Principal Architect Harshavardhan Punja stands out as a visionary leader. He has been at the forefront of architectural excellence for over two decades with a keen eye for detail and a passion for sustainable and adaptive design. His work seamlessly blends aesthetics with practicality, creating spaces that not only inspire but also serve the diverse needs of their occupants.
In this exclusive interview, we delve into Punja’s design philosophy, his approach to contemporary architectural challenges, and the future of sustainable architecture. From his early inspirations to his latest projects, join us as we explore the journey of a master architect who is redefining the boundaries of design.
Harshavardhan briefed about his professional journey that he studied in R. V. College of Engineering in Bangalore and completed architecture in 2000. After that, he did his internship from Mistry architects which is in Indira Nagar, which was leading architects in Bangalore at that point of time for residential architecture, resorts. And they did some institutional buildings as well.
After internship he continued to work as an architect with Mistry Architects for almost two years. He did some projects there including a lot of residential houses, resorts. Harshavardhan left there and started working with another firm RC Architecture by name, because he wanted to get exposure to corporate architecture and detailing. This firm was also pretty good and well known in that field of line of architecture and project. He worked there for another one and half years, and completed some prestigious projects of corporate interiors including some large commercial buildings.
In 2004, he started – ‘Keystone Architects’ (which is now rebranded to ‘Keystone Studio’) after having worked in two different offices over 4 years. The initial projects of Keystone Architects were projects of relatives and friends.
After completing a few projects and building the firm’s portfolio, ‘keystone’ was commissioned by a few clients to work on their projects.
Mr. Punja shared his philosophy of working smoothly that I think it’s important to listen or understand that person’s point of view, nature and design perspective, rather than to understand his requirements. That is key because a lot of times when we meet a client, we don’t meet with him, we meet with a design as if we met the person already, we don’t know that particular person but we keep the design ready before the fourth meeting. It’s not in the first meeting itself that I have a design and I’m proposing his requirements because I don’t even know him as a person to give him a design that will suit his requirements.
Whenever a client is meeting you, he is coming with a requirement. When I’m talking about a project, I am not asking about the number of bedrooms, dining hall or kitchen because these are basic for all. Instead I am asking how all these spaces are going to be used, what sought of ventilation required, how much open space they want. Because you and I might have a two bedroom requirement, but our utilization, functionality of a two-bedroom space would be completely different, so your house is going to look completely different from my house.
While explaining about things he implemented which impacted his organization and clients, Mr Punja said that he tries to understand the client first and then the needs of the client. He continues, when clients walk into my office to meet us, one of the questions they ask is how many options are you going to give us? I find that question pretty silly because if I will give you five options, and ask you to choose from it. Then I am not a designer, I become a businessman.
But nowadays that has come into picture because a lot of designers tell the client that I’m going to give you options, you can choose from it. That cannot work for a particular client. So if I’m able to read my client’s mind in the first two meetings, then I develop a plan, it will probably be closer to his requirement than blindly proposing a design to him and that way I will cut short. Then I take approval to finalize the plan.
At the same time I am not saying that I will give my client only one option. It could be that I have understood all the things related to the project. I mean this doesn’t work for me at all. So I might have to restart thinking about the whole plan because I should not misunderstand his lifestyle. So we don’t put a cap on how many options I’m going to give him or we are going to work on, but we try and see if we can understand the client requirement and then try if we can fine tune the plan as close to his requirement as possible or not.
Mr. Harshavardhan Punja shared the top challenges he faced in the initial years. He said, it was more to do with the trust that the client has to put in you because you are young and inexperienced. The client has to put in his whole, the trust of building a house for himself, which he is going to live in. So that was a little difficult because you would have to be rejected and lost a lot of time and opportunity. The client couldn’t trust you because you have nothing to show the client.
But, I think initially when we started and completed a few projects and had recommendations from clients with whom we have already worked and who can vouch for our things. Then things were pretty good and going smoothly.
He continues, It’s not just about an architect or designer. I think, initially everyone faced this challenge and these efforts had to be everybody. That would probably be the one challenge that you or everybody faces in the initial years, but that’s just a matter of time that anybody can overcome.
Mr Punja said that the second challenge is for execution of the project, we need to find the right contractors or the materials for a certain application. So it’s not that all the executing contractors are good at all the entire spectrum of production. Let’s say there are certain contractors who are very good with their civil works.
There are certain contractors who have a team who can do good fabrication. But you know that the finesse of some of the fabricators who are out in the market are much better than the people contractors have. So finding the right team is a balance which you get to know in the market after working over the year, then you know who’s good for what kind of work.
To be continued>>