Responsible architecture is one that meets the functional requirements of the user.

- Dikshu C. Kukreja

Managing Principal, CP Kukreja Architects

India has come a long way over the years in building design and architecture. How do you look at the evolution?

India's architectural design journey has been progressive and, in a sense, exponential. In the first 25 years after its independence, India was struggling to deal with many critical challenges such as poverty, famine, droughts and floods. Our nation first witnessed a significant growth in this sector with the onset of the 70s, which accelerated further from the 90s onwards.

From a very labour-intensive and manually-driven design and construction industry, we have moved to embrace new-age materials, technologies and processes. Today, as a nation, we can pride ourselves on the fact that India's architecture and construction industry is achieving many feats with buildings that are amongst the largest and tallest in the world.

How does the design and architecture vary in India for urban buildings and rural housing projects?

There are many distinctions in architecture and design between urban and rural areas. Generally speaking, in urban areas, we tend to build high-density, vertical developments, where provision of open spaces often gets compromised due to the paucity of land and other constraints. On the other hand, settlements in rural areas are low density and low rise but most rural buildings don't make use of the best of building technology.

Interestingly, I find a strange similarity: in both contexts, we are always trying to ape something that doesn't belong to us. If we look at the architecture in our cities and urban areas, we have - for many decades - tried to imitate the west without really looking at our own culture, climate, and context. In rural areas too, while many projects embrace their regional art and traditions and stand out as truly contextual buildings, we notice that many new buildings are trying to imitate the architecture of Indian cities - concrete and glass buildings that appear odd and out of place and don't belong to the context.

What are the innovations in architecture and design of commercial buildings? What is trending now?

Today, both developers and end-users want buildings to be as large-spanned as possible so that there are minimum vertical obstructions due to columns. This way, the internal layout of these buildings can remain flexible.

Steel is being used increasingly in commercial buildings for its multiple advantages over RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete). Additionally, buildings are becoming taller, so we see many office towers and commercial establishments reaching out to the sky. This is possible as increased FAR (Floor Area Ratio) and relaxations on heights are now being allowed in urban areas.

Design and construction of buildings is an endeavour that comes with great responsibility and must not be done at the cost of our environment. Therefore, sustainability should be at the centre of any building design today, whether in terms of choosing materials with lower embodied energy or using energy-efficient technologies to regulate indoor climate.

What are the key design innovations from you towards sustainable and green buildings?

One of the key ways we ensure sustainability in our projects is by creating better thermal comfort conditions within the building envelope to reduce the dependence on artificial systems for regulating the microclimate. This is achieved by incorporating design strategies that prevent outside conditions like high temperatures or poor air quality from negatively affecting the thermal comfort within buildings.

This is accomplished with two strategies. One is reducing the heat gain from the roof, which can be accomplished by adding pergolas on the roof. Under these pergolas, a thermal barrier is created through vegetative and green roofs that considerably reduce the heat absorbed by the building. The second strategy involves controlling heat gain from the walls by creating a second skin on the building facade. This can be seen at our design for the India Pavilion at the ongoing Expo in Dubai, where an external kinetic facade includes mobile panels that keep changing their directions based on the sun's movement. Another example of this is our work on the Gautam Buddha University campus in Noida where traditional architectural elements such as jaalis (traditional perforated screens) have been used along with modern technologies for energy efficiency.

Additionally, we are implementing the largest integrated water management plan in India for the Central University of Rajasthan. We are also working on India's first transit-oriented development project in New Delhi in collaboration with IDOM, Spain: a mixed-use project centred around two mass-transit metro lines, which aims to reduce emissions and pollution by creating spaces to live, work and play within the neighbourhood.

How do you assess the cost factor in the design and construction of green buildings? Is it a costly affair?

Sometimes, the initial costs of creating a green building are misunderstood and not seen in totality. A better approach is to bring in elements of passive design for cooling and ventilation. These passive design strategies reduce dependence on artificial systems for thermal comfort in buildings. Thus, we can have lower initial costs and high returns due to reductions in the operational cost of the building.  

Another aspect to be kept in mind is that while selecting the HVAC equipment, it is not just the capital cost but also the reduction in the operational costs that needs to be factored in. This leads to a fair assessment for the selection of materials, technology, or equipment that affects the project's overall cost in its endeavour to become a green building.

What are the latest from you in building design and architecture? What are the cost-effective solutions from you?

At CP Kukreja Architects, we are always excited and passionate about constantly innovating design solutions and strategies to enhance the built environment. We are not just looking at solutions that address present-day problems but look to the future to create future-ready buildings.

We have been undertaking a wide variety of innovative projects. We are working on the India International Convention Center in New Delhi in collaboration with IDOM, Spain. The campus will have the world's third-largest convention center with a capacity of 10,000 people and mega exhibition halls where the structural spans are as large as 250 feet.

There's also the upcoming Army Headquarters in New Delhi that is being built at the scale of The Pentagon in the US. Our other significant projects include mega hospitals like the Medicity in Bhopal and the Army College of Medical Sciences at New Delhi, along with the upcoming State Secretariat of Jharkhand. In all our projects, we are embracing new technologies and innovative building materials to create buildings that fulfill present and future needs.

What are your plans towards designing projects that provide optimum space and eco-friendly features?

Responsible architecture is one that meets the functional requirements of the user and is responsive to the local context. As architects, we don't merely create building forms for our creative pursuits to satisfy our egos. We are entrusted with building habitable and artistic spaces. At CP Kukreja Architects, we design buildings that are responsive to the user's functional requirements and are contextually responsive - buildings that respond to local climates, cultures, and geographies. Furthermore, as a multidisciplinary firm, we look at how our buildings can be made more sustainable from a holistic point of view by integrating architecture and other building engineering disciplines. All of this is carried out by our team of in-house professionals who aspire to design ecologically responsible buildings.

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