Twenty-seven years ago, I started my architecture practice from a tiny nook in my parent’s verandah with a belief, that design has the power to appropriate human emotions and connect people to their physical environment. My postgraduate thesis at SPA Delhi on this subject had already been awarded. And I have had the fortune of being taught sustainability at Lund University, Sweden by George McRobie, E.F. Schumacher’s partner at Intermediate Technology Group. These concepts found resonance and a few projects like SVS Vidyalaya and Institute of Advance Management fell into my lap. I was living my dream!
It was then that my daughter, just two, was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome. The biopsy revealed possibilities of her condition being reversible. For the next decade, we made sure that besides the life-saving drugs she was administered, she felt empowered to live life fully and is today cured, and a successful scholar at Leeds. I too shifted my studio to the house and worked between hospital shifts. The belief that my clients held in me during this phase, is actually, what helped me keep my practice alive and grow.
Today, being the first woman Architect from eastern India to be selected for the Asian Paints Masters Gallery tells us that the glass ceiling has finally been broken! Also, besides numerous awards and media features, being part of the Ministerial Conference at the 3rd World Water Forum in Japan, 2003 (which prepared the Kyoto declaration on water), Official Architect for the World Flower Show, WAFA 2020 and shifting my office two years ago to a tiny three-storeyed studio, have been some of the milestones of my professional life.
I cannot forget to mention here, my most challenging project- St. Peter’s Church at Oxford Mission, Kolkata. The learning from designing Mother Teresa’s Shrine (unbuilt) at St. Thomas’s Church had prepared me greatly in understanding that a Church is not an architectural style; it is the collective faith and self-expression of its congregation. With truth and simplicity in material and design, we achieved completion of the project at approximately Forty Lakhs Rupees, the lowest amongst the cost of new Church projects by the CNI in India.
About Ar. Monica Khosla Bhargava
Architect, Urban Designer, Artist and Theoretician, SHE is a contemporary Architect who has been innovational in the fields of Architecture, Urban Design and Interiors. She was awarded Multiwyn ADI Award, Commendation for JWT Office June 2016 by Indian Institute of Architects WB Chapter, the Women’s Achiever’s Award in March 2012 by the Ladies Circle of Calcutta for Excellence in Architecture and the Award of Recognition in February 2000 by the 9th International Conference on Safe Communities, ICMH, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Monica graduated in 1989 from Jadavpur University as Bachelor of Architecture and then furthered her Masters in Architecture with a specialisation in Urban Design from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi in 1991. This was followed by a Diploma in Architecture and Development from Lund University, Sweden in 1997.
Bhargava has been invited to present papers at various conferences in India, Bangladesh, Japan and the United Kingdom and is visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and thesis juror at Jadavpur University for postgraduate programs. She has been the editor of the International Newsletter Built Environment and was part of the Ministerial Conference at the 3rd World Water Forum, Japan, March 2003 which prepared the Kyoto Declaration on Water.
Professional Affiliations:
- President- SPARK (Society for Park Street Rejuvenation- Kolkata)
- Life Member- Council of Architecture (India)
- Life Member- Centre for Built Environment, India
- Life Member- Indian Institute of Interior Designers
- Fellow Member- Indian Institute of Urban Designers
- Associate Member – Indian Institute of Architects
- Committee Member – Pushpa Bitan Friendship Society, India
