Many parents want to expand their children’s horizons with a variety of experiences, and the Dabrals acted on this with a trip from Toronto, Canada, to Martha’s Vineyard when their 11-year-old son Vivaan expressed an interest in the Island’s architecture.
“It was an impromptu plan,” Viswas Dabral, Vivann’s father, said.
The 606.3-mile drive to Woods Hole terminal with a ferry ride over to Martha’s Vineyard was sparked when Vivaan sent an email on Tuesday, Oct. 4, for a “big favor” to Keith Moskow, a principal of Cambridge-based architecture and design firm Moskow Linn Architects, after reading a book Moskow co-wrote with his fellow principal Robert Linn titled “Martha’s Vineyard: Contemporary Living” that showcased the buildings on the Island they designed.
“I was wondering if it would be possible at all for you to help arrange a viewing of any of the houses or projects underway. This may be an unusual request, and I would be very very grateful for an opportunity to get a look at some of your astounding house designs from the inside,” Vivaan wrote.
Although Moskow himself was unable to be on the Island, he reached out to clients and architects on Martha’s Vineyard to facilitate tours of homes. “It is very rewarding that the book and our projects inspired his interest in architecture,” Moskow told The Times in a text message, who also called to ask what Vivaan was like in person on Tuesday.
Various people, such as South Mountain Co. CEO John Abrams and MacNelly Cohen Architects principal Bruce MacNelly, showed the Dabrals the place they lived or worked. Debra Cedeno, founder of West Tisbury-based Architecture+Indigo, LLC, helped to show the Dabrals around the Island, and visited a house that was still in the construction phase on Chickawaukee Street in Oak Bluffs. Cedeno commended Vivaan as a “courageous and passionate young man” and “his amazing parents” in an email prior to their arrival.
“What was powerful to me … in this day and age, there are a lot of young people who grow up in a certain place or certain household, and their dreams are so big or lofty and amazing. You asked, and your parents accommodated,” Cedeno said to Vivaan. “To be supported in that way was such a beautiful story.”
Cedeno also gave a tour to the Dabrals of a house she designed in West Tisbury owned by John Ross and Simon Singel, who were happy to show the Dabrals their home. Vishwas said the construction site and architects’ offices showed Vivaan the behind-the-scenes work of architecture and people’s homes to show “there is a story” to them, imbued by the “warm and welcoming” residents.
“I thought that every single architect had their own design and style to how they made houses, and each person had a different way of looking at how they wanted their house built. So, I thought that was also a unique thing,” Vivaan said.
Although Vivaan is unsure whether he wants to be an architect in the future, he thinks the profession is “pretty cool,” because “I can build houses for so many people in the way that they want to.” The varying architectural designs he saw on the Island caught his attention over other places.
“Each house has its own design, and it’s different than other houses. Some houses are giant and designed modern, some are small and are older houses, whereas in the place I live, most houses look the same, feel the same,” Vivaan said.
Vivaan told The Times that before his family came to Canada, he did not really have a desire to see big houses because he lived in Singapore, where most people live in condominiums. “There was no point of dreaming of having a house like that,” Vivaan said.
When the Dabrals arrived in Toronto a few months ago, Vivaan said he started to look at “some cooler designs I found in some newspapers.” Vivaan said the temporary accommodation that they were staying at until their stuff arrived in Canada from Singapore had lighting he did not like, so he “started looking at houses where they are the way I want them to be, or I can make them the way I want them to be.” Later on, Vivaan found “Martha’s Vineyard: Contemporary Living” in a bookstore, and used “a few weeks of my allowance” to purchase it, which set in motion the trip to the Island.
When asked about the Vineyard architecture trip, Vivaan’s mother Neely Anna Vajpayee Dabral said they didn’t “try to influence whether he wants to go that way or not,” and added how Vivaan has made houses shown in the book in the video game Minecraft, which allows players to build structures of varying complexity in the game’s world. “Our goal in life has been to allow them to see as much [as we can] and then to pick and choose and move with what they want,” she said.
Vivaan explained to The Times what it was like sending his email request to Moskow. “It didn’t feel like anything special, because I was just coming back from school and writing an email on my dad’s computer,” Vivaan said. “But I didn’t know it would turn out to what it is today.”
Moskow’s answer to the email was a “learning experience” for the Dabral parents as well.
“I wanted to manage Vivaan’s expectations when he said that he wanted to make a try. I said, ‘Look, there is a one-in-10 chance that it will get read. There is a one-in-10 chance that after it gets read, it will be responded.’ So, shoot, dream big, but we don’t know,” Vishwas said. To his surprise, he found an email chain from Moskow that showed Islanders cooperating to make the tours happen. “It’s incredible that people like Debra, John, and Simon and yourselves are making time for people you don’t know at all.”
Vishwas said what the Islanders have done was instill the notion that it is fine to ask. “What you’re doing is instilling hope in Vivaan, and not just in Vivaan, I have to be honest, I feel more confident it’s OK to ask, and there will be kind souls who’ll respond,” he said. “Genuinely, I think the one thing which really got touched is, How do I give back? How do I keep responding to people who asked me for anything? That’s one thing that I will change in myself, and of course, I’m sure Vivaan … this will give him the confidence to keep asking for more from himself and others. That’s how we get better, right?”
Vivaan was touched by the kind gestures extended to his request from the Vineyard. “People can reach out to help people even if they don’t know them, and it’s truly an inspiring thing what truly kind souls can do,” he said.
