Can a building address local and global imperatives? Can it be informed by the vernacular and yet be energy efficient? Can it be locally attuned and low carbon? What would this look like, say, in a place like India?
This episode features Manit and Sonali Rastogi, co-founders of the award-winning firm, Morphogenesis, which offers a range of design services from interiors to master planning.
Morphogenesis brings to the Indian context a perspective on what it means to be sustainable, bridging traditional materials and techniques with modern forms that are rooted in climate and context.
| 00:08:19 | A new design practice at the crossroads of time |
| 00:14:13 | “We began to see the divide between these two extremities… we would have to tread a middle path: an architecture that draws from the local environment yet suffices the needs of the global context. That’s why (it’s) an architecture ‘almost somewhere’.” |
| 00:18:00 | Pearl Academy of Fashion: Integrating place-making with performance |
| 00:26:26 | “Pearl Academy of Fashion did not begin with an attempt to save the planet. It set out to solve a problem (of) the cost of construction. In the dire institutional market of India, what could we afford?” |
| 00:29:18 | “Pearl Academy of Fashion proved that you could make a highly sustainable building, you could make it highly affordable and you could make it comfortable.” |
| 00:30:53 | “The first thing that we (ask) is how we get the perceptible temperature on the site, the microclimate, to dip by 5 to 7 degrees. From there, we go to the building and say, ‘Okay, how do we cut the heat down by 75%?’ Is it a combination of low-velocity fans, or dry misting, or evaporative cooling? And then, (for) what we can’t offset, we go to aircon.” |
| 00:36:56 | “We do user surveys of occupants who have been in buildings for the last five, 10, 15 years. It’s not only (about) the energy data, it’s also how people are using the buildings.” |
| 00:37:36 | Surat Diamond Bourse: Operationalising sustainability for a mega project |
| 00:42:56 | “You begin a project with ‘no is more’. You don’t have electricity, you don’t have water, you don’t have resources. Now let’s talk about design, no preconceived notions.” |
| 00:49:10 | Becoming Morphogenesis |
| 00:51:13 | “Perpetuate a process, a way of thinking… get the right people in the right place to work together… essentially, that’s our model. It’s purely based on nature and synergetics.” |
| 00:52:17 | “You could be the one who is making the perfect mud block… you could be the one that is taking the Indian design voice global. Only choose this profession if something inspires you, otherwise, it is too hard a profession.” |
| 00:54:00 | “Don’t think that you can (have) a flashbulb idea and change the world. That’s what they tell you in architecture school over 10 semesters. Keep researching, keep learning, and find that little bit that you can do over and above… accumulate that small change and the big difference that you’re talking about will be an emergent impact.” |
| 00:56:45 | “It’s an architect’s responsibility to take marginalised communities along in the process and include them so that in some ways they are no longer marginalised.” |
| 00:59:21 | “There’s going to be a point (in time) when (the planetary system) will break. We need to find a method of moving away from exponential to serial growth in line with resources on the planet.” |
An ‘architecture of almost somewhere’, a term coined by the Rastogis, describes unresolved tensions in an increasingly globalised India, where many remain rooted — often constrained — by local conditions.
Manit and Sonali recall conversations they encountered, returning from the UK in the 90s, that presented them with an opportunity to craft a position on what it means to be in India in the 21st century.
The firm experiments with the interface between climate, cost, and comfort. This bridging of the local and global has segued into a position on sustainability which, not unlike Regionalist ideas in the 70s and 80s, prioritised local resources, and argued that they are used judiciously.
The Pearl Academy of Fashion in Jaipur, India, is situated in a hot-dry climate, where it adapts vernacular-inspired sunscreens called jaalis.The Pearly Academy of Fashion exemplifies the overlap between constraint and opportunity, the line between engineered performance and human experience. It brought attention to the firm at a time when the Green movement was critiqued for its checklist approach.
