WADe India is a dedicated platform for woman architects and designers of India – the women entrepreneurs & professionals in Design & Architecture. The platform was successfully launched on 14 May 2016 at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon with the aim to recognize the Role Models & Emerging Young designers leading the women-led development and also to connect the professionals in a common space. The idea of WADe India, the Federation for Women Architects & Designers, was born around the last quarter of 2012 when team of partner magazine Surfaces Reporter was researching to list the works done by past women architects & interior designers of India. They couldn’t find much info; hence, the feature was cancelled. Truth is, there is no proper trajectory of work done by past women architects & designers of India. The Founder says, “So far as I remember, that was the 1st instance when my mind registered this gap, and I thought, the void needs to be filled.” Mid 2015, through a formal declaration, the initiative was started by inviting nominations for Role Models. WADe objectives have broaded as the work continued:
The Launch Event of Wade India WADe India’s launch event 2016 witnessed presence of 60+ high profile women designers and 200+ top designers from across India among the 350+ delegates. The superb turnout and the presence of delegates across demographics clearly indicate the success of WADe India. Interesting thing is, about 85% of the attendees were female and 24% of attendees were below 30 years of age. It shows how keenly the younger generation of women has been following WADe India. “I am happy to associate myself with WADe India. I am hopeful that the present group of women architects and designers will continue to make positive strides in this profession and pave the way for future generations.” At the WADe India launch event in Gurgaon, it was a wonderful sight to see the Top Women designers sharing the same space with the young emerging ones. Sussanne Khan and Zarine Khan was seen mingling with the delegates and clicking photos. Role Models were felicitated and the young designers were recognized later during the day. WADe India event was inaugurated by none other than India’s 1st & highest ranking woman IPS officer, Dr. Kiran Bedi. Lamp lighting was done by Dr. Bedi, Ar. Divya Kush, President IIA, Prof. Krishnarao Jaisim of Jaisim Fountainhead, Ar. Prem Nath and Mr Sarosh Wadia, Vice President, IIID Vertica Dvivedi, Founder of WADe India introduced WADe to the audience and invited Dr. Kiran Bedi for the opening speech which was apt for the audience. The first panel discussion – Challenges for Women Designers to start own practice in India and the ways to overcome, had a strong set of panelists, Ar. Shiela Sri Prakash, Ar. Anupama Kundoo, Ar. Sonali Bhagwati, Ar. Parul Zaveri and Ar. Canna Panel, moderated by Anuradha Chatterjee. These leading women shared their stories of starting their own practice. Ms. Chatterjee channelized the discussion beautifully onto layers of significant questions. The leading ladies shared their inhibitions, tough times and the rise. It was most inspiring for the young women to know the points from their Role Models that emerging women should consider while starting their own firm. Chief Guest Dr. Najma Heptulla, Union Minister for Minority Affairs was unable to attend due to ill health. However the message that she sent for WADe India was read out, which was full of motivation for the audience. A Perspective: Being Celeb Designers by Sussanne Khan & Zarine Khan was quite energetic, insightful, and left a great learning point for all working mothers when Zarine Khan said that life has no certainty and hence as a mother she left no stone unturned in making her daughters self-sufficient. Sussanne shared her experiences as an interior designer and the challenges of being a celebrity designer. The third panel discussion was not only interesting but also insightful for couples working together in architecture & design business. A Retrospective: From the successes of Men-Women partnership firms & women only firms had prominent panelists Lalita Tharani & Mujib Ahmed, Krupa Zubin & Zubin Zainnudin, Santha & Kalhan Mattoo, and Annkur Khosla. The fun-filled discussion probably brought a good amount of learning points for panelists among each other and for the guests. It was moderated by interior designer Lipika Sud. A brief but stimulating session was there by Professor of Marketing, Ramendra Singh from IIM Calcutta on importance of Marketing & Promotion for Women Leaders in Architecture Design. For special entertainment Vasu Primalni was on stage. It was hilarious and full of laughter. Vasu is the recipient of Nari Shakti Puraskar from the Government of India. She is also one of the top 3 female stand-up comedians of India, Triathlete, and Environmentalist. Ar. Sanjay Puri, Principal, Sanjay Puri Architects, Mumbai, paid an emotional tribute to Ar. Zaha Hadid, the Queen Architect of this world and the 1st among women to win the Pritzker Prize, known to be the Nobel Prize for Architecture. Hussain Kuwajerwala, Celebrity Television Actor & Anchor took over the stage with his warm & inviting presence. With every name of the Role Model, their vision, dream or the selected Roles they would play for WADe India was proudly announced. Vertica Dvivedi gave away the awards to the Role Models and Special Category, while Ar. Prem Nath, Ar. Divya Kush, Prof. Krishnarao Jaisim and Mr. Sarosh Wadia gave away the awards for the Emerging Category. The list of Role Models are posted in www.wadeindia.com which include names like Namita Singh, Sheila Sri