As I speak now, new technologies in building construction and new materials are being discovered every day.

My 4 year old grandson, Liam, has an imaginary friend called Buildy. Buildy is 6 years old and can build the whole world in 6 days!

Perhaps it is a prophetic forecast of things to come! We have building using 3D printing – this was inconceivable 40 years ago!

It’s a sobering thought that our actions directly impact the environment. At Suvarnarekha Design Consultants we have one factor that we strive to keep constant in our designs. This is respect for nature and the environment.

Designing to maximise profits should be balanced by our collective commitment to safe guarding our earth for our grandchildren. The designs that we do are created to minimize the carbon footprint on the planet.

We do this by

• Starting with the site – studying the layout of the land to minimize change to existing topography and landscape.
• Maximise natural air flow and optimizing natural sunlight. We have used glass in commercial buildings, but made sure to reduce heat by slanting the glass outwards to minimize direct sunlight.
• We have avoided air conditioning by inducing and drawing natural air through horizontal aluminium louvers on the sunshade and circulating throughout the building with turbo fans in the stair well.

We create pits in the ground and plant trees to reduce the outward flow of rain water in hilly areas while collecting the excess flow at the bottom of the slope.

Our designs are interlinked with nature so that living inside is like being part of the outside. In our landscapes we try to maximize the use of native plant species and keep exotic ones to the minimum.

For our interiors we try to use recycled materials.

Our interest in reuse and recycling is perhaps why we excel in the challenges of renovation and reuse projects.

I have been fortunate to grow up in an environment where we could live in harmony with nature with all its delightful dimensions and take it for granted. My designs reflect this. We design buildings that are contextual in its relationship to the surrounding.

I believe that the building we design is not to be seen individually, but as part of the neighbourhood and should be designed to respect its scale, taking into account the impact it would have on the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood is part of the town/city and also part of the nation.

Doing our bit, like drops of water, making up the ocean, we can together build individually green buildings that would create green neighbourhoods, towns, cities and the nation and leave a better world for children, like my grandson Liam.

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Thank you.”

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I got into SAP Chennai armed with a sketch book, with dreams of making a better world .

To get into an architectural college today you need to pass a rigorous entrance test , and in the process sometimes dreams are forgotten .

40 years ago, Architecture was considered a necessary evil….a subject that was mainly to beautify the exterior of a building.. very often clients would bring a building designed by an Engineer and ask for its ‘ architecture’ to be done on the exterior…!

Lady Architects were alas,considered merely for colour schemes…And interiors.

As one of the first lady Architects in Kerala to start my own office in Kochi,,I found it an uphill task. Not only did I have to convince clients that I was capable of designing a whole building, but I also had to gain respect from the workers at site and convince them that I knew what I was doing..Suvarnarekha Design Consultants was started in 1984 from the bedroom of my parents home with one part-time draftsman ….I did everything else .

Working within the framework of societal gender prejudices and rules,sometimes with a baby in one hand and a pencil in the other,relying on word of mouth to get work ,as it was not possible to join clubs and network..as a woman .It was literally like competing in a man’s world with one hand behind one’s back.!

Thanks to having a good foundation in the fundamentals of design I am confident of being able to design any type of building and today my firm Suvarnarekha Design Consultants is recognized as a leading Architectural firm in Kerala.We are not just Architects… we are total designers .

Thanks to the internet , we are now seen from all over the world and our work draws enquiries from places as far away as Canada .This year we had over 500 enquiries for internship from students from all over the country.

I concur with Lady Gaga when she says that ‘Its not about winning, but what it is about is ,not giving up. If you have a dream ,fight for it.There is a discipline for passion and it is not about how many times you fall down,its about how many times you stand up and are brave,and you keep going on….’

Our generation of Architects have laid the foundation for the acceptance of ladies as professional equals .

For this ,and on behalf of all others who have strived to achieve in an unequal world ,and on this day when Women are celebrated all over the world, I am so happy for the recognition given to us.

Thank you.”

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Our efficient staff did yeoman service in distributing essential cleaning and food items showing great respect and regard to the beneficiaries. – in this case, ‘small is beautiful and efficient’.

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