Ar. Amutha Krishnamurthy

A hesitant student from a Tamil medium background, she relied on her sketching abilities to observe and interpret her work and convey her thought processes in drawings. Looking back she attributes those very skills to success of her consecutive gold medals for  ‘University 1st rank’, ‘ Best thesis’ and ‘Best student’ awards and pursue her masters in School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University.

Two decades, leading to her own practice was a steep learning curve of self-realization for Ar. Amutha with the initial 3 years dedicated to teaching, to gain confidence and overcome her apprehensions of the language barrier while freelancing in association with Mr. Rajendran, a retired engineer from L&T.

Subsequently she joined a construction company in Chennai to acquire a strong technological backing and not be completely dependent on consultants (MEP, Approval etc.) in the future. This lead her to get familiarized with approval norms in first phase of her career. Working on multi-storied buildings helped her handle and learn multi disciplinary designs like interiors, landscape etc., while providing the advantage of observing numerous architects associated with them from the sidelines and gain knowledge of their working styles.

The end of the decade, saw Ar. Amutha work in association with Pithavadian architects on a consultant basis to understand the culture and working for an architect’s office. Topping off the decade with a travel around the world to learn and observe more and the maiden voyage served as a turning point in her career with a very significant observation.

Amuthasurabhi Architects, came in being in 2010 with a decade strong experience and a clear vision of Ar. Amutha aspiring to ‘Break the cliché that an architect takes up government projects due to lack of creativity’ and making government project more lucrative to all architects. Her travels abroad brought her attention to the fact that ‘Many significant and famous building around the world were all part of government projects unlike our country’. Acquiring inspiration from her mentors Ar. Oscar and Ar. Ponni (OCI Architects), Ar. Sheela Sriprakash, Ar. Murali Murugan and Ar. Roopmathi Anand, Ar. Amutha started her own practice taking up residential and office projects while correspondingly dipping her toes into government project.

Today, Amuthasurabhi Architects are part of panel architects for government agencies like Housing board (TNHB), SIDCO, TANHODA, Chennai Corporation (GCC) etc., completed above 4 Hundred bed hospitals, Parks, High-rise apartments, Office buildings to their credit of government projects along with more numerous bungalows and private township developments. Adding more feathers to their cap of achievement are their most recent projects, Face lifting of all Anganwadi’s and School buildings for the Chennai Corporation and few infrastructure development projects at  ‘Tiruvannamalai’ and Individual bungalows in and around Chennai & Multispecialty hospital in Velachery and Township in Chettipuniyam .

In Sustainability, Ar. Amutha believes, will be always part of day to day architecture and not worked on separately in her practice. Her practice works on the conviction that, sensible usage of design principles and materials would always result in sustainable concepts. Also, she asserts, “When an architect does a neat classy job, it helps society in its own way, it changes people’s perception to appreciate the good things provided to them and respect them and maintain them”.

Ar. Amutha aspires to help bring about guidelines to start a trend towards government project or any projects, where the significance of the presence of architects is realized. She quotes “People before me have started the same and I have been doing my bit towards government projects and it’s not the end. Ar. Roopmathi Anand along with few others did something noteworthy in Chennai Corporation. She brought up architect’s fees from 1.5 – 2 % to 5 % after a prolonged struggle. This is a benchmark set by us to make better pathways for future generations. I’m sure people coming next would continue and I’m glad I was able to pave the way a little for the same. “