Ar. Sattanathan

TSO Design commune commenced in the year 2000 with Ar. Sattanathan at its helm and has close to about 600 projects to his credits with a major chunk of it contributed towards commercial and industrial buildings having done his fair share of manufacturing factories .

While he asserts that no project is easy and each comes with its own challenges. Ar. Sattanathan proclaims Industrial buildings as most complex for a number of reasons the chief among them being more of a process oriented requirement and it being more driven by the company’s business goals. The design and construction process being diverse than commercial and residential is another factor. There arises a need to understand how each industry function while challenges arise in terms of time lines too. However on a positive note, he appreciates it a lot as it keeps him on his toes and is highly rewarding.

 On his views of globalization Ar. Sattanathan believes ‘Architecture design itself as a process is a globalized approach’. The teaching and methodology is the same all over the world with ‘Design Process’ being predominantly the same, while the design details are localized. In terms of materials having no hard and fast rule per se, ideally architects chose to use local materials to support local economy, however globalization plays a key role in finishes.

He works on the principle that ‘When an architect is not able to deliver what the client requires, its not the mistake of the client but that of the architect. Architect should communicate to the client what is design all about and should have the tools and means to get the required info from client. Also there should be multiple interactions with clients, and architects should have patience to collect every other details  from the client to avoid disappointments in future

His views on sustainability are simple, that the building an architect designs has to sustain itself without depending on any other external resources, generate its own energy, recycle its resources. As NBC affirms the average age of a building to be 50 years, a building has to organically become self-sufficient and run on its own resources for that duration. He uses simple tools like rain water harvesting, reuse of water resources wherever possible, use the roof for generating solar power etc. to attain the same. He believes solar power has become order of the day, bringing it invariably to the discussion table, but ultimately client would be the deciding factor he concedes.

While he gaining inspiration from a lot of architects around the world, there are few names that stand out for various reasons,like the firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) who have marked their presence in all continents around the world, carrying their practice across nations thus showing that architecture is a viable business .

Ar. Sattanathan believes the current generation has opportunities galore unlike theirs which was very generic in practice. He proposes budding architects to have a five year plan, hone their skills, become an expert in one particular aspect of architecture,so that they can be hired by people with particular needs for their skills. The future he believes is only for the experts and not to the generic.