Statement of Purpose (architect)

Being the only kid in the family, my academic career has progressed in the best possible way so far. I passed out from one of the finest schools in the city, Sri Aurobindo Memorial School, Bangalore. As a kid I used to walk through the city lanes of Bangalore with my parents, I noticed certain spaces were very fascinating to me and certain others were tedious. Some were peaceful whereas others were bustling with activities.

Growing up I spent most of my childhood weekends & vacations on construction sites walking through mud, mortar and what not with my father being a contractor and my grandfather who was a developer. To recapitulate I lived off most of my time around the construction industry.

Sooner than I realized, my understanding towards this vast industry in the ever-changing world made me keen to continue my academic studies in this field and thus enrolled myself to get a Diploma in Civil Engineering. This program had lots to offer in areas such as Building Materials, Construction Technology, Estimation & Costing, Surveying, Design of RCC structures and Design of Steel structures. In the latter period of the program, I realized that there is much more to a built form than just beams & columns I.e. “Design”.

Design is something in which the built form narrates a story. It was simply amazing how different people used these meticulously designed spaces in many different ways. It was this warmth of observing people, culture, interacting with them, looking and learning from the way they live, made me fall in love with this art of arranging spaces. Suddenly I felt that there is nothing wrong with changing directions if you change for the right reasons, this is how I got interested in Architecture.

The first year of my B.Arch program was a very different story, there were students with no preconceptions of architecture, whereas I had an upper hand in drafting and excelled in it. I focused on understanding various design principles of a building and its components. Program offered insights on Climatology, Structures, History & Theory of Architecture as complementing subjects, Whereas Design studio terminating with a Design problem was considered as core subjects.

After 3.5 years in architecture studies, it was time for thesis, I took up my design thesis topic as “Beyond the Walls-Redefining Prison”. The college offered immense support to me throughout. This project was nominated for 2017 NIASA’s best thesis awards, were students from all over the country participate. With a keen interest in contemporary architecture, I interned in BETWEENLINES, a Bangalore based architectural firm headed by Ar.Guru Prasanna & founding partner Ar.Deepa Suriyaprakash. The firm gives immense importance on all round development of each intern. It was a hands-on experience making Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks, rammed earth walls, being part of installations. What helped me stay on track was the fact that I interned at a professional firm working with various external agencies, the knowledge of how a firm works was very informative and kept me on my goals. The firm also focuses a lot on upcyclying, which has made me realize the importance of consuming as less resources as possible.