An INK fellow, a TEDxNew York speaker, one of TIME magazine’s ‘international next generation leaders’ — these are just some of the feathers in his creative cap. Entrepreneur and architect Alok Shetty is one-of-a-kind — his biography reflects his awe-inspiring talent and grit.
The Bengaluru huduga who is currently working on artist Raghava KK’s 12-acre artiste’s village in Woodstock, New York, is a force to reckon with. He was also featured on the cover of Forbes Asia as part of their ‘30 under 30 young achiever’s list’.
Reacting to this stupendous achievement, he says, “It always feels good to be recognised and for our work to be acknowledged. But there is a long way to go to make an effective impact in the fields we are currently working on.”
An alumnus of Bishop Cotton Boys’ School and RV College of Architecture, Alok did his masters in Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University, where he was the youngest recipient of the Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Award for Design Excellence. “I studied and worked for two years in New York before I came back to India,” he says.
Alok’s company Bhumiputra, which he founded in 2012, is doing a range of noteworthy work — from housing in slums to building a school for underprivileged children.
”Bhumiputra is an attempt to take everything I’ve studied and learnt (continue to learn) over the years and apply it towards improving the quality of life in various communities through architecture and design,” he says. The firm believes in working to add value to neighbourhoods and communities.
Speaking of one of his best projects, the dynamic architect says, “Our slum housing project is an effort to redesign housing for one of India’s largest floating populations. They are under constant threat of eviction and because of their nomadic lifestyles, they do not invest in homes.”
So Alok’s team designed a low-cost, flexible home that can be assembled and dismantled in less than six hours! Bhumiputra is also working on the Indian Institute of Sport in Hampi, which is India’s first state-of-the-art Olympic training facility.
“Phase One will be launched at the end of this year and cater to five sports — Boxing, Wrestling, Judo, Athletics and Aquatics,” he reveals.
What’s remarkable is that Alok bagged his first project at just 19. “In my second year of college, I participated in this small student competition to design a multi-specialty hospital in Jaipur and won. The concept turned out to be a real life project. I spent a year asking doctors, administrative staff and patients what they wanted from a hospital. At night, I would teach myself the software to do drawings as in college they only wanted us to hand draw. It received international accreditation,” he adds.
An inventive man who belongs to a generation that wants instant gratification, Alok shares, “Be prepared to put in the work for a long time before you can see tangible results. Approach praise and criticism in the same way and don’t take it personally. Too much praise can go to your head and too much criticism can de-motivate. It’s important to have a vision and work hard.”