Prakash, Anupama Kundoo, Sonali Bhagwati, Abha Narain Lambah, Sonali Rastogi, Parul Zaveri, Shimul Javeri Kadri, Chitra Vishwanath, Brinda Somaya, Lalita Tharani, Revati Kamath, Krupa Zubin, Santha Mattoo, Annkur Khosla, Nina Puri, Ponni Concessao, Seema Puri, Reny Lijo and Designers Sussanne Khan, Sunita Kohli, Raseel Gujral, Shabnam Gupta, Rupana Reddy and more leading names. Among the Emerging are Farah Ahmed Mathias, Pritika Kinra, Priyanka Khanna and B. Shweta. Madhavi Desai and Gita Balakrishnan was felicitated for their Special contribution to the industry. The special award for Innovative Young Architected was an initiative by Delta, thus aptly named WADe Delta Innovative Young Architect Awards. Audio Visual presentation by partners Nolte, Amulya, and Oligo were quite stimulating. Since WADe is walking an untrodden path, it has faced several challenges in initiating the concept. No amount of Thanking would be enough for expressing the roles that Jury members played as Guides (Ar. Sanjay Puri, Ar. Prem Nath, Ar. Divya Kush, Prof. Krishnarao Jaisim and Mr. Pratap Jadhav). Regarding Jury members, all that team WADe could say was, “More than Jury, More than Friends for WADe and More than Dependable.” WADe’s special thanks to Mr. Sarosh Wadia, Vice President, IIID and to Ms. Sona Chatwani & group from Hyderabad for adding more charm to the event. The event was concluded with a brief speech by Pragath Dvivedi, Director, Bigsea Marcom (I) Pvt. Ltd., appreciating the team for the successful launch of event and thanking the delegates for making WADe India feel so special. Interior Design Awards India Architecture Awards India Construction Awards India
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WADe India, the federation of World Women Architects and Designers was launched in 2016 to connect the women of the industry, and also to be instrumental in bringing some important issues to the fore that needs solution. During the launch, role models and young talented women designers were felicitated. Dr. Kiran Bedi opened up the platform with a powerful speech about her experience while designing the Tihar Jail. More than 350 delegates attended the gala event that set the ball rolling for initiatives in the segment of Women in Design. Some objectives of WADe India are:
Survey by WADe India points out that a lot of women architects & designers never return back to the profession, once they take a break for playing their biological roles as mother, wife etc specially if the break is in tune of one or more years. Many women we talked to attribute this to family needs. Those who are wishing to return find challenge in managing the tough working hours, traveling, staying updated with work needs, and not getting enough of peer and company support. They get disconnected from the industry. While there are women in the fraternity who are managing both the worlds beautifully, we are focusing on those women who need a bit of hand holding. Our survey suggests, these are mostly the women who do not have any other Architect or Designer in the family. With this category as the target segment, WADe believes that if these women pursue alternate yet connected career options for the specific period of break (we are assuming a period of 1 to 3+ years), she will stay connected, updated and it will be smoother for her to join the mainstream as and when she finds it comfortable. Through this discussion, WADe India is seeking to find some of the best options to pursue during break. Panelists: Ar. Priyanka Khanna, Principal, 42mm Architecture; Ar. Manishi Agarwal, Co-Founder, Design Cosmos; Ar. Tanya Khanna, Founder & Director, Epistle Communications Moderator: Vertica Dvivedi, Editor, Surfaces Reporter magazine; Founder, WADe India Best working options for a woman architect or designer during a break which gives her flexibility of timing & keeps her connected Ar. Priyanka Khanna - Architecture as a field is changing in a very positive way by becoming more collaborative and inclusive. There are a lot of career options available for women today wherein they can not only take care of their families but remain connected to the field of architecture as well. One could be Architecture Journalism where they can collaborate with design magazines; online portals etc., and can write and participate in architectural discussion. This way they are not contributing in a single project but to the architecture as whole. Architecture is also a very generic field so rather than contributing to the whole spectrum, they can be a specialist for one field. For instance they can be a Façade or fenestration consultant There they can be connected to cladding companies, Glass companies or other building skin technicians to build up their career. They can be Interior stylist as we all know that aesthetic today is also coming up as functional architecture. Such profession do not require a team per say and they can work independently with flexible hours. Ar. Manishi Aggarwal- The foundation of this discussion is, everybody must understand that for a woman, her family is as important as her career is. Of course, the whole society doesn’t have that perception but we are assuming that it has so. According to me anyone who is planning to return to the field of architecture after a semi-break must stay updated of all the happenings in the industry. So all my options revolves around how can we stay updated during that period. One way is Photography. There is a huge demand of architectural photography . That way you are completely updated about what are the projects being designed, innovations being done etc. You can be in touch with lots of