In the semi-sunken basement of the Pearl Academy in Jaipur, India, shallow pools of water lower ambient air temperature to improve occupant comfort.Scale remains problematic in developing countries like India. Megaproject Surat Diamond Bourse – one of the largest office buildings in the world – pushes Morphogenesis’ mantra of climate and comfort to another level and shows how to negotiate between big and responsible.
The Surat Diamond Bourse in Surat, India, is a megastructure, also one of the world’s largest office buildings with a capacity of 70,000 occupants.
The atria of the Surat Diamond Bourse in India are part of the building’s natural ventilation system which reduces the demand on air conditioning.There are insights in this interview into how their partnership, personal and professional, evolved over time, how learning and experimentation become part of the company’s DNA, how sustainability, as an endgame, affected early questions at the drawing board.
Morphogenesis continues to experiment with climate-moderating facades, seen here in the British School in New Delhi, India.The work of Morphogenesis punches above its weight: engaging social systems, bolstering local economies, and contributing to communities and ecosystems. Manit and Sonali seek nothing less than to redefine Modernity in a place with much historical baggage, at a time when the pursuit of sustainability, really, also appears to seek solutions of ‘almost somewhere’.
This episode is brought to you by:
| The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction The Holcim Foundation helps drive systemic change towards a more sustainable built environment. It was founded in 2003 to define and promote the key principles of sustainability for the construction sector and is committed to accelerating the sector’s transformation so that people and the planet can thrive. The Foundation has investigated various aspects of sustainable construction via a series of roundtables and conferences with international experts. It has also recognised excellent contributions to this field with the Holcim Awards which are considered the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design. Committed to a holistic approach that recognises the equal importance and interdependence of four key goals, the Foundation combines the collective knowledge, ideas, and solutions of our global community of experts with our recognised platform of international competitions to democratise thought leadership for the entire sector. Today, the Holcim Foundation is proud to accompany Ecogradia’s new podcast and its host, Nirmal Kishnani, with whom we share a common goal: contribute to a just, equitable, and sustainable future via sustainable construction and design. |  |
This episode is brought to you by:
The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction
The Holcim Foundation helps drive systemic change towards a more sustainable built environment. It was founded in 2003 to define and promote the key principles of sustainability for the construction sector and is committed to accelerating the sector’s transformation so that people and the planet can thrive.
The Foundation has investigated various aspects of sustainable construction via a series of roundtables and conferences with international experts. It has also recognised excellent contributions to this field with the Holcim Awards which are considered the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design.
Committed to a holistic approach that recognises the equal importance and interdependence of four key goals, the Foundation combines the collective knowledge, ideas, and solutions of our global community of experts with our recognised platform of international competitions to democratise thought leadership for the entire sector.
Today, the Holcim Foundation is proud to accompany Ecogradia’s new podcast and its host, Nirmal Kishnani, with whom we share a common goal: contribute to a just, equitable, and sustainable future via sustainable construction and design.
Sonali and Manit set up Morphogenesis in 1996 to sustainable architecture for contemporary India.
Their design approach has often been inspired by the vast repository of historical wealth of building knowledge and the strong arts and crafts traditions of the region. Often working in an environment with limited resources, they deploy passive strategies by responding to the local climate and ecology, while addressing comfort, safety, and liveability parameters. They are mindful that projects must remain economically viable and globally pertinent.
