Says Manjit Bhullar, the man behind the conceptual interiors and art furniture: ``Interior design, though not too developed in the country, is the highest form of expression. It entails creativity in paintings, colour scheming, furniture making, carpet design, lighting and landscaping. The interior designer is like the master of the orchestra who is trying to get all the arts together into a living environment. That is what we are trying to achieve at Atelier.''

The gallery, a brain child of Anita Wissenbach and Bhullar, was opened lastweek by Jacqueline Lundquist, wife of the US Ambassador to India. A big attraction here is the Jurgen Wissenbach carpet collection. ``The collection is exclusive and totally original, protected by copyright. These carpets are knotted on the basis of the sketches of a team of top European designers,'' says Bhullar.

The designs available include Opera, a composition of soft and fluid patterns; Carioca, an amalgamation of formal abstracts with highly linear elements in an interplay of festive colours; Prisma, which introduces pictorial shapes prismatically shattered in an imaginative mirror and Tasmania, which reflects the mythologies and traditions of global cultures.

Carpet prices begin at Rs 2,772 per square metre, going up to Rs 12,600 per square metre. The gallery sells every component of the theme though- from the paintings on the walls, to furniture, to candelabra, to accessories and even mirrors, with the help of stories. One can buy the whole `story' or individual pieces. The chairs begin at Rs12,000 and go up to Rs 30,000.

The lamps are priced between Rs 3,500 to Rs 8,000 and candelabra begins at Rs 3,500, going up to Rs 40,000. The price for an entire theme could go up to Rs 1.5 lakh. The themes available at present include Istanbul, the Renaissance of Rome, the Basque Rojo chairs, the Gothic arch table, Provence, the Greco Roman Day Bed and the Millennium series.

The paintings, for instance, are by Brij Pawan Singh, a US-based exponent of the abstract expressionist medium. ``He breaks the boundaries of art and gets them into the realm of non-figurable expression -- in terms of music and colour -- very close to the Zen form of calligraphy. What we have done is used the same energy and coupled it with futuristic furniture and used little stories to explain various inspirations, says Bhullar.

Take the Istanbul Story as an example. One can notice the minaret form of the mirror frame which is quite arabesque. Along with it we have very contemporary chairs which give the impression of dancinggirls -- the legs of the chairs have been inclined and turn back for allusion. To balance the entire composition we have the `tree-of-life' candelabra against an a blue-gold antique finish wall. The mirror and the minarets are an important part of the Istanbul tale. Being the gateway from Asia to Europe, Istanbul is basically a mental image- a confluence of the East and the West.

The Juergen Wissenbach collection, introduced in European markets in the late eighties, pioneered the concept of the carpet as a canvas for artistic expression. The carpets are made of very high-quality natural products and sourced from Iran, Pakistan, Morocco, India, Nepal and China. For tighter quality control, the company has its own branches and warehouses in most of these countries, apart from its own manufacturing base.

The USP of the gallery is to project the best of creative arts. It's selling people the best in interiors by clubbing it with other creative art forms. Future plans include exhibiting sculptures, coupledwith interior products, photographs and installations with interiors. ``There is a collage of activities in the contemporary mind. Therefore, one puritan style would not be adequate to satisfy the creative urges of the modern-day individual.

Until and unless somebody puts these diverse ideas into practice and shows the audience that they can work together aesthetically, creatively and functionally, people won't understand what we say. At the Atelier, people can come and experience for themselves that a diversity of ideas can coexist in one frame,'' concludes Bhullar.