BRINDA SOMAYA Constructive, Restorative, Contextual

From being part of the bridge generation to enjoying travelling around the world and the country’s sari treasures...there are some interesting things to write home about from the Q & A between architect Brinda Somaya and Editor in Chief Ronitaa R. Italia

- Ronitaa R. Italia

Let’s start with something I know you really enjoy…tell us about the places that your work has taken you to. Brinda Somaya: Well, I have worked primarily in India…every single part of India, from Gangotri in the Himalayas, right down to the southern-most tip, to Calcutta, through the deserts of Kutch, through Central India, up to the tribal areas of Jharkhand. I can proudly say that I have built in every part of my own country and that’s been my greatest fulfilment.

Travel, of course, is most important for any architect and it’s something I can say I have done a lot of. First as a very young girl of 16, when I won a scholarship to go to America, and that was so long ago that our flight went from Mumbai to Beirut, Beirut to Istanbul, Istanbul to Ireland, Ireland to Canada and Canada to New York. I think what’s really been exciting in my life is that I have seen this huge transition of free India – I’m postindependence born but not so far after that I didn’t know what it was like before. I consider myself a person of the bridge generation. So we had the masters, famous architects like Charles Correa and BV Doshi, who were pre-independence born and then came my generation.

Coming back to travel… I have always travelled a lot, to many parts of the world, either on holiday or to teach or present papers – South America, the Arctic Circle, South-east Asia, Japan, Africa…I’ve driven through Syria to Damascus, flown to Iran, driven through Iran for 20 days, gone on to Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. I love the Middle East, I think it’s one of the most interesting parts of the world! Travel is a very important part of an architect’s life because architecture is not just about building, it goes way beyond that. It’s about history, archaeology, art and culture.