9 am EST | 6:30 pm IST
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“The Architecture of Transition: Emergent Practices in South Asia”series will convene young practitioners that have displayed a rigorous engagement in making architecture in the public realm and in response to the spectrum of issues that societies in acute transition are experiencing. The second lecture includes Rohan Chavan and Vinu Daniel, who will present their work virtually on October 15, 9 am EST (6:30 pm IST).
Rohan Chavan is an architect and designer based in Mumbai. He is the founder and owner of RC Architects a design practice that engages with projects and issues related to public and community sanitation, urban design, affordable and low-cost housing, single family houses, space design and institutions. The unique approach towards living patterns and bold spaces are the highlights of his design practice. He loves to fuse modern materials in a vernacular pattern creating spaces that are rich in natural light and landscape. He believes that “Architecture as a science emerged from Man’s humble need for shelter. A ‘home’ is the purest form of design. However, modernized the skin, the spirit of a home is its timelessness, where architecture transcends fashion. Beyond a room with sturdy walls, a roof, a window, a hearth, all else is luxury.”
Vinu Daniel completed his B. Arch in 2005 from The College of Engineering, Trivandrum, following which he worked with Auroville Earth Institute for the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Post-Tsunami construction. On returning from Pondicherry in 2007 he started ‘Wallmakers’ which was christened thus by others, as the first project was just a compound wall. Many eye-openers in the course of his practice prompted him to resolve to devote his energies towards the cause of sustainable and cost-effective architecture. With a practice, spanning over more than a decade, Wallmakers has won many international accolades including being selected by ArchDaily as the only Indian practice in the list of 20 Young Practices of 2020, winning 3 editions of the Design that Educates Award conducted by the Laka Foundation-Germany,being nominated for the Brick Award 2022 and The Royal Academy Dorfman Award 2022 to name a few.
Amidst the current global climate crisis, it becomes all the more important to question the direction in which we humans, as a race are headed. In the place of questions like “What should we build?”, queries like “Should we build?” should become more relevant. And in facing the inevitable situation where we must build, the need to use materials that has already become an environmental hazard in the place of fresh material has become the need of the hour. At Wallmakers we believe in understanding and using materials easily available from a site or in building with waste, which led us to research and develop techniques such as the Debris Wall and the Shuttered Debris Wall. At Wallmakers, the aim is to build sustainable spaces that are responsive to specific site contexts and conditions, while maintaining a balance between innovative, utilitarian designs and creating contextual dream-like spaces.
This lecture series is initiated by The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute (LMSAI), Graduate School of Design (GSD), and supported by Architecture Foundation, India, and The South Asia GSD Student Group.