Morphogenesis believes each project must establish itself as a benchmark for innovative design by thinking systemically about sustainability. Their definition of sustainability includes both social sustainability and contextual inclusivity. Their belief in environmental design has resulted in the formulation of Morphogenesis’ copyrighted design process S.O.U.L.©2019, an acronym for:
Sustainable: net-zero energy, water, and waste to landfill
Optimised: carbon neutrality and use of local resources
Unique: tradition, heritage, and culture
Liveable: resilient communities
Parameters define the inquiry process that shapes our architecture:
Over 9 million sq. m of built environment benefitting over 560,000 inhabitants
Freshwater saved: 22 billion l
Energy saved: 4.1 million kW/hr
Reduction in CO2 emissions: 4.2 billion kg
Gross area of sustainable buildings completed: 50,000,000 sq. ft
Morphogenesis
Plot No. 41, Industrial Area
Okhla Phase-III
New Delhi 110020
India
T | +91 11 4182 8070 | +91 95600 03343
E | media@morphogenesis.org | ritu.arora@morphogenesis.org
W | www.morphogenesis.org
If you heard it in this episode, we likely have a link for it right here. Click on any topics, people, buildings, places, products and/or technologies listed below to learn more about each of them.
| 00:05:54 | “…and one is DRL, Design Research Lab…” AADRL (Architectural Association Design Research Lab) |
| 00:07:32 | “…who had been doing a lot of work around genetic algorithms…” “What is the genetic algorithm?” | MathWorks |
| 00:07:32 | “…who had been doing a lot of work around… artificial life…” “Artificial Life” | Britannica |
| 00:07:32 | “…who had been doing a lot of work around […] artificial intelligence…” “What is artificial intelligence?” | Brookings |
| 00:07:32 | “…who had been doing a lot of work around […] neural networks…” “Explained: Neural Networks” | Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT News |
| 00:07:32 | “…who had been doing a lot of work around […] cellular automata…” “Cellular Automata” | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |
| 00:12:23 | “…they could accede to either Pakistan or India…” “3 mistakes of Nehru that led to the horrors of Partition” | TFIPOST |
| 00:12:40 | “…let this be a new town symbolic of the freedom of India, unfettered by the traditions of the past, an expression of the nation’s faith in the future…” “Chandigarh: India’s Modern Dream” | Studio Nicholson |
| 00:13:50 | “…in direct contrast to that was a very strong regionalist movement…” “Re-evaluating Critical Regionalism: An Architecture of the Place” | ArchDaily |
| 00:15:43 | “…either a regionalist or a modernist…” “Modernism” | RIBA Architecture |
| 00:23:13 | “…did a lot of solar path studies…” “Sun Path Diagram” | Elsevier Science Direct |
| 00:27:12 | “…the baoli is evaporative cooling through the internal courtyards…” “Evaporative Cooling” | Elsevier Science Direct |
| 00:29:33 | “…as you worked with an adaptive thermal comfort band…” “Adaptive thermal comfort in sustainable cooling solutions” | Alliance for an energy efficient economy |
| 00:31:50 | “…I recognize Ecotect diagrams…” “Past computer software” | AndrewMarsh |
| 00:34:27 | “…you’re trying to find a language for contemporary Indian architecture…” “The Changing Culture of Architecture in Modern India” | Archinect Features |
| 00:50:39 | “…the idea of synergetics that the whole is greater than the parts than the sum of the parts…” “Synergetics” | Buckminster Fuller Institute |
| 00:58:55 | “…cities have to be closed-loop…” “Circular cities and the closed-loop economy” | The Fifth Estate |
| 00:59:16 | “…the idea of the GDP, year on year growth…” “Gross domestic product (GDP)” | OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) |
| 00:03:36 | …in the works of Laurie Baker and at generally in the architectural discourse… Lauriebaker.net |
