GoSmartBricks spoke to Architect Ekta Chopra. She strongly believes that any built form that can be titled as sustainable architecture involves methods of conservation in the entire process. Right from during the course of construction to the provision of methods for preservation of natural resources and for the inhabitant to use them sustainably. 

GSB: What originally made you want to study architecture and become an architect?

Ekta: I did not grow up wanting to be an Architect. I do not have any family background in Architecture whatsoever! Coming from a business family and most people in the family in my generation having studied engineering, Management or Commerce, that’s where I was directed too. But I was not the one to follow the herd. When the time came for me to choose my Profession, I started exploring and reading about various fields before deciding what to do.

I wanted to do something exciting and challenging, unique and impactful.

Architecture has the ability to touch on an integral part of a person’s way of life. 

What fascinated me the most about it was the immortality of the buildings. We might be gone but our work remains as our legacy. 

As the saying goes: “Choose a job you love and will never have to work a day in your life.” 

I found my muse in the buildings I saw around me!

Architecture is significant! It is like a base of any design profession. After the study of architecture, one can venture out to any allied design fields. Being a creative individual I sort for something that could give me the freedom of expression, through my work.

GSB: Have you ever considered clay bricks as a walling material? If so, what is it that most attracts you to this material?

Ekta: Brick has a lot to offer in terms of the aesthetic appeal, its capacity to unreliably look beautiful in its rawest forms. It has the nature of bringing ethnicity and timelessness to a building. As a designer, what fascinates me the most is the endless possibilities in composition with bricks.

I would like to talk about a specific type of brick – Fly ash bricks. The very concept of using the pollutants as a raw material for construction. That’s the underlying principle for responsible and sustainable architecture, according to me. Making the best out of the waste. It might be unrealistic and inevitable to have no pollutants in the environment, but instead of letting them hamper us, using them for betterment is more than just achieving one goal. 

ABOUT ARCHITECT EKTA CHOPRA:

Born and brought up in Bangalore, studied architecture at BMS school of architecture, Bangalore (2010-2015). I went to Ahmedabad for a year for my Professional training during the course of Architecture. 

I started working at Arun Nalapat Architects and then moved to Space Matrix Architects and Planners in 2018, where I had the opportunity to work on projects like IIITDM (Indian Institute of Information Technology and Design Management), Kurnool, which has been awarded a GRIHA 5 star pre-certification rating. For the period that I worked on the project along with my colleagues, I might have contributed less, but it gave me immense insight and learning on a lot of parameters of architecture and green building designs.

I also worked on the design of Cultural centers for districts in Kerala, where we used local traditional architecture. It gave me the chance to explore local building methods and the use of materials like laterite and brick.