Associate Director-ARCOP Associates Pvt. Ltd. (Interview PART-1)
“Discipline is the primary factor that can help the leader and his team members meet the requirements of the project, within the budget, and on time.”, says Manish Bagga from ARCOP Associates Pvt. Ltd.
Manish Bagga, Associate Director of ARCOP Associates Pvt. Ltd., joined the organization almost 34 years ago. ARCOP is an acronym for, “Architects in Co-partnership”. Founded in Montreal in the early ’50’s under the name “Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Sise,” the office adopted the title ARCOP in 1970. Mr. Bagga remembers working with Mr. Ramesh Khosla and Mr. Debasish Guha, the Principal Directors of the company. ARCOP has presence in India since early 1970s and ARCOP was founded as a Private Limited Company on the 26th day of June 1985.
Manish became an associate director and eventually a shareholder in the organization.
The Company slowly started to land contracts with big clients like DLF, Emaar, amongst others.
Mr. Bagga pursued a diploma in Architecture, followed by B Arch through Indian Institute of Architects. He then became a member of the Council of Architecture. ….
Mr. Bagga’s core philosophy is to follow and respect the functionality of the project, i.e., the purpose for which it is being built while introducing a certain degree of flexibility for aesthetics. It is, in his opinion, essential to honestly and thoroughly understand the purpose for which the client would use the project. Along with this, it is necessary to allow room for aesthetics which would provide innovative ideas without interfering with the functionality of the project. His idea is that Form should always follow the functions.
According to Manish, the fundamentals must be kept intact when starting a project. He discusses focusing on the project’s constructability when working on a concept design.
Regarding the materials needed to construct the project, Mr. Bagga comments on how it is essential to account for its availability and the nature of interaction the workforce would have with it. He says that sticking to these ideas in his mind ensured the success of all of his projects.
He mentions projects in Gurgaon, such as the Laburnum, where this conceptual implementation helped to create a landmark for the area.
He says that upon graduating, one must keep in mind the buildability of the design of the project they would embark on. It always helps to have senior members guiding young architects on projects to consider the building engineering as the plumbing, the electrical arrangement, the HVAC, etc. If these aspects end up being neglected, the project ends up losing its buildability.
According to Manish Bagga, builders start early with leads on the land when working on more significant projects. However, in his opinion, it is much more essential to consider as much information as possible regarding the surrounding area. It is because if roads need to be built in a way that the entire project needs to be restructured, or if any other elements need to be considered to avoid drastic changes to the architectural design, they must be done from the start, even before the contract is set to be signed. If the architect is not aware of critical pieces of information like the one mentioned above, they are forced to face undue challenges on the job and may jeopardize the client’s vision.
Mr. Bagga’s clients appreciate the vast experience he possesses in his field. They are primarily fans of his work on his previous projects and the results he has delivered for them. His clients approach him for his innovative designs, and he feels proud that he has managed to create his signature style in such a dynamic field in all his years. To be continued>>