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N. Ramakrishnan

Changing style: Construction in progress at the IT Park being built by Tata Consultancy Services at Siruseri, near Chennai. The building has been designed by Carlos Ott and Carlos Ponce de Leon of Uruguay. —

R. Balaji
N. Ramakrishnan

Chennai, Oct. 28 From buildings that were functional to ones that are unique and make a design statement. This is the change that is happening across the country in the hundreds of buildings — commercial, office or residential — that are coming up.

Look closely and you might not be surprised to see foreign architects associated with designing a number of these buildings. Most often, this is in association with a local architect. The tasks are clearly divided — the foreign architect deals with the concept design after which the local architect takes over.

There are several reasons for companies choosing foreign architects over local ones. One, the size of the buildings being constructed, especially in the information technology sector, is much bigger.

When till recently a 1 million sq ft building was considered the norm, companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies are going in for IT parks that are spread over 3-5 million sq ft. Indian architects do not have much experience in designing and working on such large buildings.

Two, information technology companies want something different. Rather than have a typical box-like structure, they prefer buildings that stand out from the crowd — one that will make a statement for itself and also make it interesting for employees to want to work out of that building.

“We wanted something unique,” says Mr N. Chandrasekaran, Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, when asked why the company went in for a Uruguayan architect for its Chennai software development centre. TCS’ IT special economic zone at Siruseri, on Chennai’s IT corridor, has been designed by Mr Carlos Ott in association with Carlos Ponce de Leon, of Uruguay. The local architect for this project is Mr C.R. Narayana Rao, a Chennai-based architect firm with over 60 years standing in the industry.

It is this desire to have something different that is spurring companies to opt for foreign architects, says Mr C.N. Raghavendran, Partner, C.R. Narayana Rao.

His firm has tied up with Nikken Sekkei, a Japanese architecture firm, one of the largest in the world, for designing the software development centre for Infosys Technologies at the Mahindra World City special economic zone, at Maraimalai Nagar, on the outskirts of Chennai.

Indian architects do not mind the large number of foreign architects working in India. After all, they get to learn and this association opens up the global market for them as well.

Foreign architects are more systematic, more focussed, and plan their work more thoroughly than their Indian counterparts, says Mr Raghavendran.

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