Ar. Pavitra Sriprakash - Shilpa Architects Planners Designers

India is among the top countries around the world that is expected to have the second highest GDP overtaking the USA, and second only to China by 2030. India's GDP growth is expected to hit 7.8%, fueled by rapid urbanization. With many of the world's fastest growing cities within our country, in the near future, more cities will develop at an unprecedented rate and scale. With such dramatic changes on the horizon, it is very difficult to predict how the building industry will respond to the pace at which it will be forced to develop.

India is also a country deeply rooted in its diverse culture and traditions. Our local and traditional architecture has come through great knowledge, which has evolved over generations, and is evident in our urban fabric. Modern architecture tends to be scalable and can be mass delivered from factory like environments. These tend to not be as sensitive to the climate or to the type of materials that go into making them. While maintaining a sense of cultural identity is of utmost importance, so is the ability to respond to the demand which is likely to ensue from this next industrial revolution. In an age of machines and artificial intelligence, how do traditional building techniques or local materials fit?

We require in-depth material research and take our traditionally available materials and adapt them for techniques for speedy building and make them applicable for the type of scale and densities that they are not used for currently

In my opinion, the need of the hour is to innovate like we have never done before. We require in-depth material research that can take our traditionally available materials and adapt them for techniques for speedy building and make them applicable for the type of scale and densities that they are not used for, currently. Only if our materials adapt will they be usable in the future, else with them becoming scarce and difficult to harvest at large scales, traditional materials usage will be limited to very small-scale architecture - a scale that will not impact the mass market at large.


Principles of Indian design and passive techniques that are responsive to geography and climate have to be understood and designed for. Shading, daylighting and ventilation - all of which are required to bring down the energy usage of any building have to be put into place as part of the first principles of a building design.

The Indian city dweller's behaviour and consumer patterns need to be understood clearly prior to design. Our average efficiencies of usage for electricity and water are typically half to one third of what is used in developed countries like the USA or UK. This understanding of the Indian consumer is only possible through data and behaviour understanding by the designers.


The solution we need is only possible with data, technology, user understanding, knowledge of the geography, and use of adapted local techniques and materials, which have been re-formatted or reimagined for a mass production scale. Only then will we be market-ready for the change that is ahead of us in the years to come! These techniques and materials will remain only on small boutique projects, as they do today. It is the responsibility of the architects of our generation to not let this happen. There is a lot to do and many challenges before we get to these solutions – so there are exciting times ahead!