An Ode to People: Writer Apurva Bose Dutta on Impactful Storytelling and Architects That Write
By Julia Gamolina
Ar. Apurva Bose Dutta is an Indian author, award-winning architectural journalist, curator, editor, and educator. Over the past nineteen years, she has collaborated globally with multimedia publication houses, firms, organizations, and institutions in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries.
Recognized for her pioneering initiatives in architectural design writing, Apurva works at the intersection of writing, curation, critique, discourse, communications and thinking. Author of two books, Apurva is widely published and holds advisory positions with renowned architectural and design global platforms. In her conversation with Julia Gamolina, Apurva talks about how she has built her career after studying architecture, advising those that just started their careers that the real learning happens out in the world.
JG: What are you most focused on writing about these days, especially as we head into 2025?
ABD: We are in an age when conversations about architecture are not confined to building structures. As we look to the future, the practice of architecture is poised for a transformative evolution. With the rapid growth in technology, a deeper understanding of the profound impact architecture and design can have on livability, and the simultaneous shrinking and expanding of the world, there is much to discuss — from a discipline to emotion, from a reflection of society's identity to a catalyst for its evolution, and a creator of built spaces to a guardian of the environment. There is also a lot of potential for architects to redefine their conventional roles and positions.
I have witnessed the growing influence of words, writing, and media throughout my nineteen-year-old career. My commitment, expressed through my writing and allied professional endeavours, is to actively foster a vibrant and meaningful dialogue around architecture design and its myriad facets. I am captivated not only by the built environment but also by the intangible elements that shape or are shaped by it. This is the essence of my writing, a commitment that continues to drive me as we head towards 2025.
Apurva delivering a speech at the Forum for Exchange and Excellence in Design (FEED): The Academic Classroom, an academic platform in India, 2023.
Going back a little bit, you studied both architecture and journalism. Tell me the reasons behind both and what you were hoping to do with both degrees in the world.
Literature and the media have made significant strides to revolutionise the world. As a young architectural student in 2004, I contemplated why integrating architecture, journalism, and written literature was not as robust in Asian countries as in the West. This curiosity sparked a journey of exploration and understanding.
Having found solace in writing from childhood, I was aware that words transform into emotions and have a melodic quality. As I delved deeper into my architectural training, it dawned upon me that the essence of architecture was also rooted in emotions and melody. Both architecture and writing are slow arts, mandating a peaceful, creative process.
My interest in reading further assured me of the contribution of architectural literature to our awareness of architecture. The aim to seek the convergence of architecture and writing, whether in the form of curation, journalism, critical appraisal, or design appreciation, propelled me to embark on a field offering me that opportunity. By doing this, I hoped architecture, design, and building could find additional mediums to communicate and express themselves besides their conventional articulation as built entities.
How did you get your start after your studies?
After graduating from the Chandigarh College of Architecture in 2005, I commenced my career with India’s foremost architectural journals in New Delhi and Mumbai. In 2009, after moving back from the UK, I started working independently in Bengaluru in south India and later spent brief periods residing in Sydney and Jakarta. While I began by writing on architecture and design for global media houses as a consulting or features editor, contributing writer, correspondent, and freelancer, which still continues today, I subsequently started diversifying.
Since my career’s inception, I’ve also invested in persistent efforts to build awareness of the impact of writing, communication, and journalism on architecture through various communication channels. Talks, speeches, and workshops in offline and online mediums across academic and professional platforms have been regular investments. In this regard, the six-week online certified course on architectural design writing I initiated during the pandemic, which trained over four hundred and fifty participants across seventeen countries, was a significant milestone.
Collaborating with renowned product firms has allowed me to take this design communication to allied architecture industries. I also find delight in adorning the hat of an emcee, which I have done for international conferences on architecture and design. The interesting facet about being an emcee is that although the impact is again through words—unlike in writing, a slow art that offers time to introspect—an emcee must be quick and spontaneous and understand the style and the content to communicate.
“I was aware that words transform into emotions and have a melodic quality. As I delved deeper into my architectural training, it dawned upon me that the essence of architecture was also rooted in emotions and melody. Both architecture and writing are slow arts, mandating a peaceful, creative process.”
What else has informed your freelance writing?
Curating events and discourses around architecture and design has also been my interest. So whether it was curating Architecture, Design & More, a global summit in 2021, or the numerous discourses I have curated and moderated, including the ones for the Council of Architecture of India and a recent one for the Biennale organised by the Government of India, they have been crucial.
Another milestone I cherish is representing India for the Media Visits of Architectural Writers and Journalists organised by the Australian (2016) and Finnish governments (2018). I enjoy travelling, meeting people, and learning from their various cultures, and these two visits taught me a lot about the architecture of other countries.
Authoring two books, Architectural Inheritance and Evolution in India (2023) and Architectural Voices of India (2017), and curating and editing special issues for journals, including India’s first journal issue dedicated to Architectural Journalism (2013) for the Indian Institute of Architects and the recently published issue on Writing and Literature for ARCASIA’s Architecture Asia have been pivotal moments.
Where do you feel like you are in your career today?
