The ArSHEtect Perspective: Featuring Lalita Tharani

Women Architect is an exasperating term! In words of Zaha Hadid”, I used to disapprove being called a woman Architect, because what is important is that I’m an architect – woman is background information. ” State of women in Architecture and Interior Architecture has made progress, but yet a long way to go, women are still unjustifiably unnoticed in the world of Architecture. That being said, women have made prodigious gains in architecture since Zaha started her practice in the 1970s by designing many noteworthy projects. But they(women) still remain sorely underrepresented.

Architecture is about passion, talent and visions and how good one is at what she or he does – regardless of the gender. We are asked about the topic and hope that we are able to lead by example. Our firm, in addition to being co-founded by a woman, functions virtually “gender-neutral”. ‘Going beyond brief’– is a phrase that portrays the early phase of our practice and my outlook towards Architecture. Good designs are rarely born out of the first thought that flashes in your mind, most often than not, innovative designs are the result of visiting and revisiting the idea over and over again while also improvising.

Most projects are challenging in one way or the other, and you learn something new each time. Hence there are various projects, which have been close to our heart, at one point of time or another. Indian National War Museum, New Delhi, holds one such spot in our heart, due to the fact that this was not only the very first live large scale International competition where we were one of the finalists, but this was also the very first time we ever designed a museum!

The process of designing it took us through loads of challenges, as the project needed multiple narratives and interpretations being inserted in the urban heritage of Lutyne’s Delhi.

It took gruelling unearthly hours at the office and loads of research, and the process also enriched us with exciting International collaborations with various specialised consultants. All the hours and hard work paid off well in the form of the results and also prepared us for future challenging projects.