“Architecture today extends far beyond the creation of physical structures. It influences how cities are experienced, how communities interact, and how cultural identity is preserved. Dr. Prof. Anand Achari shares his perspective on designing meaningful spaces that balance heritage, technology, and human connection while responding to the evolving needs of contemporary urban life.”
- Architecture today goes beyond buildings and infrastructure. How do you think architects can shape the social and emotional fabric of cities?
Architects influence cities in ways that often go beyond the physical form of buildings. The real impact lies in how spaces shape human interaction, movement, and collective experience.
A thoughtfully designed public space can encourage people to pause, engage, and connect with one another in ways that feel natural and unforced. Over time, such spaces begin to influence how communities function and how individuals relate to their surroundings. For instance, well-designed public promenades, open urban plazas, or even thoughtfully planned transit spaces often become informal meeting points in cities, shaping daily social behaviour in subtle but powerful ways.
What often gets overlooked is that cities are remembered not just for their skylines, but for how they made people feel. In that sense, architects contribute to shaping memory, identity, and the emotional continuity of urban life.
- Mumbai constantly balances heritage and rapid urban growth. How should young architects approach this tension between preservation and modernization?
Mumbai is a living example of how cities evolve while carrying layers of history within them. True urban progress is not about replacing the old with the new, but about ensuring that growth does not erase identity.
For young architects, this balance should not be seen as a conflict but as a responsibility. The idea is not to freeze heritage in time, nor to pursue modernisation in isolation, but to create a dialogue between the two. The most meaningful architectural outcomes often emerge when there is clarity about what must be preserved, what needs to evolve, and how both can coexist. When this balance is achieved thoughtfully, cities retain their memory while still adapting to contemporary needs.
- In the age of AI and digital tools, what human qualities will continue to define a great architect?
Technology and AI have significantly transformed architectural practice by improving efficiency, precision, and speed of execution. However, architecture continues to remain a deeply human discipline.
What defines a great architect today is not just technical capability, but empathy, the ability to understand how people live, move, and emotionally experience spaces. Alongside empathy, curiosity plays a critical role. Great design often begins with observation and the willingness to question how spaces can be better experienced.
While digital tools can enhance imagination and execution, they cannot replace human intuition, emotional sensitivity, or contextual understanding. These remain central to meaningful architectural practice.
- Social media has made architecture highly visual and trend-driven. How can students move beyond aesthetics and focus on meaningful design?
Social media has certainly made architecture more visible and accessible, which is a positive development. However, it has also encouraged a tendency to view architecture through a purely visual lens, often based on photographs or short-form content.
Students must remember that architecture is not experienced as an image, it is experienced in real time, in three dimensions, through movement, light, sound, material, and human interaction.
I often encourage students to look beyond what appears visually striking and instead focus on how a space behaves and how it makes people feel. Meaningful architecture is not about momentary impact; it is about long-term experience and human engagement.
- How important is regional identity and local context in architecture at a time when cities around the world are beginning to look increasingly alike?
Regional identity has become even more important today precisely because many cities are beginning to look increasingly similar. When architecture loses its connection to place, it also loses its cultural depth and emotional resonance.
Good architecture should respond to its context; climate, materials, culture, and local ways of living. This grounding allows spaces to feel authentic and naturally integrated into their surroundings.
When architecture is rooted in its environment, it creates a stronger emotional bond with the people who inhabit it. For me, the most enduring architecture is always that which reflects the spirit of its place and carries forward the cultural memory of the community it serves.