OUR TEAM
Virendra Kumar Girdhar
Principal
Bangalore, India
Education
M ARCH. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1967
POST GRADUATE DIP IN HOUSING & COMMUNITY PLANNING, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. 1966
B. ARCH. School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, University of Delhi. 1964
Virendra K Girdhar founded the current practice in 1986 after working with National and International Architectural Practices of repute. He has worked on several challenging and award winning projects in USA, Iran, Thailand, Bahrain and India using multi-disciplinary approach to planning and design.
His pioneering academic works as a student B.Arch Thesis at SPA "Housing & Desert", Post Graduate Thesis at SPA "Time as a dimension in Architecture, Need for growing Urban forms " and M.Arch thesis at MIT “Building as Integrated system” are the basis of development of his people oriented architecture. He has advocated and propagated principles of climate responsive systems for buildings since 1964, i.e. starting with his B.Arch thesis.
County Adult Detention Center project designed for Gruzen and Partners won the Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects in 1980. He has been conferred with The Life Time Achievement Award by the Indian Institute of Architects (Karnataka Chapter) in 2006.
He believes that specialization and isms hinder creativity. Perceptions of spaces and environment ideal for people to work and live in undergo continuous change. He starts the design process for every building with the assumption that it is unique for a particular time and place and its design solution demands it to be looked at as a unique problem being solved for the first time through ABC analysis.
GIRDHAR BELIEVES IN NONISM / NON SPECIALIZATION
He has taught at several schools / departments of architecture in and around Bangalore including BMS College of Engineering, RV College of Engineering, Ramaiah Institute of Technology and Bangalore Institute of Technology. He is presently on the Board of Governors of BMS School of Architecture and on the Academic Council of BMS College of Engineering, Department of Architecture and PES University. He has a passion for teaching and his office has an open house policy towards students since its inception..