| 00:05:22 | “…I decided to study housing and urbanism under Jorge Fiori…” “The PhD Research Program at the Architectural Association” | Architectural Association |
| 00:05:22 | “…I decided to study housing and urbanism […] at the Architectural Association…” Architectural Association School of Architecture |
| 00:05:32 | “…a new program called DRL was introduced by Jeffrey Kipnis…” “Collaborators: Jeffrey Kipnis” | World Building Institute |
| 00:06:59 | “…Simos Yannas was the director of the program, still is… “The PhD Research Program at the Architectural Association” | Architectural Association |
| 00:07:28 | “…another professor at the school, John Frazer…” John Frazer |
| 00:09:24 | “…it today? Morphogenesis. How many…” Morphogenesis |
| 00:10:01 | “…the works of the great regionalist Charles Correa…” “CCA: Charles Correa Associates” | Charles Correa Foundation |
| 00:11:46 | “…when Corbusier was building Chandigarh…” “Le Corbusier” | Britannica |
| 00:12:00 | “…Nehru, the first Indian prime minister after independence…” “Jawaharlal Nehru” | Britannica |
| 00:15:59 | “…and then DRL happened to me, which is […] Ben van Berkel…” “Ben van Berkel” | Unstudio |
| 00:15:59 | “…and then DRL happened to me, which is […] Sanford Kwinter…” “Sanford Kwinter” | The European Graduate School (EGS) |
| 00:15:59 | “…and then DRL happened to me, which is […] Peter Eisenman…” Profile | Eisenman Architects |
| 00:16:11 | “…people who were in and around the studio, Rem Koolhaas…” “Rem Koolhaas” | OMA |
| 00:50:36 | “…a believer of in the works of Buckminster Fuller…” “R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983” | Buckminster Fuller Institute |
| 00:10:49 | “…we have three main offices in Delhi…” “Delhi” (Delhi, India) | Britannica |
| 00:10:49 | “…we have three main offices in… Bombay…” “Mumbai” (Maharashtra, India) | Britannica |
| 00:10:49 | “…we have three main offices in […] Bangalore…” “Bengaluru” (Karnataka, India) | Britannica |
| 00:11:01 | “…we have one in Pune…” “Pune” (Maharashtra, India) | Britannica |
| 00:11:01 | “…we have one in […] Chennai…” “Chennai” (Tamil Nadu, India) | Britannica |
| 00:11:01 | “…we have one in Surat…” “Surat” ( Gujarat, India) | Britannica |
| 00:11:41 | “…the biggest influence on modernity in India came from Chandigarh…” “Chandigarh” (Chandigarh, India) | Britannica |
| 00:12:08 | “…in a reaction to having lost Lahore…” “Lahore” (Punjab, Pakistan) | Britannica |
| 00:14:04 | “…high up in the hills in Kashmir…” “Kashmir” (Indian subcontinent) | Britannica |
| 00:18:12 | “…the Pearl Academy of Fashion, which was featured in my book…” “Pearl Academy of Fashion” | Morphogenesis |
| 00:18:26 | “…in the hot, dry climate of Rajasthan…” “Rajasthan” (Rajasthan, India) | Britannica |
| 00:21:26 | “…baori is in […] Gujarat…” “Gujurat” (India) | Britannica |
| 00:28:01 | “…we finished the British school in Delhi…” “The British School” | Morphogenesis |
| 00:38:12 | “…the Surat Diamond Bourse in Surat, Gujarat…” “Surat Diamond Bourse” | Morphogenesis |
| 00:46:22 | “…there’s an area called Morbi…” “Morbi” (Gujarat, India) | Britannica |
| 00:41:37 | “…about 800,000 square feet of radiant cooling…” “Radiant Cooling” | US Department of Energy |
| 00:21:13 | “…It’s got baoli…” “Stepwell” | Britannica |
| 00:21:13 | “…it’s got the cementitious jalis…” “History of Jalis in Indian Architecture” | Penn State University |
| 00:22:03 | “…there is a very nice one down in Jodhpur…” “Toor Ji Ka Jhalra, Jodhpur, India – an ancient step well” | Navrang India |
| 00:23:29 | “…we need to recreate this second skin…” “How Do Double-Skin Façades Work?” | ArchDaily |
| 00:42:40 | “…we have a massive underground aquifer that only stores rainwater…” “Aquifers” | National Geographic |
Host
Nirmal Kishnani
Producer
Maxime Flores
Editorial assistants
Amulya Dhulipala
Ann Mathew
Sound technician & Editor
Kelvin Brown | Phlogiston
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