulously explored. Read on to find out the intricate process of crafting vision boards and a fresh perspective on how projects evolve from abstract ideas to cohesive realities.
How has your mood board creation process evolved with digital tools, and what balance do you strike between physical and digital elements in your conceptual phase?
The mood board creation evolves thematically with cues drawn from the site—its historical elements, cultural essence, and climatic conditions. Sketching on-site is a practice we still follow religiously to capture initial ideas and the concept starts to pour in soon after that. These sketches serve as a foundation for tangible mood boards developed collaboratively with the team using digital tools. We still rely on old-school physical models to explore shape and proportion. In the later stages, we enjoy creating detailed laser-cut or CNC models.
Walk us through your thought process when you begin a new mood board – what elements do you consider first, and how do you layer colours, textures, and materials to build your narrative?
Each project feels like starting from scratch, but the approach always begins with the soul and story of the site- whether it’s urban, ex-urban, land with contours or flat land with trees. There’s no rigid formula; it’s like building a puzzle where different pieces like colours, textures, and materials drawn from the environment and purpose of the space fit together organically. In some projects, design details like terrazzo floors, fluted walls, and natural wood grains match the nuances of the micro context; while in some, the colours play a pivotal role. Sometimes one element whispers louder than the rest, guiding the narrative, but in the end, it’s the bigger picture that matters most.
How do you use mood boards to communicate with clients, and what techniques have you developed to help them understand your vision through these visual tools?
The beginning of creation is always a plethora of ideas being joined together, what we receive from the site or context. It is the physical material samples, swatches, and even tactile elements like roof tiles or thermal insulant textures that have to be embedded in the whole scheme of things that give an idea about what is about to be built. The material library set up in the studio exclusively curated with these samples, helps clients visualise and understand the finer details of their spaces. Hyper-realistic renders have been a game-changer, enabling clients to experience the space long before it’s built.
Can you share an example of a project where the mood board played a pivotal role in shaping the final design outcome? What were the key elements that translated most successfully from concept to reality?
Reflecting the macro identity of North Goa, Baia Villas in Mandrem, North Goa, captures the essence of Goa’s Susegad lifestyle—its relaxed charm, vibrant culture, and coastal energy. The local community has mastered a kitsch aesthetic that celebrates and thrives in the moment, making everyday life less complex and abundantly easy. The façade has been dressed with a playful peach colour in a two-tone Velatura texture and finished with striking blue windows. The two extremes work perfectly, like a painting that defines the polarities within Mandrem – edgy yet romantic, laid-back yet animated. The key elements that helped translate the initial ideas of reinterpreting the architecture of the place with a Portuguese influence were arched windows, reverse fins curving out to offer shade, traditional arched windows, reversing the flying buttress, the checkered verandah and the 900 mm thick walls springing outward, forming deep recessed windows. Solid wooden furniture ties the interiors together, grounding the vibrancy of the palette.
Looking ahead to 2025, what emerging materials, technologies, or design philosophies do you anticipate will dominate mood boards? How are factors like biophilic design, smart home integration, and climate-responsive architecture influencing your conceptual process?
Looking ahead to 2025, our approach to mood boards will focus on thematic multiplicity, with a single underlying idea for each project. Designs will evolve through process and site, rather than following fleeting trends. For instance, the evolving form and representation of arches in the coastal belt may contrast with the curtain walls used for a mixed-use building in an urban scape. Maximalism will take centre stage, while we embrace the romance of spaces that invite slow indulgence—spaces that inspire imagination about what they can become, not just what they are.
