Ar. Gita Balakrishnan, a graduate of SPA New Delhi, founded the Ethos Foundation. She actively promotes responsible, inclusive design values among future architects. Her focus places social and environmental equity and justice at the core of architectural designs. Gita’s journey is powerfully embodied by Walk for Arcause. The initiative began with a 1,700 km journey on foot from Kolkata to Delhi.

Through six editions of Walk for Arcause, she has walked over 2,900 km across 14+ states. She actively promotes “Designing with Empathy” and “Designing for All,” engaging communities and raising awareness for accessibility and inclusion. Her book 1700 in 70 documents her first journey in detail. As an advocate for thoughtful, empathetic, and sustainable design, she has spoken at over 200 events. She founded Ethos in 2002 to raise awareness about the built environment. Ethos has grown into an engaging platform empowering young professionals to become future decision-makers.

1. Which early experiences or influences introduced you to architecture and laid the groundwork for the values that anchor your practice today?

My early childhood was in Hyderabad. My friends included children from all segments of society. I thank my parents. They never restricted the kind of friendships I had. At one point, my closest friend was our househelp’s child. We used to build make-believe homes with mud and a few bricks always lying in our backyard. We cooked on chulhas made of three bricks and twigs from our garden. I visited many friends’ homes. Maybe it all started there. Spending vacations with my civil engineer uncle, D. Hariharan, who worked at IIT Madras, influenced me. Going on long road trips with our father to various temple towns in South India surely shaped me.

But there were two crucial turning points. I undertook a course on stabilized mud blocks and alternative construction methods. The course was under the guidance of Prof. K.S. Jagadish at the Karnataka State Council of Science and Technology, IISc Bengaluru. This experience revived conversations and site visits I had previously undertaken with my uncle. Prof. Jagadish also took me on several rural site visits. He included me as a research associate on projects, including one assessing user satisfaction with stabilized mud blocks.

The largest impact on my journey was my stint with Anita Reddy at the NGO AVAS.
This experience blurred the boundaries between my role as an architect and as a social worker and community organiser. I spent hours at the homes of various slum dwellers, understanding their lives, needs, and aspirations. I am grateful for these experiences, which were crucial in shaping who I have become. Without them, I may never have become the person I am today. I may never have curated the different initiatives or shared the many stories I have to tell.

2. During a time when few women entered field-intensive branches of architecture, what compelled you to step into this path with such conviction?

I don’t think I stepped into this path with conviction. Then I just stepped in and made the most of what I received. I am sure I had all the moments that most who step into architecture do. Strangely, being a woman did not figure in the equation with architecture. It did figure in life though but not in architecture. Yes our class of 40 had just 8 girls – so the numbers were much fewer back then. Getting comfortable with the field took time but once I was at ease in my new skin, I was ready for explorations and experiments. The five years of architecture school are meant to do that.

3. You trained at SPA and later at the Centre for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University. How did these experiences broaden your vision of what architecture could be?

I consider myself lucky to have studied at SPA – it was the only place I applied to for architecture. We had some stalwarts teaching us. Revathi Kamath was our studio director in the second year. I vividly recall a trip to Gujarat with her. We explored and designed a school for the village of Karamsad. She completely defied the image I had of a teacher. She dressed wildly, spoke loudly and confidently, and communicated with wit and clarity.

Her gentle counterpart taught us too. I did a summer internship marvelling at the mathematics of a geodesic dome in Prof.Anil Laul’s studio. Prof.I.M.Chisthi  and the class trip with him to Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a big memory. Prof.Ram Sharma guided our thesis studio.

The external guide for my thesis was Ar. Ajoy Chowdhury. We were thrilled when architects like Reima Pietilä and Charles Correa visited our campus. Faisal Alkazi actively engaged people in theater, and SPICMACAY organized some remarkable performances. Pradeep Krishen and Arundhati Roy shot the movie, “In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones” when I was a student. Hence the experience and the learning was holistic. Nonetheless, the issues we discuss today how to prepare for the business of architecture. SPA equipped me with the courage to experiment and not fear failure. It taught me to believe there are many paths one could forge ahead on. It encouraged me to follow and nurture different dreams.

