1. How did you become interested in architecture and what inspired you to pursue it as a career?
I was fascinated by buildings and their design since I was about 12-13 years old.
2. What is your design process like, from conceptualization to finalization of a project?
Exhaustive meetings with clients to understand their requirements as also gauge their tastes sets a practical basis for moving ahead. Next comes the ideation & conceptualization which is a fluid and inspiration based process and differs from project to project depending on the context of the building, the building type/its use and sometimes just random ideas that stick in the mind after seeing similar elsewhere & emerge right when needed. I am also interested in environmentally conscious passive and active design and ideas related to those also come to mind as applicable to the building: my partner Mallika is in varied materiality. There is a lot of constant interaction with the clients to introduce suggested concepts and materials to them and in a way groom them into acceptance of and excitement with the final design when shown to them, to ensure they are on the same page- since any design’s coming to fruition in totality depends on the clients’ totally being equally convinced.
3. How do you typically source products and materials for your upcoming architecture projects?
This varies. We do save all incoming product emails/e-catalogs and refer to those. Equally, one tries to keep abreast of new vendors and new products/materials offered by them.
4. How do you integrate sustainability and environmentally-friendly design principles into your projects?
This is a core principle intrinsic to my thinking, from even before global climate change/depleting resources/ harm wrought to environment in extraction of resources/ minimising energy consumption etc became part of the collective endeavors of all architects. Possibly because we were influenced by our teachers in college to realize that the most successful buildings with the happiest occupants are those which incorporate passive principles of design to be most comfortable in their given contexts, that a building is more rooted and relevant to its context when it uses local materials, that light, air and verdure are the first requirements of a successful building with primacy before rich or remarkable materials or ornamentation- all of which pall on the occupant over time.
5. What strategies do you use to collaborate effectively with clients, contractors, and other stakeholders in a project?
Current methods of communication make it most easy to keep all stakeholders involved in all stages/decisions/ possible snags at all times and we do use them maximally.
6. How do you manage time and resources to ensure timely completion of projects?
To be honest, we try to keep our drawings and decisions flowing in a timely manner, often chasing our clients to take the required decisions on time to enable production of drawings before they are actually needed. However, given the nature of the relatively uneducated work force in India, we can’t honestly say all projects run perfectly on time. However, we do encourage our clients to hire PMC agencies in order to try to keep timelines streamlined.
7. How do you stay updated with the latest trends, materials, and technologies in the field of architecture?
The internet and social media have made it relatively easy to stay updated.
8. How do you approach site analysis and context in your design process?
This aspect is core to any design and is the first parameter considered. It is our ambition to have our buildings nestles comfortably into the contexts once realized: we are not very big on context dissonant statement buildings.
9. How do you balance aesthetics and functionality in your architectural designs?
This is possibly quite intuitive: as long as both factors are constantly kept in mind, the end result turns out to be effortlessly balanced.
10. How do you approach budgeting and cost management in your projects?
This is a core issue of great importance to the client/owners and thus emerges uppermost in every decision. Sometimes one also has to educate the client that a slightly greater expense at the outset (e.g. in low emissivity glass or more sophisticated air conditioning) would prove to be much cheaper in the long term. Happily, most of our clients have proved very receptive to such inputs.
11. Can you describe your experience with construction documentation, including drawings, specifications, and contracts?
These are crucial to the success of any project- exhaustive and detailed drawings, well framed and detailed specifications and a fair contract that envisages as many situations as may arise as key to successful fruition, minimizing of wastage, the satisfaction of all stakeholders. We would like to think that we are successful in this aspect with the amount of attention paid to these.
12. How do you handle changes or modifications to a project during the construction phase?
When these are logical, they are to a certain extent inevitable and must be absorbed by any architect. When the same seem impulsive or not clearly thought out, it is up to the finesse of each architect to convince the client or consultant out of it or at least to mitigate its impact. WRT the successful implementation of these changes, modern tools like the cloud, email and group communications enable dissemination to all stakeholders.
