Ar. Sujitha Arvind

AA Dezine’s career trajectory has been on the rise in the past decade with a heavier emphasis on institutional design. Initiated with an offbeat project with a unique design for autistic children on a small two ground plot, Ar. Sujitha and AA dezine has about 30 schools to their credit in the past decade with a scale ranging from 75000-1 lakh square feet. Ar. Sujitha while she considers it quite a challenge to design and execute institutions of a big scale sometimes within the time-span of a year, it is a challenge that has been conquered with their numerous projects in the past decade. With specifications that are crisp and clear and being familiar with standards and details, their homework is quite well done in institutional designs.

However, she regards Rainbow hospital in Mount road as their most challenging project with challenges from multiple aspects ranging from location to design to numerous site challenges brought about by the multilevel basement parking. Every day brought a new challenge recalls Ar. Sujitha, and each one necessitates us architects, contractors, and structural engineers to confer and work every day to troubleshoot them.

On the other hand, irrespective of all challenges and efforts, Ar.Sujitha asserts that watching children use the space designed by them competently has given them more satisfaction than overcoming bigger challenges and gaining awards. She crowns their biggest achievement to a phone call from an octogenarian wishing to join school again to experience their well-designed space at Alphabet school in St.Mary’s Road, Alwarpet, Chennai.

Ar. Sujitha believes the concept of globalization has been quite thought-provoking in most architects in recent times, with technology having the upper hand and the access to different methods of producing designs and advances in project management, seeing a significant upgrade. Although, with access to all technical knowledge from all over the world, there has been a newfound appreciation for vernacular architecture in recent times with the younger generation taking an avid interest in traditional spaces, structures, and methods and show an interest in connecting with their roots.

Recalling the design strategies of architects she admires the most, Geoffrey bawa and F. L. Wright , Ar. Sujitha affirms, “For both architects landscape are intermingled with the spaces they design with the use of natural materials and the seamless blend of nature with the spaces “, thus inspiring generations to build sustainably.

She further advises budding architects to travel a lot, take time to understand the architecture of the place you travel to. She admits that sometimes some architects have preconceived ideas with clients and emphasizes that thought should be given to understand the client and their requirements before designing. She quotes “Try to be a good architect and give people better spaces which they will enjoy and cherish and through that, you will definitely get more projects”. Furthermore, she advises young graduates to not restrain themselves with particular styles or signature elements and be open to exploring design.

Ar . Sujitha Arvind presently aspires to design a single storey vernacular style school, with a lot of open spaces for kids to experience, space which flows into classrooms with all-natural and locally sourced materials, built with help of local artisans.