Kiran Venkatesh
B.ARCH. (Hons.) IIT Kharagpur
M.ARCH.  Ohio State University, USA

Kiran is the co-founder of InFORM Architects and has designed over 300 projects till date since the founding of the firm in 1997. Kiran’s main focus on projects is to generate conceptually strong designs that are innovative and to build unique and performative buildings that respond to context, constraints, client and architectural vision.

Kiran is optimistic on the role of technology in shaping design thinking, development, evolution and execution. He is involved in several initiatives related to use of BIM software platforms and research on mechanization in construction [especially in affordable housing] in order to effectively address the growing disparity between demand and supply in the design-construction sector.

Along with his practice, Kiran is active in academics and architecture education. He is also co-founder of InCITE – a one of its kind Architecture Event Space in the country that’s a platform for exchange of Architectural ideas and dialogue.

Indranil Chatterjee

Ar. Indranil Chatterjee has professionally logged projects worth 25 million square feet built works; and has held the domain of Chief Architect of large Design Guilds; working at the highest level of the Architectural Profession in India- this has involved significant Projects in all major Design categories, many won through team credibility and Competition.

He has handled as a Principal, the Design & Execution of Corporate, Institutional & Public Facilities- Hotels, Hospitals, Schools, Knowledge Parks, Offices, Industrial Architecture, Retrofitting & Rehabilitation, Retail Design & Implementation management, Design Manuals and Eco-conservation along with Project Management Action.

This intensity is accompanied by his unique love and involvement with the subjects of ‘Aesthetics’ & ‘History & Theory of Architecture’, on which he has lectured at various Public and Institutional Forums. He has been an active part of the National Publication Committee of the Council of Architecture since 2005, and been involved in its myriad duties since inception.

His remembrances and dreams should see the mention of ‘Repertoire’ Lectures on the ‘Form of the Hindu Temple’ & ‘Understanding Contemporary Architecture’, travelling across time and place.

Abin Chaudhuri
Founder – Abin Design Studio

Abin Design Studio began in October 2005. Abin graduated from Jadavpur University, Kolkata in 1998 and pursued Industrial Design at Domus Academy, Milan. Recently, he was part of the “Glenn Murcutt International Master Class 2014”. He is also visiting faculty in IIEST Shibpur and runs a football institute.

Over these 10 years, ADS has executed a range of diverse projects that have engaged many issues, multiple constituencies and varying scales, from Architecture and Interior design to urban Art intervention.

At ADS, We believe architecture is not merely about Creation; It is about a Search. From social aspects, to the mechanics of spaces and forms, from the beauty of light and shadow to striking a harmony with nature; it is essentially a continuing process of discovery. The journey, and all that we come across during this process, is what contributes to our growth.

Work of “Abin Design Studio” has been selected by Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York) to be showcased in their publication and travelling Exhibition Project, “Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities, 2014”. Further, ADS has received “The International Architecture award, 2015” from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

Apart form this, ADS has received many international and national awards and innumerable publications in magazines worldwide over a slim span of 10 years.

Rajeev Agarwal

Rajeev Agarwal is a graduate from the School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi. Soon after graduating, he won two design competitions that led to the beginning of his architecture design studio in New Delhi in the year 1998. The studio has since worked on a range of projects including residences, galleries, resorts, institutions and large scale residential developments, with an intention to find an original and unique design solution appropriate to each project. He has been a member of the visiting faculty at School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi and Sushant School of Art & Architecture, New Delhi. Sporadically he also likes to participate in discussions involving design across various creative industries and its implication on people & places.

He says “it took me close to 10 years to unlearn the design process as gathered in architecture school. The design process is actually closer to the one experienced by an artist while creating a work of art. Of course, the site, context, materials and use do play a role in defining the actual design moves but to my mind these are incidental. These get absorbed and internalized to aid the design process unselfconsciously. Architecture is an embodiment of a way of life and the values that determine its path.

A successful work of architectural design has simplicity and clairity with crystallization of design thought and moves to a degree that the design is simple, almost austere. The construction techniques and materials are used to explore all their intrinsic qualities like strength, density, and texture in their bare honesty form. They should explore all facets of the material to do justice to it.

A constantly changing experience jogs the mind constantly and it continues to absorb and react to the built environment making it playful. Constant play between two contrasts like changing views, light and shadow, change in axis, smooth and rough texture, hard and soft landscape. Each one enhances the opposite by contrast in close proximity. There is always a duality at play two opposite materials, two colours, two spaces, two geometries and two textures. Eventually the built environment consists of spaces, which are sensed through a play of light. These are the both, the tools as well as the end products in architecture.”