Archgyan Podcast - An Indian Architecture Podcast

Today we have the founder of Infinity Designs, Ajinkya Dhumal, who is an industry veteran in the Interior Design field with over 15+ years of experience and who has completed over 1000+ projects.
In this episode, Ajinkya takes us on his journey in becoming an established Interior Designer in India, what are the various roles & responsibilities that an Interior designer plays which is not taught in Interior Design schools, what are the various materials used, how much do interior designers charge their clients, how healthy competition is helping the interior design sector, what this field has in store for us in the future, and great advice for young Architects & interior designers.
His Favorite books :
Interior Design by Ahmed Kasu
You can Win by Shiv Khera
The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma
Shownotes :
02:15 How Ajinkya got into Interior Design
03:30 Graduating from Jagannath Rathi Interior Design institute in Pune in 1999 and working with Architect Rahul Gupta
04:25 Starting Infinity Designs in 2002 & coming up with the name.
06:00 Initial Struggles as a firm owner.
08:30 Ajinkya's design process
09:10 Is budget a constraint?
10:30 How do you approach a smaller space as a Interior Designer?
11:30 Different materials in Interior Design and keeping yourself updated.
12:30 Is MDF a bad material?
13:00 Interior Decor in interior design.
15:30 Different consultants involved in interior design.
17:00 Building your contacts & network.
18:06 Landing the bigger projects and bigger clients.
19:10 Unorganized to organized in Interior Design.
20:30 Different tools that you use as an interior designer.
21:00 How much do you charge your clients as a interior designer?
22:40 Marketing in Social Media
23:00 What advice would you give to someone who wants to start on their own?
25:00 Where do you see the industry headed in the future?
27:30 Advice for young architects & Interior designers.
For more on the episode, head to archgyan.com/28
Follow us on Instagram for more updates by following our handle @archgyan

In this episode, we go in-depth with Principal Architect & founder of Hundredhands. An award winning Architecture practiced based out of Bangalore, India.
We dwell into Bijoy's journey in Architecture like his time at BMS School of Architecture, Masters in Architecture & Urbanism from MIT, his transition back to India and setting up shop, Architectural Education, Technology and various other aspects of Architecture.
We also dwell into what exactly is Architecture and how architecture when done right can evoke all our senses beyond the banal and ordinary.
For extended shownotes on this episode, head to archgyan.com/27
Follow us on Instagram for weekly updates and more, by heading to instagram.com/archgyan

In this episode, we have a candid conversation with a leading Sustainable Architect in India, Vinu Daniel. He is the principal Architect & Founder of Wallmakers, based out of Kerala. Wallmakers have been constructing all their buildings out of sustainable earth materials ever since 2007. They have garnered various awards for their works and have b een published widely on Archdaily, Dezeen and various other famous publications.
Born and brought up in Sharjah, Vinu was never interested in Architecture but rather wanted to become a musician. It was only through a chance meeting with Laurie Baker, that turned the table for him. He believes in respecting your brethren and working along with them in order to truly become a responsible Architect. He shares valuable lessons for us and we discuss various topics like how he got into Architecture, his time at the Auroville Earth Institute, building his first project, Sustainable Construction & dealing with clients, learning from masons and helpers, future endeavors, the Architectural Education System in India and loads more.
For more on the episode, head to archgyan.com/26

In this episode, you will get to listen to Design Entrepreneur, Architect, Computational Designer & Educator, Sushant Verma, as he shares his roller-coaster journey of 5 Years with RatLAB Studio.
Sushant is a very special guest as he was one of the first guests on the show and he never fails to amaze us with all the various endeavors he has going for himself. If you would like to listen to the first two episodes, you can head to archgyan.com/02 wherein he shares his journey in Architecture right from the get-go and is packed with a lot of useful information.
In this episode, he shares what's changed in the 5 years of running RatLAB, top 5 technologies, projects they worked on and tools they developed. His take on Finch3D and design automation, starting off on your own too soon versus working for somebody, travel tales and travelling & conducting workshops in over 20+ cities, SMART Labs workshops, resources to learn computational design and loads more.
For more on the episode & Podcast shownotes, head to archgyan.com/25

