| THE AWARD |
| CATEGORIES |
| REGISTRATION |
| SUBMIT YOUR WORK |
| ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS |
| TERMS & CONDITIONS |
| PUBLICATIONS |
| DATES & FEES |
| METHODOLOGY |
| CONTACT |
| WINNERS |
| PRESS ROOM |
| GET INVOLVED |
| DESIGN PRIZE |
| DESIGN STORE |
| THE AWARD | JURY | CATEGORIES | REGISTRATION | PRESS | WINNERS | PUBLICATIONS | ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS |
Interview with Suraksha Acharya |
Home > Designer Interviews > Suraksha Acharya |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Suraksha Acharya (SA) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Suraksha Acharya by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
SA: I have been fascinated with buildings ever since I started playing with my brother’s Lego sets as a child. This spark eventually turned into a lifelong passion that would shape my career. My path started out in trying to balance my flair for engineering and passion for the arts. As an innovator, I wanted to approach design challenges with a fresh, unique, modern sustainable perspective that crafts spaces for life well lived.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
SA: Midori architects is an award-winning firm, established in the year 2015, championing the need to build better and more environment friendly structures. The firm is committed using advanced technology and simulation techniques to produce architecturally pleasing work while pushing the boundaries of high performance design, thereby becoming involved with several sustainable design initiatives.
FS: What is "design" for you?
SA: Design is a collaborative and integrative process where art meets science and reflect the values of functional notion of utopia. Our qualified and innovative research complements a whole new creative side of integrative design process that enhances our design & decision making to deliver exciting, modern spaces that align our clients’ creative visions to their fundamental values.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
SA: We strive towards delivering quality urban spaces, offering our clients integrated, efficient and progressive solutions toward the future of our projects. Using advanced technology and simulation techniques, we try to simplify environmental complexities so that our clients can become part of the design transpiration and the larger sustainable solution. We believe in delivering high quality, effectively built spaces that align with our client’s priorities, budget and lifestyle. We undertake projects that embrace a diverse range of sectors which include the Residential, Workplace, Retail, Hospitality, Civic and Institutional uses.
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
SA: My very first project was a design scheme for was for Putrajaya 2C5 Commercial Development, Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. This 14 storey office tower was designed as a self sufficient water reuse/recycling system within the building. The key design feature of the iconic tower is a continuous green Eco infrastructure at the north facade, ascending up the tower through green ramps from the basement, infusing it with an ecological and social terraces and garden and back down on the rear facade by a series of ramps around a meeting room. I learnt a lot from this project under the mentorship of Dr Ken Yeang ‘Father or the Tropical Skyscraper’, whom inspired me to continue my interest in the field of sustainable design.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
SA: We believe in design which aims to protect the environment and natural resources, recreating urban areas and buildings that are designed in order to fully cover their energy requirements without induce environmental damage. Natural cooling, compared to air conditioning, not only provides energy saving, economic and environmental benefits, but also constitutes a different approach, having as its goal, human comfort and well-being.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
SA: Architecture is by definition subject to a complex set of constraints. Being creative involves continuous thinking, decision making and the dual nature of the word 'design', suggests a link between means and ends, with or without a clear conceptual tool to address the context or problem. When the term 'creative' is used to express the interaction of building to its environment and the architectural process is a synthesis, embracing artistic and scientific creativity, and invention.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
SA: Sustainability is infused into all that we touch. By harnessing the local topography, climate, and vegetation, as well as cleverly manipulating a building’s orientation, at MIDORI, we strive to naturally create a comfortable indoor climate that reduces dependence on air-conditioning.
FS: What makes a design successful?
SA: By integrating the analysis of the interactions between building, occupants, and the larger environment, designers will model successfully the fundamental relationships that should drive the future of design.By simply observing how people behave in buildings or by asking them what choices they would make about their environments every building can successfully respond to the occupant comfort which aims to protect the environment and natural resources, recreating urban areas and buildings that are designed in order to fully cover their energy requirements without induce environmental damage.
FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
SA: The built environment is key to humanity’s impact on nature and it is the major contributor to climate change and other significant problems. Natural cooling, compared to air conditioning, not only provides energy saving, economic and environmental benefits, but also constitutes a different approach, having as its goal, human comfort and well-being. Good design approach lies in our aims to create profitable projects that are energy efficient and thermally comfortable for occupants but also serve their communities while reducing the negative impacts on the environment caused by the use of finite natural resources.
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
SA: Buildings are a living part of our world, they expand our senses of who, where and why giving us occasions to make human contact. Architects do have a social responsibility that extends beyond practice i.e. sustainable design. Architecture can significantly impact the built environment and with every project we have the enormous opportunity to eliminate GHG’s by minimizing building energy consumption. Zero Carbon Architecture through environmental design is our only future path. We must conceive a future that builds smarter, better and greener - connecting communities to the natural.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
SA: Forward thinkers inspire us, and that spark of ingenuity is at the heart of what we do. MIDORI is dedicated to providing contemporary design solutions for more efficient, healthier environments in which to work, play and live.
FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
SA: Our skilled professionals innovate and create at every stage of a project keeping our sustainability agenda and environmental responsibility in mind. Our commitment to producing architecturally pleasing work while pushing the boundaries of sustainable design has encouraged MIDORI Architects to become involved with a number of sustainable design initiatives. Each of these initiatives seek to improve the built environment and to preserve, and even restore, the natural environment for future generations.
FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
SA: As a start up firm we don’t get the opportunity to design a skyscraper everyday, and open architecture competitions help us raise the standard of the team and push us to discover what might be possible in a utopian world. Usually, the “real world” can be quelling, due to client meetings, budget constraints, codes to follow and deadlines. The liberties that come along with entering competitions such as A’ Design Award are not only refreshing, but also extremely gratifying as you are truly designing for yourself.
FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
SA: We are a young team of new-age designers, planners, thinkers and consultants from Chennai, and we create everlasting structures through innovative form, modern flow and versatile function.
FS: How can people contact you?
SA: We can be reached through our website www.midoriarchitects.com or email us at enquiry@midoriarchitects.com.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
Press Members: Register and login to request a custom interview with Suraksha Acharya.
| SOCIAL |
| + Add to Likes / Favorites | Send to My Email | Comment | Testimonials |