One of those was to pursue my internship at Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh – Centre for Building Performance and Diagnostics. I was introduced to it in my third year and I chased it for over a year till Dr.Volker Hartkopf extended the invitation for me to train under him. These six months broadened my horizons significantly. With no access to information like today, what lay on the other side was a bit of a mystery. I travelled alone to different states in the US exploring landmarks and architects hitherto seen only in books and the big screen.

I was part of a team of post graduate and PhD students who were working to design an additional floor to the architecture block, a structure that could sense and respond to the environment. We built models, interacted with experts, did case studies – it was a short but supremely enriching stint. I returned to India, a more confident architect with the highlight being my visit to Fallingwater. When I go back today and walk through the structure that we were dreaming up, I remember my time here with great nostalgia and gratitude.

4. After graduation, you explored working under various architects. Did you practice conventionally at first? If yes, what did those early experiences teach you about the kind of architect you did not want to be?

I did not really work with too many architects. It was the usual dilemma initially – a large firm or a small one. I chose the latter and realised very soon that I was not the architect I was expected to be – designing for and with people that I did not identify with. Within a couple of months I signed up for the course at KSCST and within 6 months, I applied for the post of a creative educationist in slums at AVAS. I remember the call from Anita Reddy, who told me they needed an architect to coordinate the shelter-related activities.

She welcomed me into AVAS, marking the beginning of my grooming. I realized later she was training me to feel. She taught me to design with others, not just for them. To build connections, not just walls. I designed a few homes and an ashram for yoga for clients who became friends, and friends became great clients. We experimented with stabilized mud blocks, stone masonry, stone slab walls and roofs, filler slab roofs, and rat-trap brick masonry. We also used rice husk panels for shutters and more. I loved what I did and did what I loved.

5. What made you realize that an alternative practice not the traditional firm-based route was your true calling? Was there a defining moment or a gradual shift?

It just evolved. I did not curate this journey. I did not pause to question whether I was straying from my role as an architect. We called certain materials, methods, and systems “alternative.” Sadly, people still refer to them as alternatives even after years. Apart from the first few months, I was not part of a typical design and build practice. I also never felt the need to consider that as a possibility at any point in my life.

6. As a young woman entering socially engaged, community-based architectural work, what were the biggest challenges you faced practical, societal, and personal?

I am not sure if I was plain lucky or if I asserted myself from the start. I do not recall facing any major challenges in my work because of my gender. The youth of the slums fondly teased me as I drove in on my moped. I took it in stride and teased them back in return. But I was there for community meetings at 6 AM or 7 PM with no discomfort at all.

Even on my projects as an architect, I was on site making blocks at times with the block-making team, laying blocks with the mason and watching the bar-benders at work – learning from them. Possibly as a reciprocation, I found them comfortable in discussing the drawings and the details with me.
My family knows and respects that my work is an extension of me just as they know that they are an extension of me.

7. Were there moments where the path felt overwhelming or uncertain?

When I started Ethos in 2002 and conceived Archumen, I felt the brilliance of the idea would have many financial sponsors lining up to partner the event. I realised how wrong I was. The first event, I actually had student participants staying at my house. We would even pick them at different times from the station. I invested my own money in the first event. But never did I doubt the idea.

And that conviction was so strong that I innovated on ways to fund them. After the first event, I decided that I will only spend what I earn and that has held me in good stead. I discovered that when you ensure immaculate quality partnerships sustain over time and grow to be robust. The biggest challenge has been and continues to be getting partners to be patient in their expectation of ROI – Returns on Investment; getting them to understand the value of investing in young minds and potential of changing the world through their faith.

8. Who were the people who truly stood by you during the early years? Can you share moments where someone’s belief in you helped you move forward?

I would be completely remiss if I do not begin by mentioning my family. They partook in the joy of my journey at every step. Every new initiative feels like a family celebration even today. In the early years, I was unsure if I had money to see an event through. This was until a sponsor pledged support. The quiz host, Giri “Pickbrain” Balasubramaniam, assured me he was on board. He promised support irrespective of if and when I paid him.

