DIDI’S WAY OF LIFE

photograph by Lakshmi Swaminathan

Didi Contractor - 1929-2021

Didi Contractor was an extraordinary woman whose presence touched many lives. She lived with graceful simplicity. For her, beauty lay in the revelation of truth-its depth made it ever more beautiful. She designed and built in ways that people could belong, drawing the architecture into harmony with its surrounding ecology and using materials that were local.

Didi drew upon local vernacular architecture to weave an intimate, healing comfort into every detail. By closely observing village life and embracing a simple lifestyle herself, Didi came to believe that the answers to climate change lie in the time-tested wisdom of traditional ways of living-ways that evolved through deep respect for nature and a close relationship with the local ecology.

above image of Didi Contractor building a fireplace in Sidhbari, H.P. India,

photograph from family archives

When she came to Andretta in the 1970s, she saw part of Nora Richard’s mud house in ruin. The following year, that ruined portion had sprouted a vegetable garden. This deeply impressed her, and shaped how she built. Didi's approach to architecture was deeply rooted in the wisdom of nature. To her, sustainability meant allowing nature’s cycles to flow freely - buildings shouldn’t interrupt, but grow like plants in the landscape. She believed true beauty was whether what she built would leave behind wreckage, or nourish the earth and support life.

She believed nothing disappears; everything returns. This informed her approach to design: think ahead to the next life of what you make. Every small decision - how you deal with waste, how you treat the objects in your life - contributes to the whole. She emphasised that the process always shapes the product. A warm, humane result cannot come from a mechanical or dehumanised method.

Sadhana’s home, Rakkar, H.P. India, photograph by Chitra Vishwanath

For Didi, building was more than architecture - it was a way to engage with ethical, cultural, and aesthetic questions. It was also a way to train and uplift skilled artisans. She saw it as a privilege to work with people who were willing to work with their hands.

Her legacy is a call to return to simplicity, to nature, and to each other.

The film is a homage to Didi's philosophy where making is a regenerative act, a form of social cohesion, and a reclamation of culture. 11.11’s clothing - handspun and naturally dyed - becomes an extension of this story, connecting the body and mind with the makers and the environment itself.

Our sincere gratitude to Lakshmi Swaminathan for the invaluable references in her book A Call to Return: A Journey with Didi Contractor, which greatly informed this blog post.

Heartfelt thank you to Maya Narayan for facilitating the making of the film.