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Dr. Anupama Kundoo is an architect from India. She completed her architectural studies at Sir JJ College of Architecture, University of Mumbai in India, and obtained her PhD at the Technical University Berlin in Germany. Through her research-oriented practice, Anupama Kundoo Architects, Anupama Kundoo has spearheaded an architectural approach that places people at the forefront, harnessing spatial and material explorations to mitigate environmental impact and cultivate socio-economic advantages. Her unwavering commitment to thorough research and experimentation, particularly in the realm of use of novel materials, is rooted in a critical re-assessment of entrenched assumptions and construction conventions inherited from the past era of industrialisation. Rather than dwelling on scarcity, she advocates for abundance and for investment in human resources, thereby fostering ingenuity and prioritising qualities such as time, skill, care, and community cohesion.
Anupama’s practice operates across two studios, one based in Berlin, Germany, and the other in Pondicherry, India. In addition to her practice work, over the years she has also extensively engaged in academia, sharing her expertise in architecture and urban management at numerous international universities, thereby further honing her own insights into the challenges posed by rapid urbanisation and climate change. Notably, she has contributed to academic programmes at Yale and Columbia Universities. Currently, she holds the prestigious position of Professor of Architecture at TU Berlin.
Projects and Recognitions
Currently Anupama investigates ferrocement as Prefab Modulor Housing elements, as well as for large surface structures. The essence of Anupamas work is a celebration of handmade architecture, as witnessed at prestigious venues like the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, in 2020 where her research on Indian building traditions was featured in the ‘Taking Time’ exhibition. She received the RIBA Charles Jencks award for her contribution to architectural theory, the 2021 Auguste Perret Prize for architectural technology, the 2021 Building Sense Now global award of the German Sustainable Building Council DGNB, and the Global Award for Sustainable architecture under UNESCO patronage in 2022.
Baked Insitu Earth Houses, Volontariat: Home for Homeless Children (2008, India). Photo by Andrés Herzog.
Anupama Kundoo Architects anupamakundoo.com
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