Almost every architect I invited in the early years whether as guests, jury members, or attendees joined with exuberance. They believed in what I was doing, or at least attempting to do. Past participants and achievers have developed deep bonds with Ethos because of their fond memories and are always eager to help with advice,with time and even resources. Colleges participated with great gusto – professors and architects heading departments were firm in their solidarity.

Interestingly, most team members have participated in Ethos initiatives over time. They resonated with the impact these initiatives had on them. This experience motivated them to help change the lives of other students. When I decided to move on to Ethos Foundation, I felt a sense of solace. I knew Ethos and its various events would flourish and grow. Nikita and Rasya, past participants, had become part of team Ethos.

When I was contemplating the launch of Acedge, the online learning platform in design, I remember a conversation with Ar.Brinda Somaya. When I was 48, Brinda told me that 50 was a major milestone. She suggested I spend time thinking about which initiatives to take forward, which new ones to launch, and which to leave behind. Taking her advice, I launched Acedge, an initiative which was initially intended to be a joint venture with Ar. Naresh Narasimhan.

I took it on solo once he moved on to other things.
When I chose to go on the 1700 Km Walk for Arcause, many gasped in disbelief but they also wished and hoped that I would go through with it. So many architects, organisations and common people came with ideas to amplify, engage, create, curate and even raise funds. It was a campaign that so many felt strongly about and made it their own.

10. Your work with AVAS and later with craft, rural, and artisan communities deeply influenced your trajectory. What did these experiences teach you about architecture’s social and human dimension that formal education often overlooks?

AVAS and Anita Reddy led me to work with Kalamkari artisans as Anita ventured to set up DWARAKA – Development of Weavers and Rural Artisans in Kalamkari Art. My brief association with Intervention India Pvt Ltd exposed me to Tibetan settlements in Bylekuppe and Hunsur, to some great work being done by NGOs such as Reaching the Unreached, to development projects undertaken by organisations aided by NORAD, ADB, SDC and others.

As I navigated my way through these different paths unraveling in front of me, I marvelled at the wide range that could be a potential canvas for designers and architects to contribute, to forge their career or even integrate into their practices and philosophies. I also shuddered realising that in an alternate life I may have missed all of this and my making the right connections at the right time was extremely fortuitous for me. Today although a surfeit of information is available at the click of a button, these alternate pathways are not a part of our organised learning curve. More importantly, integrating opportunities to engage with communities needs to be part of formal and informal learning. Bringing communities into classrooms and taking classrooms into communities as part of the pedagogical structure is essential.

It is imperative to reinforce that we should always design with and not for people. Diversity needs to be recognised as an opportunity more than a challenge. The performance of a design as a solution is a factor of how involved the stakeholders are as a part of the process; how much of a sense of ownership they feel towards the solution to work towards its success; how it addresses the diverse needs of all the possible users. Academic explorations on the power of architecture to direct lifestyles, habits and conduct will be instrumental in inculcating a deeper sense of responsibility as they grow into professionals and practitioners.

11. How did participatory design like asking community members to draw their dream homes reshape the way you understood user needs, identity, and belonging?

At AVAS, people were recognised and dignified as decision-makers. They made choices about their lives. Participation was ingrained in the process. The community was involved in the discussions and negotiations with the authorities, with banks that extended loans, with the surveys of their land and their opinions were sought on the master planning and layouts. They nominated representatives to different committees to monitor expenditure, the construction process, sites and services, maintenance, follow-up on loan repayments etc. This inculcated a sense of ownership and belonging to the project.

In some projects where authorities were building their homes, the community actively participated in discussions on the design typologies. In cases where residents were building their own houses, we conducted workshops that encouraged them to sketch and express their dreams for their homes. It was revealing for me as a young architect when women drew wells and men drew shops as a part of their homes highlighting what their pressing need was. I am delighted to see similar exercises and a lot more by architects like Swati Janu, Pratima Joshi and many others.

We had recently involved students of some architectural colleges in a needs assessment exercise in a government school. The students were confronted by a different reality – how can the snakes in the school be dealt with?; how can cows be prevented from straying into their play area? This kind of learning can never happen in a classroom.

12. What was the spark that led you to create Ethos? Was it a personal calling, an academic gap you observed, or a larger mission to empower the next generation?

