- Can you give us a brief insight into your design journey?​
Since a kid, I was always interested in buildings. Built structures always fascinated me and I felt a certain kind of romance around architecture & construction. The idea of perusing civil engineering did not excite me, so I studided Architecture from IES College of Architecture and after practicing as an architect for over a year & half I went on to study Advanced construction management at NICMAR Pune. While studying Construction Management, I also studied Real Estate Finance. Later on, I was selected for a 10K Women Entrepreneur program which was conducted by IIM Bangalore & Goldman Sachs, where I learnt how to manage and grow a creative studio successfully.
- How did you get your first projects?
We are four co-founders and the inception of Pentaspace, we took a decision that the boys will be leaving their existing jobs and giving their full time and energy to Pentaspace. Bhakti & I would be working with different organization to keep us afloat. I at that time was working in the business development department with a reputed developer of Mumbai. I (as part of the business development team) was pitching for redevelopment projects with various societies. I saw this as a window of opportunity for Pentaspace to showcase their work. Pentaspace presented some of their designs to the developer for these redevelopment projects which were highly appreciated by both the developer’s team and the society members we were pitching to and then there was no looking back for Pentaspace.
- From design school to a full-fledged professional, what were your high points and low points in this field?
What our profession holds is very different from what we are taught in design colleges here. Creating a beautiful and innovative design is crucial but to convince and market the same to your client and his team and execute it the way you have conceived it is very difficult.
And as we opted to set up our own practice, it came with a set of challenges we had not anticipated. The global meltdown in 2008, policy paralysis on DCR1991 from 2012 to 2018 RERA, demonitasitation in 2016 all effected the real- estate development. The constant changes in the liasoning rules led to a lot of re-work.
But when you see a structure that you have designed being inhabitated by 600 families and telling you that they love the space that you have created is very satisfying.
- Any one turning point in your career that you wish to highlight?
I think the decision of me to study business management and understand how even a creative studio can work efficiently on numbers, ratios and percentages have been a great turning point in my career. It has helped us evolve our studio by setting systems and practices which are helping us grow at a fast pace.
Till date, we have designed and executed over 10 million sq.ft. of real estate and if I put our current ongoing projects in relation to apartments, we at present are constructing approx. 3 numbers of 3bhk apartments daily.
Recently, Forbes India has recognized us as ‘The Disruptors’ in ‘The Bold Club : The design Next Gen : Top 30 under 45.
In the year 2019 IEDRA recognized us as the fastest-growing architectural practice in Indo-Global award for Architectural and Designing.
I am happy about these milestones and proud to say what started in Mumbai with a small team of four people is now a team of 30 and we are planning to spread our wings beyond Mumbai and MMR region to pan India and then international presence.
- What is the one mistake in your career that you’d like to go back and change if you could?
There are no mistakes. Everything we do, we learn something from it. Somethings that we have done in the past have had good results and some bad. But all have taught us valuable lessons.
- The industry is still largely male-dominated – why do you think that is?
When we were studying design, the number of women in our class outnumbered the men folks. Women have a natural flair for interior spaces, so interior designing is always a prefferd option for them over architecture. Also, architecture is a very site and outdoor intensive profession and the time duration for an architectural projects are very long, and I think they are a deterrent for women to pursue architecture. But the perception is changing now. Soon one can see more and more women in the forefront now.
- With changing times, what would be your advice to upcoming architects on how to navigate the architecture world?
In business nothing comes tomorrow we must dream and plan, and the most crucial thing is patience and discipline. We must be focused, and we need to think out of the box as well as we must be persistent in what we do. We cannot give up easily and the thing we feel in the younger generation is that they want very quick results but unfortunately in business that doesn’t happen, especially in Architecture. So, my advice to all the women and men out there is if you want to grow big then you must be focused, be a dreamer, disciplined, and be a persistent person.