"A high Investor sentiment has led to Modernisation and shift in the style and quality of Architecture in India": Writes Pushpendra Sharma

(Times of India, Monday, June 5)

The Indian real estate market is expected to grow from $14bn to a $102bn over the next 10 years. With the increase in purchase power, favourable demographics, customer-friendly banks and housing finance companies, professionalism in real estate and favourable reforms initiated by the government, would contribute to significant changes with respect to growth, investments, employment in the years to come.

NEW AVENUES

As an emerging market, the investor sentiment for investing in India is quite high which has led to modernisation and shift in the style and quality of Indian architecture. There has been a lot of development in certain sectors such as IT/ITES (information technology/information technology enabled services) and BPO (business process outsourcing), residential and retail across the nation. The key cities that have witnessed development and investments across these sectors in the recent times are New Delhi (including national capital region), Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.

According to current statistics, there is a shortage of 19mn units in the residential sector, the IT and BPO sector has a demand for 120mn square feet (sft) over the next five years, the retail space is expected to increase from 5mn sft in 2004 to over 40mn sft in 2006 and the hospitality sector too has a demand for 75,000-80,000 rooms over the next five years. All this shows the opportunity that the architecture, development and construction industry has in store in the years to come. Therefore, there is tremendous potential for upcoming and practising architects to be able to maximise the opportunities for growth.

There are a large number of international architecture and design firms, who have started operations in India and local developers too have hired foreign architecture firms to increase their brand value, overall image and credibility. Some of the major firms that have worked on projects in India include HOK,

Aedas, Bentley. Besides these, the famous

Indian architects Hafeez Contractor, CP Kuckreja, Raj Rewal, Mohit Gujral, too have worked on some high-profile projects. With the modernisation of Indian architecture and construction industry, foreign players entering the Indian subcontinent are creating a demand for young and seasoned architects across sectors (residential, commercial, hotel, industrial, so on).There is a wide variety of opportunities that graduating architecture students can explore, they include:

• Work with an international or Indian architecture and design firm (on the service side)

• Work in the design team of a developer (on the client side)

• Last but not the least start their own firm (be your own boss)

SKILLS REQUIRED

Every architecture or design student needs to have an eye for detail; needs to know proportions of shapes, sizes; needs to have a sense of colour/contrast as well as be patient, creative, imaginative yet realistic. These are some of the traits of a good architect. There are various courses that students who have the above qualities can take to enhance their chances of getting into a reputed architecture school in India. Some students also pursue their Masters in Architecture from India as well as international schools such as Columbia, Harvard, Berkeley, Cornell, Princeton,Yale, to name a few.

CAREER GRAPH

A fresh graduate needs to spend atleast two years as a junior architect before he becomes a senior architect. Then depending upon calibre, quality and growth opportunities within the architecture firm he/she can become a team leader and then manage a team or an office of the design firm. He/she can become a partner with the design firm, but this is rare since in most cases architects who establish a name for themselves form their own design firm.

SALARY AND OTHER PERKS

As a fresh graduate an architect can earn between Rs 6,000 - 8,000 per month and as he gets more experience and exposure it can go up to Rs 18,000 - 25,000 per month. As far as perks are concerned, the team that works on the design sometimes gets a percentage of the fee that the firm charges from the client. There are no general perks as such that are offered by Indian firms, except that you get credit for the design of the building.

This is the time for young architects to make a name and be able to put modern Indian architecture on a global platform.

INSTITUTE INFORMATION

Some of the known architecture and design institutes in India include:

School of Planning and Architecture (SPA),Delhi JJ School of Arts and Architecture, Mumbai National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad Regional Engineering Colleges at state levels

(Indicative listing)

(Pushpendra Sharma is completing his Master’s degree in Real Estate Development at Columbia University, New York. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Nagpur University, India)