Ar. Suresh Kumar D

During the period worked on numerous freelance projects working on 3D modelling for an array of architects in Bangalore, while learning to design too in the process and aimed to become an architect.

The opening to realize his ambition arose when he wrote the qualifying exam to join architecture course for people with 5-8 years of experience in the civil field. Upon his graduation as an architect he resigned his post in Defense to start his firm ‘VISTHA ARCHITECTS’ during 1994-95. There was a dearth of architects in the city during the period and that, Ar. Suresh believes, gave him the opportunities and put him on the road to success.

Subsequent years saw him take up about 35 projects per year in various scales ranging from bungalows to apartments to hotels, hospitals and interiors. Amongst the 700 odd projects in his career, Ar. Suresh hold 4-5 selective projects in each year close to his heart, where he believes his full potential has been utilized.

The chief and most challenging among them being ‘Billroth Hospital’, he emphasizes hospitals are not easy, where everything rest with the doctors and while corporates took over hospitals, the changes were phenomenal. After an extensive case study around South India, Ar. Suresh had to come up with an sensible design particularly for its operation theatre floor and its radiotherapy unit, the latter also bearing the necessity of approval from the Baba Atomic Research Centre. The design Ar. Suresh recalls involved numerous calculations, discussions with experts, extensive study to understand the equipments used, their recuperations of exposures to the rays for lay men. Material play came in to consideration with a different type of concrete used to accommodate the said space in the basement and other floors having different parameters each.

While he welcomed globalization and asserts it a necessary welcome to future development, he also emphasizes the responsibility of architects today to alleviate cost and take climate into consideration while designing. He had made a conscious shift towards sustainability in his practice in the past 5 years, ensuring RWH implementation in his buildings, terrace gardens, green spaces, replacing use of bricks with aerocon blocks, avoiding plastering of concrete surfaces and suggesting solar panels to clients.

Looking back at the 35 years he spent in the field Ar. Suresh observes that “As a youngster we tend to try a lot of experiments. As we grow older we tend to become more functional and less experimental”. Although he emphasizes that “Learning could be from anybody and could happen anytime”, citing the example of two young architects who presented their parametric work in an IIID webinar stating “Even today when I feel I’m too old to experiment, I derive inspiration from such youngsters”.

Ar. Suresh believes clients are like children, while architects indulge them they are not always able to do so. Architects’ ability to cater to client’s design demands depends on numerous factors like practical conditions, site conditions, contractor’s abilities, material availability etc., and it’s the duty of the architect to explain it to them.

On a humble note, Ar. Suresh along with his hard work, credits his success to the kind support provided by the crew of structural engineers like Alex Jacob , Nagesh, Ramakrishnanan, Belliappa, Kingsway, Dr. P K Aravindan from IIT and more others he collaborated with over the years. His current dream is to build a contemporary hotel with different areas dedicated to different styles of architecture from around the world