Ar. Vivek Kumar

His accolades didn’t end there, he considered architecture his first milestone and is today one of the principal architects of Invent Architects, with about 450 proposals in architectural design, Interiors and product design. Small incidents like leading a team of fellow students to awards and citations, to gaining the highest grade in thesis gave him the confidence to open his own practice a few years later.

The years 2006 to 2008 were considered a turning point in his career, spent at Rajendran associates under the tutelage of Ar. Rajendran. He worked so assiduously that Ar. Rajendran started him off with a gift of two upcoming projects and a laptop while leaving. It has been a steady progressive growth from then with no looking back with predominantly residential projects, a lot of interiors with a couple of offices.

Articulating about his most challenging project, Ar. Vivek recounts his first beach house in ECR which had been a game changer in his career. The client had just walked into their office without a referral from anyone and proceeded to give an advance on their first meeting. They conversed at length about the client’s requirement that day. Ar. Vivek then preceded his heart and soul into the design, so much that he earned multiple referrals along with a client who persisted in being a recurring client till date.

On a corresponding note, Ar. Vivek Insist that its utmost important for ‘ARCHITECTS TO LISTEN’. Learning from his challenging project, Invent Architects developed a policy to always meet the client in person for the first meeting and have a personal connect with them. It helped them perceive and understand clients and develop from there.

On being asked about his view of globalization, Ar. Vivek asserts it is everywhere inevitably touching architecture too. He strongly believes architects are also dependent on these globalized approaches in terms of technology like automation etc. But in terms of materials, he contends stay closer to your roots. Everyone irrespective of their fields prefers something sustainable and closer to their culture and region.

However he considers sustainability should not be treated as a specialization and should be part of the architectural process. It is based on typology, scale and most importantly client. There are exceptional instances though, where some client may insist on maintenance free materials and would prefer importing something.

Invent Architects, as a norm follow certain design principles Irrespective of architectural style be it contemporary or traditional, which are not compromised in a design like natural lighting and ventilation. Furthermore they predominantly advocate, ‘CULTURE AND VALUE’ since they bring out the maximum efficiently in an architectural design and stay true to our cultural interaction.

While Ar. Vivek derives inspiration from many international architects like Mies van der Rohe, Zaha Hadid, Le Corbusier, Geoffrey Bawa, Peter Eisenman etc. He strongly feels there are many Indian architects who have not been given their due attention or documentation. However he is positive about change, since architects in India are looking up to their own people too.

On an Inspiring note to younger architects, Ar. Vivek recommends working diligently and sincerely without comparison to fellow architects and things will happen automatically when it has to and not rely on arbitrary expectations too soon.

Ar. Vivek now aspires to explore all kinds of genre in architectural projects irrespective of scale or style and not restrict himself self to one kind.