World-renowned Indian architect Anupama Kundoo, founder of Anupama Kundoo Architects, will be our new guest in WAC's Live Interview Series. The new session will be moderated by Lola Kleindouwel, the Netherlands Reporter of WAC. 

WAC's live interview series explore different themes decided by WAC Country Reporter or Country Editor in each session. 

WAC's new talk, titled Taking Time in Architecture, will explore the creative process of the architect and focus on the significance of material and craft in architecture as an "art of making."

The session will also be shaped around the architect's recent exhibition Anupama Kundoo – Taking Time exhibition, which is on view at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art until February 28, 2021 in Denmark.

Kundoo's notable projects, including Volontariat Home for Homeless Children in Pondicherry, India 2008, Anupama's own house named Wall House built in 2000 and her recent work "Line of Goodwill", will be in the heart of the discussion, alongside the architect's first comprehensive monograph Anupama Kundoo: Taking Time: The Architect's Studio. 

Anupama Kundoo takes material, craftsmanship, research, context and time into the core of her design process, she believes that architects should invest time and long-term thinking to be able to create a good design. Inventing "handmade processes" is the key principle in her works.

Anupama Kundoo. Image © Andreas Deffner

Born in Pune, India, Kundoo, 53, graduated from Sir JJ College of Architecture, University of Mumbai in 1989, and received her PhD degree from the TU Berlin in 2008. 

She founded her practice Anupama Kundoo Architects in 1990 in Auroville where she worked closely with Roger Anger on Auroville’s planning, particularly the urban design of Auroville’s City Center, Administration Zone and Habitat Area till his last days. Wall House, Volontariat Home for Homeless Children, Unbound, The Library Of Lost Books and her affordable housing concept Full Fill Home are among her notable projects - the project was also exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016. 

Her research-oriented practice focusses on material research to achieve architecture of high aesthetic impact and low environmental impact while being socio-economically beneficial. 

Kundoo's work was exhibited twice at the Venice Architecture Biennale, with the installation Feel the Ground. Wall House 1:1 in 2012 and Building Knowledge, An Inventory of Strategies in 2016.

She taught Urban Management at TU Berlin and strengthened her expertise in rapid urbanization and climate change related development issues, about which she has written extensively. 

She is the author of the bilingual book Roger Anger: Research on Beauty/Recherche sur la Beauté, Architecture 1958 –2008, published in Berlin by Jovis Verlag in 2009. She is currently Professor at Potsdam School of Architecture, Germany.

WAC's live interviews are held as 20-30-minute sessions to deliver a quick glimpse of the current projects of the architect and the office and provide a fast-paced discussion on the architects' design philosophy.

WAC Instagram Live Interview

Theme: Taking Time in Architecture

Host: Lola Kleindouwel, the Netherlands Reporter of WAC

Date: Thursday, December 10th/ 14:00pm (IST) / 09:30am (CET).

Venue: WAC Instagram