It was a dark & stormy night...
Huh?
Oh you mean, how I began my career! Well, okay...
Career Background
On graduating from Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Bombay, in 1991, I began my training with P.K. Das and Associates. Worked on numerous projects, mostly bungalows and mass housing. I left the firm in 1993, although I was quite happy with the designing and the atmosphere there, because I wasn't getting as much on-site exposure as I would have liked. I was also toying with the option of studying for my masters. To sort it all out, I decided to take a month's vacation - my first in more than two years.
Within a couple of weeks, I got a phone call asking me to design an office at Nariman Point. It looked like a good idea to give this, my first project, total attention before applying my brain to any future plans. As it turned out, those future plans never happened. One assignment led to another and, in a short while, I realised that I would never be able to work for someone else again.
Things are a little different here
Right from the start, my method of working has been, both, informal and unconventional. This may have something to do with the fact that I learned the ropes pretty much on my own. For example, I do a lot of detailing on-site as the project progresses rather than deciding the minutiae beforehand. I also have very different design principles from a lot of people in this field.
Environmental considerations are only just finding their feet here in India especially in the building and interior design industry. Often, activists are looked upon as fanatical anti-development freaks while some armchair greens, in turn, blindly oppose everything. There is also a tendency to arbitrarily slap the "eco-friendly" label on a whole host of products and services because it's a good marketing ploy.
For an architect who cares about nature, it is a huge dilemma because every component used in making buildings comes from the natural world; be it brick, cement, steel or wood. There is no such thing as a completely "green" home unless we're willing to go back to the pre-industrial era but, we can reduce the damage to a level that makes it possible for nature to regenerate herself. This is, in a nutshell, what is widely known as the principle of sustainable architecture and design.
Most people understand the square peg part of bT Square Peg, but everybody is curious about the meaning of bT. It's one of the most Frequently Asked Questions.
