Gita Balakrishnan

Gita Balakrishnan begins by mapping her journey right from her birth in Calcutta in 1968, from which point she goes on to dwell on her childhood years. She goes into how she discovered an interest in architecture before she pursued her education at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA). Before this, she had been enrolled in the electrical engineering department at the Delhi College of Engineering and she remarks on how one of the reasons she dropped out was because she was the only girl in her class. She was lauded by a professor at SPA to be one of the first students to apply persistently and be accepted for an internship at the Centre for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). She further recalls the discussions around marriage and the dismal rates of pay for junior architects at the time. She talks about choosing her first job at a smaller firm over a larger one, noting that it felt unfulfilling. 
She talks about the journey that led her to apply for the role of a Creative Rural Educationist, and the move away from practicing architecture, which she points out was a major turning point in her career. She talks about her journey and daily work as a social activist going forward and recalls the solutions she worked towards while undertaking a bit of building projects on the side. She recalls her time spent in Bangalore before she moved to Calcutta. In Bangalore, she notes all the projects she took on. On her move back to Calcutta, she mentions the factors that made her move and take up projects very easily. While setting up Ethos, she talks about setting up her office at home and the events and activities that kept it going. Moving on to the state of architecture education in India, she recounts her initiatives to educate during which period she was elected Chairperson of the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA), West Bengal. Concluding on how she has continued to work at home during the pandemic, she says it felt like a second skin while she explains how she also set up Architecture for a Cause (ARCause).

In response to a question on the early influences that may have been reflected in her practice, Gita Balakrishnan starts with her relationship with Kolkata. She describes in detail her recollections of her birth city which she had left at six months old, only to come back to it in her college years. She notes how most of her vibrant memories of the city came through her father. Moving on to her move to Hyderabad where she stayed till she was in class 9th, she recollects her vivid memories of the city’s built environment. Being a small-town girl, as she notes,  her steep transition to Delhi also brought a change in the freedom afforded to her. On being admitted to the SPA,  she remembers her impressions of the building architecture, her initial college years, and the lasting relationships and collaborations she made. At this point, she digresses to point out the importance of making your professional and personal spaces look presentable, which people were reminded of during the pandemic while working from home. 
Furthermore, she mentions all the people she met over time who made a significant impression on her, such as Anil Laul, whom she interned with. She talks about the learnings she gained from Professor Srishti while on a trip together to the Andamans for a documentation study project. Subsequently,  she talks about her final years at SPA and the internship at Carnegie Mellon that opened up a new world for her. In her journey upon returning to India and in between choosing her first job, she dwells on the medical emergency she endured and how she felt unfulfilled at work. She soon took up a course in Alternative Methods and Stabilised Mud Blocks at Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST). Her journey with a social career began with her decision to make the move and respond to an ad for a Creative Rural Educationist. She concludes by recalling her subsequent projects and planning her professional life based on her partner’s career, research, and writing.

Reflecting on the projects and connections from college years that Gita Balakrishnan felt were transformative, she mentions her favorite professors, takeaways, and major projects that made an impact. She remarks how she feels disappointed at the work she had produced back then. She also notes how very few have the maturity it takes to produce educated works and talks about the factors that may have contributed to it for her. She recalls that in her third year she developed more interesting concepts while she describes the many extensive projects in various places she engaged with in the following years. Getting back to the drawing table, she mentions the impressions that her guide Ajoy Choudhury had on her. She recalls the immense amount of reading and research that went into the study projects and the essential guide system that helped her through the process. 
Moving on, she goes into the very heavy technical learnings she gained from her trip to the Centre for Building Performance and Diagnostics, US. She mentions the strong views of other architects that Professor Voulkar Hardcoff expressed, the story behind taking the trip, and her experience studying under him. She further reflects on the choices regarding internships, especially on her six-month stint in the US, that she undertook during her college years. She concludes by saying she feels thoroughly fulfilled by the experiences. 

In response to impressions of the architectural education system and the kind of people Gita Balakrishnan came across, she mentions eminent architects who taught her at SPA or have lectured at the institution like Revathi Kamath, Nalini Takur, Charles Correa, etc. She maps the career trajectories of her peers and the path she chose after graduating. She also provides insights into the schools from then and now. In terms of representation, she mentions her role in the institutions such as the Indian Institute of Architecture (IIA) and the Council of Architecture that she took part in during her college years. She remembers attending national conventions and talks about the platform it provided for her, along with her impressions of the internal politics involved. She goes into the many activities and events she has held and participated in at various forums, as part of IIA, and across the border. She mentions the names of all the publications she worked on while she was at SPA and recalls the other names that were a part of it. 
She notes the attention or support that minority genders never received at school or in the field. She remarks that there was usually none while commenting on her impressions of it on the personal front as well. Moving on, she talks about the competition she faced in school among other women peers and in the field she currently occupied. She recalls how she set up and pursued her practice while nursing a personal medical emergency over many months, and  recounts certain anecdotal stories from the time. In conclusion, she comments on the trajectory of how her personality and attitude evolved, right from when she began setting up her practice and the relationships she developed with many eminent architects over her practice years.

