AR.VIVEKAANANDHAN

Given the limited options in the design field, architecture was the natural progression and he enrolled in Madurai Thiagarajar College of Engineering in Madurai. Working part-time under various architects in the city since his first year, he started his private practice in 4th year with support from his professors thus foraying into a partnership with two of his classmates in his final year. After his master’s in Planning from School of Architecture and Planning (SAP) Chennai,Ar.Vivek moved to Dubai and worked fora British firms Halcrowand Mouchel for about 6 years before moving back to India.

With about 200 odd projects to his name with his private practice and a lot more in association with numerous companies India and abroad, Ar.VIvek distinctly recollects two of his most challenging projects in his career spanning 20 years to date. The first of them was a cafeteria project in a college, the site being a coconut grove with about 280 trees in it. Challenge was to design without removing a tree and Ar.Vivek almost managed his goal and had the misfortune of losing just one of the trees. Another distinct feature of the project being its distinct lack of chairs or benches, but just cut-outs in the floor where student put their legs through to sit or sit cross-legged and find their most comfortable posture.

He further cites, Citadines in sholinganallur, as his second most challenging project to work with a developer in terms of design with feasibility, viability, and stringent budget. Having architects from Singapore involved with clear ideas, it was beyond challenging in terms of design coordination between the business development team, design team, and operations team along with having a dynamic set of requirements. 

Ar.Vivek strongly believes globalization is unavoidable and the need of the hour as well. He further enunciates that “Adaptation and moving forward is the way to address it. Architecture is beautifully evolving in that sense. When the entire world is looking back at us to learn, we are more focused on learning from the outer world. We have to start looking within to understand more about us and there is beautiful architecture lying within ourselves which can be tuned to contemporary times. The world as such is shrinking and we are all becoming global citizens, which mean you are gaining knowledge about other people’s lives and tend to compare, start to adapt and improve.”

Having worked with a varied scale of approach, from attention to the tiniest mm in screws to town-planning, there are two important people Ar.Vivek looks up to are Le Corbusier’s for his immaculate plan for Chandigarh City which was way ahead of its times, and the next being Charles Correa for the impeccable row houses he created of the tiny 180 sq.ft in two levels that works beautifully with adequate natural light and ventilation. He marvels at the mind that helped arrive at such simple solutions irrespective of the scales.

Furthermore, he commends the current generation to take inspiration from them and not get carried away by the international flavour. He quotes “Don’t forget your roots, don’t forget you come from a rich heritage that the entire world envies. We are street smart, something that comes naturally to you. Explore the world as much as u can, learn from other people but be grounded and don’t lose your identity. Be more responsible.”

A benevolent advocate of sustainable living Ar.Vivek emphasizes the need for humans to think in a way where they can give back to the earth again in form of different energies. The pandemic, he further affirms has given us a chance to sit back and think and be sustainable. 

Ar.Vivek is currently working on his dream project, ‘A sustainable resort with zero electricity at Coorg a hill station in Karnataka State, relying completely on gravity for its plumbing.’ The key to the project he asserts is “Getting back to the roots.”