When Ethos started in 2002, the larger mission was honestly not in sight. I was having fun when I organised the first edition of Archumen and completed the first cycle across four zones. And then it started – the questions from students on their career paths, on their thesis, on choices they needed to make, on more opportunities to learn. Hence, I got into creating opportunities for them to learn outside the classroom and in the classroom in collaboration with colleges, we crafted initiatives.

At that point in time, there were not many competitions, contests or platforms for students to evaluate themselves against the rest of the country; they did not know where the bar was to be able to raise it. Also, there were not too many avenues to enhance their skills and explore their potential. So it was really one step at a time – identifying a pain point and crafting an innovative gamified way to bridge the gap, evaluating the impact and pivoting if required. It was both hard and easy since there was no precedent. Gradually the mission evolved into a deep personal calling and to harness the ecosystem we were creating for larger social change.

13. When you founded Ethos, what vision did you hold for architectural education in India, and how has that vision evolved over the years?

When I started Ethos, there were 108 colleges of architecture, three times the number from when I graduated in 1990. This number went up to over 450 at one point and is now a little over 350. In the last two and a half decades, the field of Architecture has undergone a significant transformation and our learning needs to keep pace with this change. There is a dire need for a diverse set of skills in the industry while our education often focuses on honing a similar and standard skill-set in all students in a particular discipline.

In the early years, Ethos’s vision was limited to creating outside-the-classroom learning opportunities and bringing different colleges together to learn from each other. In the second decade of Ethos, democratising learning became central to all that we did with conscious efforts to reach content, the experience of practitioners and initiatives to all students and colleges equally. Along the way, students and colleges expected us to play a larger role. As we curated initiatives, I realised that the call of the hour was for a shift – where we, as a community of architects, include into our conversations those who we are to design with and build with, the voices that we rarely hear when we communicate in our closed circles. This led to the Walk for Arcause and the Ethos Foundation.

The vision of Ethos Foundation for architectural education in India is to inculcate responsible design values in students of architecture and in the way we teach and learn architecture for them to emerge as responsible design professionals. This journey begins with laying strong foundations – foundations that nurture students, practitioners, change-makers, empower communities, and build a collective commitment to sustainability and inclusivity. This collective effort serves as the cornerstone of Ethos Foundation’s Arcause vision.

Change will not emerge from isolated efforts but through a coalition of architects, academia, NGOs, corporations, policy makers and society at large. We see students and colleges of architecture as vehicles of change, pivotal to mainstreaming this vision.

14. Where do you believe the future of architectural education is heading, and what shifts are urgently needed to align learning with real-world responsibilities?

Architectural education must go beyond the design of buildings to prepare students for the larger context that encompasses creativity, community, and social responsibility. It involves critically assessing how design decisions will impact the quality of life for the people involved. We are already addressing this through the Arcause Clubs. They aspire to transform architecture and design into powerful tools for societal impact, instilling a strong sense of responsibility towards society and the environment.

We need to update our syllabus to align with our context and make room for curriculum shifts with the changing environment. Capacity building for the educators can influence and enhance the curriculum, facilitating mentorship, and promoting pedagogical innovations rooted in sustainability and inclusivity. Collaborations are the way to go. Bringing alumni, architects and communities together to mentor students,share professional insights, and build lasting networks that foster community-oriented design practices.

15. How would you articulate the impact you aspire to leave for students, practitioners, and the communities you have engaged with throughout your journey?

Through the Ethos Foundation, we aim to cultivate socially and environmentally responsible architects and designers by instilling attitudes and practices prioritising community welfare and sustainability. At its heart, this endeavour recognises the power of education and practice as transformative tools for shaping the future. By equipping educators, students, and young professionals with the knowledge and tools to integrate social and environmental responsibility into design practices, the initiative ensures that these values permeate every layer of the design ecosystem. This ripple effect extends beyond classrooms and studios, influencing communities, fostering meaningful collaborations, and championing a design ethos rooted in equity, sustainability, and innovation.
This is not merely about redefining how we build; it is about reshaping the values that guide us, creating a world where social and environmental responsibility are not aspirations but accepted realities.