13. Can you discuss any experience you have with sustainable design certifications, such as LEED or BREEAM?
While we intuitively follow the principles of sustainable design, as yet no building by us has approached these bodies for certification though some well could have.
14. How do you incorporate cultural or historical considerations into your architectural designs?
This too is part of the context and culture specific approaches emerge during the conceptualization and design process. However, most complex new building types (barring age old ones like educational buildings or residential ones) do not really support the interweaving of historical factors, barring those of Modern architectures rich history in itself.
15. Can you share any experience you have with designing for accessibility and inclusivity in architecture?
We have designed low cost buildings for NGOs working with disabled persons from very economically depressed sections of society. Both accessibility as also inclusivity (by making the buildings non prepossessing and using simple materials relevant to the lifestyles/ contexts of the users) played key roles in the projects.
16. Can you discuss any experience you have with working on international projects or in different cultural contexts?
While we have done a project in Bali, India itself throws up very diverse clumatic and cultural contexts. With our work spanning locations in at least 7-8 states of India & locations varying from the rural to small towns to metros, one has had to adapt the approaches to be specific to each context. Acclimatizing oneself to the contexts, their climates, the visual language that differentiates buildings there, the materials easily available there or even the different mores of the local population becomes a key starting point for those projects.
17. How do you approach client presentations and communication of design concepts?
Using all the modern tools available to us: it is very necessary to have an informed and enthused client to the sucessful fruition of any project, and for that, one has to see all tools available so they develop a deep understanding of the emerging reality they will own & inhabit.
18. Can you describe any experience you have with overseeing the construction phase of a project and resolving on-site issues?
This is an ongoing process in any project.
19. How do you handle feedback and criticism from clients, colleagues, or other stakeholders in your projects?
All feedback is welcome. Architects do tend to get very invested in execution their designs exactly as conceptualized but it is the varied inputs of all the above that tempers the process and makes the building truly successful.
20. Can you discuss your approach to integrating technology, such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), into your design process?
We have yet to employ this.
21. How do you approach designing for sustainability in urban environments and addressing issues such as density and transportation?
Sustainability in an urban project encompasses a climatic aptness of the design as well as the materials used, as low a carbon imprint of the building in both construction and usage, the minimized use of energy and resources for the buildings use as well as maintenance over its life cycle, maximal flexibility to enable reuse and it is our Endeavour to use both passive and active measures to achieve this. Building only as much as necessary and within the tightest footprint ensures intelligent density. While transportation depends in larger city scale factors, within the building itself a maximsation of onsite parking is necessary.
22. Can you share any experience you have with working on projects with limited resources or in challenging environments?
To add to what I said in answer to quest 16, those projects were realized with the most limited financial resources and within slum contexts. An architect has to be sensitive to the eventual user and eschew the need to over awe or impress since a building is experienced- not in its initial impact alone but- through the psychological comfort and ease of its user occupants. One has to restrain ones “creative fantasies” in certain cases to ensure the user occupant feels at home in the created context.
23. How do you approach creating innovative and unique solutions for architectural challenges?
This is possibly intrinsic to the ambitions of any architect in any project: to innovate uniquely in each one. This is best left to the bystander critic to judge.
24. Can you discuss your approach to continuing professional development and staying updated with industry advancements and best practices?
Read, observe, discuss, and assimilate.
25. Can you discuss your experience working with local building codes and regulations and how you ensure compliance in your designs?
It is a sad augury that India has mostly outdated & restrictive building codes with very little flexibility to allow for new approaches that may make the buildings infinitely richer. When combined with the lack of imagination of those who form local bodies/authorities, and the fact that many (both builders and authority functionaries) are gaming the system for venality- leaving very little scope for reasoned argument in an atmosphere of marked greed and avarice- most architects will say that building codes are what prevent a lot of innovative approaches that could benefit the user/ the context/ the city at large. So, while we as architects are forced to be compliant, it is a different matter that it is done with deep dissatisfaction and a sense of opportunities lost.
