Debates Schedule

28^th November | 6:00 pm

What is ‘good’ architecture?

Brinda Somaya | Somaya & Kalappa Consultants
Niels Schoenfelder | Mancini Enterprises
Soumitro Ghosh | Mathew & Ghosh Architects

Brinda Somaya

Somaya & Kalappa Consultants

Brinda Somaya is an architect and urban conservationist. Brinda studied architecture at Mumbai University, and was awarded a Master of Arts and Honorary Doctorate from Smith College in Northampton, United States. She started her firm Somaya and Kalappa Consultants (SNK) in 1978, in Mumbai, India. Over four decades she has merged architecture, conservation, and social equity in projects, ranging from institutional campuses and rehabilitation of an earthquake-torn village to the restoration of an eighteenth-century Cathedral showing that progress and history need not be at odds. In 2014 the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) awarded her the Baburao Mhatre Gold Medal for excellence in the field of architecture. In 2016 she was appointed as the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada. In 2017 she joined the Board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, Zurich, Switzerland. Presently she is the A.D. White Professor-at-large at Cornell University, U.S.A. Her monograph ‘Brinda Somaya Works & Continuities’ was published in 2018.

Niels Schoenfelder

Mancini Enterprises

Work-experience in Paris and Pondicherry have led Mr. Schönfelder to found mancini enterprises in 2004, a design firm for architecture, interiors, objects, furniture and landscapes in India and abroad. Based on his experience in Europe and exposure to Indian ground realities he has been designing and guiding the technical implementation of design-ambitious projects in India. Working within heritage buildings and his special interest in the “work-culture of building” have proven to be the driving forces in his understanding of the different project realities and their potential for contemporary architecture. The firm has been working on projects ranging from public infrastructure to private estates and has been recognised by AD India as part of the most influential firms in architecture and design on the Indian Subcontinent for the last 5 years consecutively. He serves as a member of governing council DJ Academy of design Coimbatore since 2010 and holds a Dipl. Ing. Architektur (M. Arch) from TU Darmstadt, Germany

Soumitro Ghosh

Mathew & Ghosh Architects

Soumitro joined as partner ‘Mathew and Ghosh Architects’, a partnership founded by Nisha Mathew Ghosh in 1995. The work is varied across the spectrum and ranges from projects / ideas to do with the urban, research, space, architecture, interiors, product design and so on. Educated at the School of Architecture CEPT Ahmedabad (graduated 16.08.1994) Soumitro Ghosh has earlier on worked with Pritzker Laureate B.V. Doshi, R.J. Vasavada, Neelkanth Chhaya, K B Jain, Jaswant Singh and others before beginning this collaborative multidirectional practice.

Having taught in different schools of architecture and at the Bengal Institute, Dhaka and been the Charles Correa Design Chair, juror, panelist etc. at numerous occasions and forums. He was lucky to begin his journey of teaching with Kumar Vyas, founding member of NID. He has had interest in teaching since graduation especially architectural design and has personal interest in politics, philosophy, culture and history to understand the world we live in and work within.

5^th December | 6:00 pm

What is the business of architecture?

Akshat Bhatt | Architecture Discipline
Sanjay Puri | Sanjay Puri Architects
Smita Gupta | Gensler

Akshat Bhatt

Architecture Discipline

Akshat Bhatt is the Principal Architect at Architecture Discipline, a New Delhi-based multi- disciplinary design practice he founded in 2007. His work highlights the emergence of an architectural expression that is contemporary, yet rooted in a critical understanding of regionalism. The outcome of every commission at Architecture Discipline is determined by a series of design processes, from full scale mock-ups to long-term material investigations, which strive to develop programmatic and technical flexibility. As a result, all buildings are integrated from conceptual framework to tactile experience. Bhatt’s notable projects include the hotel Mana (Ranakpur, 2013), the Discovery Centre town hall at Bhartiya City (Bengaluru, 2014), the India Pavilion at Hannover Messe (Hanover, 2015), and the Corporate Headquarters for The Oberoi Group, Gurugram (2019).

His work has been published extensively and critically acclaimed: multiple Indian Institute of Interior Designers (IIID) Awards, an NDTV DAA Architect of the Year Award (2013); and citations from the Alliance Francaise (2012), the National Gallery of Modern Art (2015), and the Government of India (2015). More recently, he won the ID Honours Award (2020) and was included on Architectural Digest’s AD100 2020 list of the hundred most influential architects and interior designers in India. Over the last sixteen years, Bhatt has taught at three architecture schools in New Delhi, actively engaging with the city’s academic community.

Sanjay Puri

Sanjay Puri Architects

Sanjay Puri Architects are listed in the top 100 architects worldwide by Archdaily. Architizer , New York includes Sanjay Puri Architects in their list of the top 136 design firms worldwide.

The firm tops the list of WA Community award winners across the world. Winning the World Architecture Festival’s Best Housing Project of the Year 2018 in Amsterdam and the World’s Best Residential building in the LEAF Awards, London, the firm has won over 250 awards including 160 international awards and over 100 National awards.

8 Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture & Design’s International Architecture Awards in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012 & 2011, 10 World Architecture Festival Awards in 2018, 2017 , 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011 & 2010, 10 Society of American Registered Architects Awards (SARA), New York, 9 Architizer A+ Awards, New York in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2014 & 2013, 31 World Architecture Community Awards and 5 Hospitality Design Awards New York in 2020, 2015,2012 & 2010 are some of the other awards won by the firm in the last 7 years. With 160 international and over 100 national awards, the firm has won architectural projects in Spain, Montenegro, Mauritius, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Montreal, Oman and Dallas in addition to projects in 40 Indian cities. With a diverse portfolio of townships, schools, hotels, retail and office buildings, they continue their quest for creating innovative design solutions that are sustainable on a large scale.

