Page 2 - Portfolio

PERSONAL STATEMENT:

My academic learning has blended quite productively with my extensive field experience, and I hope that the educational venture
at hand will build upon that dynamic. Completing graduation from a globally recognized university and gaining professional
accreditation will provide me with the access of a great resource, research, and practice network towards realizing my aspiration.
The course contents of this program on research and practice, cross-disciplinary research group, and the live project shall not only
equip me intellectually and professionally but also empower me to define my practice method.

In 2006, while travelling with my professor as a field assistant for research on the housing of the ultra-poor, provided a contextual
observation and inspired me to attend courses on rural housing, building for disaster, housing and development, research method,
including an ECTS semester on design, research, and practice. Alongside my professor, I got engaged in projects on improved
design and building of rural housing; housing reconstruction of cyclone SIDR, an extension of the Aga Khan awarded mud school.
In 2007, I completed my thesis on the livelihood of people in urban grey space, followed by practical training in the office of one of
the senior-most architects in our country. In 2008, founded an affiliated chapter of Architecture for Humanity (AFH) to continue
my explorative practice. I surveyed the existing layouts to develop a detailed physical map of five urban slums across the country
for a multi-sector initiative in 2011, which presented a close-up insight on slum settlement.
Over the period, I completed various hands-on pilot projects through local and international partnership. Which offered opportunities
to explore urban slums, rural communities; safe drinking water; micro-entrepreneurs; as well as experimenting with mud, bamboo,
wood incorporating technology and contemporary aesthetic. I facilitated several workshops and focus group discussions while
disseminating the concepts. In 2015, when AFH closed its global operations, our office had to be closed as well, and the process
of dissolving the partnership and obtaining a No Objection Certificate (NOC) developed my multinational mediation and crisis
management skills. In 2017, I demonstrated a community based social business centre using mud and bamboo. All such learning
by experience in the field developed a qualitative understanding of cultural and socio-economic context, design process, delivery
method, and further enhanced my analytical and critical thinking.
In 2018, I accompanied my wife to the UK and this allowed me to explore the other communities, their culture, and the learning
environment. Following my return from the UK in 2019, I became project architect in a local firm for an industrial building, a tribal
community center, and two high profile interiors with a total budget of about $4.7 million. Here, I was engaged in exploring
various technologies on green building, human-centric design, lighting and acoustics, rainwater harvesting, green roof, wooden
tension structure etc. Managing multiple projects simultaneously within a commercial practice improved my multidisciplinary
team management, complex design handling, and time management skills.
Pursuing this master’s in multicultural collaborative learning will allow me to redefine my understanding through self-evolution,
besides strengthening my comprehension of synthesizing issues to develop complex designs and critical evaluation. The wider
range of specialized courses will equip me with advanced skills in support of dealing with the multifaceted built environmental
issue and enable me to make a difference towards my ambition of setting up a social-enterprise based practice to address social
issues by using design as a tool of addressing problems and finding solutions. I feel that my previous hands-on learning from the
ground up would be my contribution to this program. 2