Interviews
‘College was about brainstorming and fostering friendships’
The alumnus of AIT-SAP shares that team building exercises were the biggest take away from here
This amateur architect calls creation and collaboration as her biggest super power. Meet Vatsala Khandelwal, who passed out from Apeejay Institute of Technology – School of Architecture & Planning (AIT-SAP) in 2010. In a candid interview, Khandelwal walks down the memory lane of her college days filled with joyful learning and grit to take the world head on.
Tell us about yourself.
I hail from a small town called Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. I am exploring a lot of things at this point of time in my life. I am not a practicing architect but I love designing spaces that are meaningful and imbibe a deeper connection to self.
Tell us about your college life.
My college life was the most memorable time of my life. The connections I made during my college time were the best. Doing things in teams and groups. Being in college sparked a joy in me.
Share a few nostalgic memories from AIT-SAP.
Nostalgic memory is when we were doing urban design during the fourth year of the programme. We would make numerous visits to the site and explore the spaces together, while brainstorming and spending such a joyful time and coming up with a design collectively. In this whole process we would get to know each other and others’ thinking processes along with the strengths and weaknesses of our team.
What is your dream and goal in life?
I dream to live in a self-sustainable farm community of like minded people, where we are deeply connected to every aspect of life and nature and go on a self-transformation journey. My goal is to design human living systems.
How did college help you hone your skills?
The institute has helped me to become resilient. It gave me an overall understanding about what architecture is and what more lies ahead that can be explored.
Any message for the students of the university.
I would like to tell everyone that architecture is more than just designing a building. It’s about understanding different elements – tangible and intangible that goes into designing a space. An understanding of self needs to go hand in hand with the whole process, because we are all unique and we should explore this uniqueness.
What’s the best part of architecture as a profession?
The best part of architecture as a profession is collaboration. We collaborate with our clients to bring out spaces that they connect to deeply. I think it’s a power to be able to visualise and design. It’s the power to be able to bring up a space, build structure using materials that have no life. It’s the power to be able to mould, give life to materials and power to organise, which gives the structure a whole new meaning.
