About

How it all Began 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. … Continue reading

A Call for Permeable Paving

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: urban dwellers have an obsession with paving every possible open space. Housing society compound?Pave it — we need to park our cars! Open area where social interactions take place?Pave it — … Continue reading

Reduce Hard Paving

In our urban environment we see numerous examples of open spaces with hard paving all over them. One of the reasons for this is our insatiable hunger for parking. The earth in our cities is starved of air and water … Continue reading

Pro Bono Pledge

It’s almost a quarter century since I became a practising architect and, although I have been doing pro bono design work over the years, it has always been for people or organizations that know me directly. This way I do … Continue reading

India Locations

By default – unless you’ve changed your template – ArchiCAD sets your location as Abu Dhabi – alphabetically the first in the list that contains not a single Indian city. 🙁Anyway, I decided to make my own list with about … Continue reading

Indian Green Building Ratings

I’ve been critical of Indian green building ratings, their basic limitations and the fact that they can and will be manipulated. Of course this is not restricted to India alone… the problem is worldwide. Now, a study by the New … Continue reading

TERI and USGBC to join forces

Now that was unexpected! New Delhi, June 7: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate the development of high performance buildings in India and Southeast Asia. Essentially, … Continue reading

New BEE Ratings for Air Conditioning

From the beginning of 2104—and in line with past practice—the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has updated their rating system for all appliances including lights, fans and air-conditioners. I’m only going to talk about air conditioners here because they are, … Continue reading

I must be an idiot

Just received a call from a gentleman who wanted to develop 9 acres of land at Nasrapur village in Karjat, very close to some of the bungalows I’ve done and am doing there. That sounded interesting, naturally. Unfortunately he wanted … Continue reading

Visit to ACE tech 2013

Went to ACE tech 2013 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre today. To say that it was suffocatingly crowded would be an understatement. There was a time when they allowed only architects, designers and related professionals on the first two mornings … Continue reading