In this episode, we discuss about Architectural Education in India, a possible solution for Bangalore traffic, cities being the most sustainable form of living, film-making and how films had an influence on him, his future plans, and loads more.
This is part 2 of a two part series. For part 1, head to archgyan.com/23
And for more on this episode, head to archgyan.com/24

In this episode, we speak to Bangalore based Architect Gaurav Roy Choudhury who is the founder of GRCA.
Gaurav completed his Bachelor of Architecture from Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture in 2002 and then went on to work with Mathew & Ghosh Architects in Bangalore till 2007. He then decided to start on his own and has since completed numerous projects that has helped him National & International awards.
We dwell into topics such as his time in College and how the rigor there helped him in the long run, Architecture being a dying profession, being lucky to have less projects, importance of having a honest dialogue with your clients, Minimalism not just being a style, and loads more philosophical talks.
For more on the episode, head to archgyan.com/23
And if you would like to get in touch with Gaurav, you can mail him at
[email protected]

Tune in to this fascinating episode with a Digital Nomad Architect from Israel, Shelly Agam, as she shares her journey in Architecture and how she got into the fascinating world of being a Digital Nomad.
For more, head to archgyan.com/22

In this episode, you will get to hear the story of Architect Chenthur Raaghav Naagendran from Coimbatore and how his passion for Research & Design propelled him to do great things in a short span of time.
We discuss topics such as Robotic Fabrication, 3D Printing, Prototyping with Graphene Material, Virtual Reality, User Interface Interactions and a whole host of advanced Architecture topics. We also discuss the importance of doing Masters & Chenthur's journey in Architecture thus far.
Find all the show notes & links such as Chenthur's TEDx speech & other interesting research topics on archgyan.com/21 & on our Instagram

In this episode, we go in-depth on the topic of Business of Architecture in India with a renowned Architect from Bangalore, Madhu Kuruvilla.
Madhu has completed over 75 built projects in Bangalore and surrounding cities and has received various awards & accolades for his work. His projects range from residential, interiors, commercial, hospitality and retail.
We discuss topics such as how do you start your firm, how much do you charge your clients, deciding a timeline for your project, time management, the importance of knowing Vastu and a whole lot more.
You will get all the shownotes & links on archgyan.com/20
Shownotes:
(2:00) How Madhu Kuruvilla got into Architecture? (3:40) Studying in SIT Tumkur (4:45) Joining Training with a renowned Architect in Bangalore, Architect Nikki Thomas. (5:55) Joining Kabir Hira Architects - a renowned Architecture firm in Bangalore. Handling your own projects and becoming a workaholic (8:15) Being the office boy! (10:15) Taking a two-month break from work and contemplating what to do next. (12:00) Working 12 hours a day
Part II (13:30) Business of Architecture
How much do you charge a client? (15:30) What was the scope of work given to clients? (16:30) What was the type of projects that he started with? (17:20) How did you build your contacts? (18:30) How do you start off working as an Independent Architect? And working out of his garage. (20:00) When do you decide to hire people? (21:30) How do you decide a timeframe or timeline for a project? (22:40) Taking a retainer before you start the project. (23:50) Taking up Interior Design Projects as an Architect. (25:00) The importance of social media in running an Architecture firm. (30:50) The importance of knowing Vastu as an Architect in India. (34:00) Time management for Architects (38:00) Managing time with clients (41:00) Getting associated with builders as an Architect. (42:30) Preparing an estimate for your client (46:00) Registrations required to practice as an Architect in India. (49:00) Registering your Architecture firm or company. (50:00) Filing taxes as an Architect (51:00) Completing about 75 projects and his favourites. (55:30) Future plans for Madhu Kuruvilla Architects (59:00) Craze for biking and weekend bike rides

On the second part of this two part series with Senior Architect & BIM lead Saurabh Goenka, we go in-depth into the world of Building Information Modeling aka BIM.
What is BIM? What does a BIM project entail? Detailing in BIM, Automation in BIM, how much does it cost to implement BIM, BIM in India and loads more.
There is a lot of technical information in this episode for which we have written extensive shownotes, available on archgyan.com/19
Building Information Modeling is definitely the future of the AEC industry and most Architects will have some sort of BIM implemented in their projects. It is paramount that you step into the world of BIM if you want to survive as an Architect in the 21st century. Do drop us your questions about BIM on our Instagram where we go by the handle name of 'Archgyan'