architecture firms where you can provide photography services to their projects. The second option is Documenting the Projects . By documenting, we don’t mean simply documenting the end product but the entire process of designing right from the idea, to design brief, brainstorming, material selection, construction process, till the end product gets ready. This is something we are currently experimenting with in our office now. The person who is documenting the entire process needs not to be there for the whole time but can come at flexible timings, during few hours a day or may be few days a week and can interact with the team. It is a great way to know about the project, technologies, materials being used, innovations etc. Thirdly, Blogging is very popular these days. When you read and stay updated with what’s happening while simultaneously writing, you can be completely aware while actually contributing to the thought process in architecture and design. Ar. Tanya Khanna - I have a Masters in Architecture and run Epistle Communications. I stayed in architecture then took a step back primarily because, content that architects produce, on a daily basis, never gets recorded. You cannot have half of your population sitting at home just because there is a domesticated need. You must be able to bring your office home. Coming back to the question of alternate career options, I believe, one can really stay connected with the profession through Architecture Education . Every architectural college in India need panelist having on field architectural experience to teach students. So it can be a great way to stay connected. Also, I strongly feel that women need not to make alternate career choice. If one wants to continue with architecture please do as our family supports our work. I have a child yet I haven’t taken a break from my work for a single day. Even in the hospital I was sending my emails. I have taken help from everybody be it husband, in laws, parents or friends. That’s how I stick to what I love to do. You must do what you love to do and then the alternates are there to actually balance it out. Architecture firms have evolved and diversified today. They have verticals like HR, Admin etc. Many architecture firms are documenting their work even writing books on their buildings so there is a need for people who can do this. Even in my work which is not an architecture firm, we have architects and interior designers working. So I would suggest everyone to not give up and keep sailing, you would eventually find your passion. Job profiles within Architecture & Design firms that can offer flexible working or work at home options: Ar. Priyanka Khanna: As designers, we lack certain things like communication & PR. So I believe there should be an In-House PR and Communication person for the curating the project information. This could be a good career option. Besides, in our office, we are also trying to develop a continues Research and Development team that can curate a Design Pool or Material Pallet consisting of proper documentation of new materials, designs and innovations which would help in working on any new project. This is the need of the hour. You cannot have half of your population sitting at home just because there is a domesticated need. You must be able to bring your office home. Ar. Tanya Khanna: We do have architects and designers in our firm actually working to build up the right Content for the projects. These are the people who have actual experience of building things up. Even Social media is a big tool today. I believe today every firm wants to have that in house profile. Other professions could be Furniture design or Product design where one can contribute its creativity significantly. Architecture is a profession that doesn’t bind us for anything. So in reality, we can choose whatever we would aspire to do. Message to women who wish to return to the profession, yet feel Hesitant : Ar. Tanya Khanna: My first message is ‘Talk to people around you.’ People are really hesitant to talk because of the way we have been brought up in our society. Talk to your ex-employees/ employers, talk to your mentors etc. Your confidence will build up once you start the dialogues with the right people. Ar. Manishi Aggarwal: I would say ‘Have the will to come back’. I have seen people who have the desire to come back to profession but are so engrossed in their lives, that they couldn’t do so. You have to have your own time other than dedicating the entire time for the family. Find the will which is inside you and you can do it. Ar. Priyanka Khanna: I think the initiative WADe has taken is very inspiring as you get to know and talk to the people who have already been in the same situation who have come back to the profession. So talk to people, read about people which will give you ample strength to move towards your goal. Secondly, be patient. Architecture is a profession where you have to be updated with current trends. Finally, Vertica Dvivedi concluded the Take away from this session as: Drop the guilt, talk to people and most importantly, stay connected, as staying connected will help to make things happen. We hope this initiative by WADe India along with Surfaces Reporter helps women from architecture, design & various connected fields to take note, open up, connect with us and benefit from the discussions & initiatives happening to come back to the mainstream once again. To be a part of discussions or for speaking opportunities, contact [email protected] or visit www.wadeindia.com . Architecture Awards India Construction Awards India |
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