Director – Interiors at RSP India (Interview PART-1)
Meenakshi Sharma, an expert in the field of architecture has completed her bachelor’s degree in architecture in Bangalore. Then she started working as a fresher at RSP. The opportunities she received in that office were exceptional; they were not available to everyone. She considers herself fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on projects such as IBM, Cisco, and the Cisco campuses, which consisted of a building and interiors. She has been with RSP for nearly 16 years.
Philosophy keeps changing as you grow, you start seeing things differently and then as you evolve every year, your philosophy is way different. She always tells her team members and colleagues that as architects, we have to be very responsible to society because we are creating spaces where people will live for the next 20 years. If we believe we are responsible for their lives, it will naturally influence your design. That’s what she’s been thinking since the beginning.
This industry is not about desk jobs at all; it is very collaborative from the design process to the development of design, to the drawing board, to the execution part of it, and even to get the brief out of the client. To understand everything, we always try to learn from them or collaborate effectively. These are some of the smaller programs that we continue to run in our office and on which we collaborate on a daily basis. These are the smaller things that are simple to do, but many people don’t do them because they believe they are probably great designers and don’t need it. Collaboration is a commonly used word, but it is extremely effective.
The most important thing is hard work, and there is no way around it. Nobody can really bring you down if you work hard. That is exactly what she does and will continue to do.
There have been challenges at all levels, from the root to the macro to the micro. We occasionally encounter difficulties in design or with the client. Many times, we are unable to comprehend the needs of our clients. These difficulties occurred earlier in the design process and during execution. When we talk about architecture, we must consider the climate, direction, and many other factors. You can’t just build a house on the land.
It must be related to the trees around it, the soil beneath it, the sky above, and the environment. When things aren’t well coordinated and planned, challenges arise, and you have to face them and learn how to deal with them. We must plan everything carefully and proceed with caution. If it doesn’t happen, it goes back to the dealing part of it. We’ve overcome a lot of obstacles this way. And it has only happened when a good collaborative team is present.
Every client wants something which is iconic and different from others. We all try to do something different in every project. Nobody wants to really copy and paste because we really want to work on bespoke solutions. Every architect would want to do something different to their project. Every client wants that kind of importance and that statement to come across as a different from every architect, that’s what they look at me also. To be continued>>