Gita Balakrishnan talks about the time she had just moved to Kolkata when she suddenly jumped into voraciously researching for an architectural quiz she hosted and the excitement that came with it. She describes the behind-the-scenes of the IIA event, which took place at the Town Hall and allowed her the opportunity to connect with many eminent architects. She goes into the extensive media coverage she procured for it and the sponsorships she worked towards bringing forward the event in Bangalore. She notes how the event was hugely profitable and mentions all the team members and peers who helped her. Moving on to holding the quiz event in Delhi, she notes how it proved to be a bit of a letdown while she names the big names that attended the event and how it was perceived by the fraternity overall. She fondly talks about the participants that stood out to her as a fairly young host while taking the event to various cities and building relationships there. 
She goes on to the niche space she tapped into by setting up ‘Connect’ which formalized her efforts in connecting architects looking to occupy different professional roles, especially women who took breaks from their profession. Naresh and her then discussed and developed the possibility of an education start-up for young architectural graduates who want to be ready for the office. She talks about the work and people involved in bridging the gap between those architects who wanted to share their experiences and those who wanted to learn, during the pandemic. She concludes by talking about the recognition they have received and the perception of the initiatives she has held over her journey.

In response to a question on how Gita Balakrishnan engaged online, she shares her thoughts about the people and methodologies that were involved in working towards learning initiatives, especially on connecting with women who had taken a break from their practice. She talks about the challenges she faced in the process of multi-tasking various roles while working mostly remotely. 
Moving on, she talks about the recognition she received in the education field and the state of workplace support available to working mothers as she has witnessed. She describes in detail the problems that can be caused by not providing an equitable platform to young male or female graduates, and the gap it creates in the many sections of the field at large. She talks about the extensive amount of human resources intensive work that she engages in while connecting college graduates and firms and recalls many cases that stood out to her through competitions that were held. Lastly, she comments on the changes she has seen in the field from the faculty development programmes, initiatives towards the development of technology and specialty skills, and case study approach.

Gita Balakrishnan begins by describing the first project she worked on that was for a home in Bangalore, as she worked and learned with the engineer Dr. Yogananda. She goes on to describe the experiences she came across during the subsequent residence projects that were as interesting to her as the first. She talks about how she is still in touch with some of her clients and describes working on the freelance project on-site and the structural design elements. Further, she talks about one of her first large-scale projects – a Yoga Ashram. She also goes back to many residential projects in Bangalore, where clients were happy to build sensitively and be experimental in their approach, and reflects on the discussions that helped her evolve plans and buildings. She goes on to name a few eminent architects such as Anubha Fethpuria and Richa Bo, as well as Revathi and Vasant Kamath, whose practice she looks up to and hopes to achieve. 
She remarks that she only heard of names of women architects much later in her life, and is allowing herself the opportunity to learn about and from them now. Because of this, she admits they may have not influenced her early thoughts. She dwells on the factors that may have caused pioneer women practitioners to go unnoticed. She fondly remembers the sensitive practice of practitioners like Ar. Hema Sankalia which can be seen as a progressive approach in today’s time; and notes how that could be why they were gone underrepresented in their time. In response to a question on architectural education in Kolkata and the recognition that women architects received there, she remembers significant facts and points largely from the eastern and northeastern states. She mentions the firms and architects she has collaborated with across those states such as Ghose, Bose, and Associates in Kolkata, and so on.

On discovering the practices of women architects, Gita Balakrishnan begins to talk about the connection she made through the many conferences she participated in Kolkata as well as through networking for Ethos. As she talks about women architects’ practices, she notes how architects regardless of gender could never inherit their practice. She goes on to talk about the recognition that women architects receive from the perspective of having invited personalities to be on a panel or lecture series. She also notes the natural shift or even curated shift that is giving women architects the visibility they deserve, considering that out of the number of women who graduate, there are very few with active practices. From her experience, she talks about exceptional cases where she has seen evidence of when women practitioners have asserted themselves. On equal partnerships, she mentions examples of where women practitioners who established their narratives were different in their approaches and attempted to strike a balance. 
On women practitioners who have also transitioned to working as contractors, she speaks about the interactions and meetings she has had with them. She recognizes how women contractors would offer construction sites the possibility to be safer for women. Moving on to preeminent practitioners, she talks about Tara Chandavarkar and her important role in nurturing CnT to make it what it is today. She also concludes with her interactions and impressions of contemporary women practitioners who have set up significant practices in Kolkata including Anuradha Rathore, Sukanya Dasgupta, and many others.

Gita Balakrishnan goes into her understanding of the work of early generation women architects and talks about how she was able to observe Ar. Brinda Somaya’s early practice taking shape. She highlights the practice of Ar. Rosemary Sachdev with her partner and how she was also significantly involved in the education sector as well. About Ar. Revathi Kamath’s work, Gita shares her impressions of her design approach and certain aspects of her work appearing cosmetic. She notes how these practices have all gone through evolution while finding their paths, and then goes on to mention other women architects from later generations such as Ar. Shaon Sengupta, who runs Edifice in Delhi. She elaborates on practices in the corporate structure, representation in the sector, and her involvement with it, and presents many examples of women architects in the corporate structure, where she recognizes that they usually don’t occupy top-level positions. Talking about Sheila Sri Prakash, she mentions her impressions of her work which she says is trailblazing, and shares the story behind their interactions. She further observes their limited involvement in forums and conferences outside of their practices. 
Furthermore, on contemporary architects that are usually studied in college or are known outside the architecture fraternity, she notes how Indian women architects are usually missing. On bridging this gap, she talks about the initiatives she engages in and the conscious conversations she and her team undertakes toward highlighting unknown practices, regardless of gender. She closes by speaking more about the excitement that comes with the learning process of documenting and researching.