Benny Kuriakose on Estrade Lifetime Achievement Award 2016

In response to earning the Estrade Lifetime Achievement Award, Benny Kuriakose of Chennai expresses his gratitude towards the Estrade team.

Benny Kuriakose has been there in the field of architectural work for the past 32 years. He worked under Laurie Baker, a British architect who spent his lifetime in India working on low-cost buildings and natural materials. He had been trained under Laurie Baker and was introduced into the world of sustainable design and the use of natural materials by him. He had a tremendous interest in vernacular architecture, which is how he started designing.

The ESTRADE Real Estate Awards 2016 lifetime achievement award was presented to Benny Kuriakose for his unparalleled effort to try and explore an architecture that is appropriate to the environment, cost-effective, sustainable, and, at the same time, incorporates the principles of vernacular architecture in a modern context.

Benny Kuriakose’s projects include the Muziris Heritage Project, Springdale Heritage Resort in Vandiperiyar, Anantya Resort in Kanyakumari, the design of the tsunami-affected villages of Chinnangudi and Tarangmbadi in Nagapattinam District, etc., which bagged him the prestigious ESTRADE awards 2016.In this video, he expresses his gratitude towards the Estrade team."Learn from our traditions, try to create architectural designs which are more suitable to our climate, culture, and society, use local materials, avoid waste, and then you will not go wrong in designing buildings," is the message he would like to give young designers of today.