Today, these years' experiences have made me more self-assured about what holds value and can make a difference. These years have also made me recognise how architecture can impact lives, and my passion for communicating and articulating it in various mediums has increased manifold. I enjoy networking with people from and outside the fraternity worldwide and discussing how architecture and design can be a medium to articulate our lives more effectively.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
In the initial years of my career, the most significant challenge was the minimal awareness of architectural writing, journalism, and criticism as a career option. With minimal resources, avenues, acknowledgements, and role models, it required a lot of patience and perseverance to travel this solitary journey and carve out a path. This lack of awareness and deviating from the conventional career path led to much scrutiny.
My faith in the formidable impact of writing gave me enough drive to continue my journey with enthusiasm. Writing should not only become a medium to communicate and increase awareness about the industry; it should rightly raise a voice and initiate a change. This is critical for Asian countries, where architecture and design remain inadequately discussed in mainstream conversations, and writing is not considered a primary skill for architects.
With every effort or investment in this journey, I gained experience, conviction, knowledge, and awareness, which were significant to my growth as a person and a professional. It also indicated that nothing comes easy, there is no substitute for hard work, and the simplest way to respect yourself is to not withdraw after failures but learn from them and persist in applying efforts in the right direction.
Apurva being honored by Ar. Habeeb Khan, former President of the Council of Architecture of India, for curating a national-level essay writing competition for architectural students, 2020.
What have you also learned in the last six months?
Over the past many months, where I have been travelling, studying, reviewing, and photographing spaces and writing about them, I have been enamored by storytelling in architecture, design, and building. As humans, we are all wired for stories — whether literary or in design. One finds a story everywhere — in a room where the walls, windows, and furniture carve out a story, in a building where the façade elements, material, texture, and form create their narrative, or in a public space where the tangible and intangible elements thread a story with nature.
However, the people who inhabit a space form its fulcrum. Any space or built environment is a constant reflection of people, their memories, culture, traditions, functions, and values. For a city, its people are its most critical infrastructure and the most significant resource. My learning and travel over these past months have reinforced that architecture and design are most successful when they are an ode to the fulcrum of their stories: the people.
Who are you admiring now and why? Who are your favorite writers in architecture and design?
Impactful writing, much like architecture, can potentially transport their readers into spaces that become their own. I appreciate writers and designers who can elicit intense emotions by creating immersive literary or built spaces. As a result, every time I read a piece and get moved, I develop admiration for its writer. I thus have no ‘favorite writers’ in architecture and design. Yet, many writers move me, including many practising architects, for whom writing is only a part-time vocation. I am moved by the intellect and tenacity reflected in the writings of Juhani Pallasmaa, BV Doshi, Charles Correa, William Curtis, Janes Jacob, Ada Louis Huxtable, Paul Goldberger, Alexandra Lange, Christopher Benninger, and Gautam Bhatia.
“My learning and travel over these past months have reinforced that architecture and design are most successful when they are an ode to the fulcrum of their stories: the people.”
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission?
I would want to become an example of someone who chose to go unconventional in her career pursuits, believed it could make a difference, and persistently worked towards their realisation. Today, I am delighted to witness, especially in India, the vast count of individuals, institutions, and organisations related to architecture and architectural writing and communications take a cue from my explorations in my career and adopt them in their engagements.
Taking this into the context of architecture, I believe trained architects are not mandated only to build structures; the term architectural practitioners should not be limited to them. We can also practice architecture through words and stories and the plethora of other mediums our multidimensional architectural education training equips us with.
Whether we write about architecture, build structures, or practice or illustrate architecture in any way, the uniqueness of communicating architecture should always be preserved. It is essential to be a generalist, but additionally, becoming a specialist ensures you have your eyes on one defined path.
Apurva with renowned dignitaries from the architecture industry at the Mumbai launch of her book Architectural Inheritance and Evolution in India, 2023.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Architecture and design are disciplines where imagination cannot have boundaries, where learning is more about doing and discussing than studying books. Education can only provide a platform or atmosphere to stir those imaginations and ideologies; the rest depends upon how we take it forward and implement it in the field.
In architectural schools, we focus on pedagogy, which refers to teaching methods, such as theory and practice and the process of learning. While it generally focuses on the interactions between teachers and students, we have a plethora of avenues to learn new things and get inspired. The building in which we study or reside, the streets we walk on, our peers, seniors, society, travel, reading, and environment: there is learning everywhere, which we must imbibe in our personal and professional trajectory. As we walk through life, we must remain its forever students, keep our eyes, ears, and minds open, and observe, analyse and absorb things.
Since we celebrate women on this platform, I will add that women do confront their set of exclusive psychological and physical challenges, which get escalated due to the gendered nature of the profession. However, let us not take these as barriers or be apologetic for being women. Let us celebrate ourselves and our powers and navigate circumstances to the best of our abilities. I am grateful and carry tremendous pride, gratification, and happiness that I was born a girl. Even knowing the additional challenges only women are subjected to, I hope and wish to be born a girl in every life.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. The views expressed here are those of the interviewee only and do not reflect the position of Madame Architect.