With a firm strength of 72, evolving design solutions that are contextual and creating spaces that revolutionize the way they are experienced form the essence of the firm’s design philosophy.

Smita Gupta

Gensler

Smita Gupta is Director of India Operations at Gensler. She is responsible for project management within the country and coordinates between Gensler's partners in India and its teams in the U.S.

12^th December | 6:00 pm

How does one build responsibly?

Asim Waqif | Independent fine art professional
Abha Narain Lambah | Abha Narain Lambah Associates
Ayaz Basrai | The Busride Design Studio

Asim Waqif

Independent fine art professional

Delhi-based Asim Waqif studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi and is teaching as a visiting faculty there. After initially working as an art-director for film and television he later started making independent video and documentaries before moving to a dedicated art-practice in 2010.

His recent projects have attempted a crossover between architecture, art and design, with a strong contextual reference to contemporary urban-design and the politics of occupying/intervening/using public spaces. Some of his projects have developed within abandoned and derelict buildings in the city that act like hidden activity-spaces for marginalized people.

Concerns of ecology and anthropology often weave through his work and he has done extensive research on vernacular systems of ecological management, especially with respect to water, waste and architecture. His artworks often employ manual processes that are deliberately pain-staking and laborious while the products themselves are often temporary.

He has worked in sculpture, site-specific public installation, video, photography, and more recently with large-scale interactive installations that combine traditional and new media technologies.

Select Work includes: Durga Puja Pandal in Kolkata (2019), Offsite at Vancouver Art Gallery (2017), 8th Asia-Pacific Triennial (2015); Pavillion de Debris at Marrakech Biennale (2014); Bordel Monstre (2012) at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Andekhi Jumna (2011); Residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, USA (2011).

Abha Narain Lambah

Abha Narain Lambah Associates

Abha Narain Lambah is Principal Architect at ANL Associates, the leading Indian architectural firm specializing in Architectural Conservation and Building Restoration. The firm has won 9 UNESCO Asia Pacific Awards for conservation projects.

Ayaz Basrai

The Busride Design Studio

Ayaz Basrai is Co-founder of The Busride Design Studio, a leading Architecture and Interior design firm in India. Ayaz graduated in Industrial Design, specialising in Product Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 2003. In 2006, he set up The Busride Design Studio with his architect brother Zameer, as an independent design studio specialising in the design and creation of built environments. With wide ranging interests in Illustration, Immersive media, Design and Research, Ayaz is constantly dabbling in the ever-expanding latitude of Design expression. More recently, Ayaz heads the studio's research arm, The Busride Lab based in Goa, which works on research and design projects in the domain of Heritage Conservation and Futures Research, at the intersection of Architecture, Technology, Design and Art.

19th December | 6:00 pm

Architectural education or professional training?

Riyaz Tayyibji | Anthill Design
Ambrish Arora | Studio Lotus
Vicky Richardson | Inter

Riyaz Tayyibji

Anthill Design

Riyaz Tayyibji is a practicing architect and partner at anthill design, Ahmedabad.He is actively involved in architectural documentation, research and academics, and has been a former Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University. From 2014-16 he was the co-ordinator of the Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission set up to document the buildings made by and related to the life of M.K. Gandhi. He continues to research and write about Gandhi’s Buildings as part of his reconsideration of modern architecture in India. Riyaz has curated exhibitions on the architecture and urbanity of Ahmedabad. Amongst these is, The Stepwells of Ahmedabad: A Conversation between Water and Heritage, that opened at the Kanoria Centre for Arts, the Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad in 2016 and the Yale School of Architecture in 2019. The exhibition will open virtually at The Cooper Union in November this year and is in the process of being developed into a book. Riyaz also writes about the historical and contemporary city of Ahmedabad and has published a guide to the city’s architecture. Presently he is a Team Lead at NIUA working on a Heritage Conservation Plan for the medieval walled city of Ahmedabad following its UNESCO inscription as a World Heritage City.

Ambrish Arora

Studio Lotus

In his working career of over three decades years Ambrish has worked in diverse fields including boat building, cinema, museum and exhibit design. He founded Lotus in 2002 with Sidhartha Talwar and Ankur Choksi. The firm specializes in architecture and interior design and has built up an impressive portfolio of work.

Lotus is a multi-disciplinary design practice whose work seamlessly weaves interior and exterior spaces, from large architectural ideas to the smallest of furniture details. The 40 member team at Lotus is from diverse disciplines of Architecture, Interior Design, Exhibition Design, Furniture design, & Graphic Design. The firm takes a deeply contextual approach to its work and combines this with a strong focus on the tactile and sensory qualities of the space. The design process looks at sustainability through the multiple lenses of cultural, social and environmental impact. There is an active engagement in integrating localized skills and resources with state of the art materials and technologies.

Vicky Richardson

Inter

Vicky Richardson is a curator, educator and writer and an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA. This year she set up the cultural agency INTER and commissioned a new public installation, Right to Climb by Walid Siti, for London Festival of Architecture. Vicky was previously Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council and Commissioner of the British Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale from 2010 to 2016. Her interest is in how design practice connects internationally, and with other art forms to express a breadth of vision and provide alternative perspectives. She feels that creating meaningful connections internationally can inspire and inform practice.

Vicky is a Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London where she runs the Interior Design Platform on Urbanism. She was previously Associate Director of London School of Architecture and Honorary Treasurer of the Architectural Association. Vicky began her career as a journalist and was Editor of the design magazine Blueprint from 2004-2010.

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