With every industry witnessing rapid growth, Engineering and Architecture is not the one staying untouched. Like every other sector, these services' market is also facing a technological shift, not unlike the 90s when production and design moved from manual production methods to computerised methodologies. From simple mass production methods to precise data driven design and delivery systems, the methods have evolved over the years. Projects, whether it is housing, commercial, industrial, and so on, are becoming increasingly complex in their design demands and timelines, with an added layer of environmental consciousness amidst a looming climate crisis as highlighted by the recent IPCC Sixth Assessment report.
In order to address the vastly growing demands and constraints, the projects of today require new tools and services which were hitherto not used. With India’s development hitting its stride again, it is imperative that the market catches up to the upcoming global trends to not only remain relevant, but to be ahead of the global competition in every sector. It is this ambition that is generating the demand for new expertise to provide reinforcement to conventional wisdom. Cashing enough on this opportunity is Delhi-based Studio Sustain, a leading architectural engineering studio setup with the core objective of making projects more responsible, for all stakeholders, and tangibly so.
Established in 2018, Studio Sustain began as a niche arm of an established Delhi-based architecture practice, SSSA Architects, to anchor their endeavours in upgrading architectural design and design management practices. However, in a short span of time as demand for their services proliferated, Studio Sustain carved its own niche in the segment of BIM and Performance Engineering consulting. “We are a group of young people who bring their familiarity with technology, and the skill to grasp new tools to the table.
While most practices today are locked-in to their comfort zones for delivery under pressures of time and quality, we offer globally recognized cutting-edge services to elevate the way projects are designed and managed. In a sector, that counts heavily upon ‘experience’, our youth is our advantage since we are abreast with the best latest practices and possess the grit to mould our knowledge into real world application, like no other. We have ‘experience’ in pursuing (and delivering through) new pathways”, speaks Kinshuk Aggarwal, Founder, Studio Sustain.
Meeting Client Objectives With Sustainable Approach
Today, at a time when quality comes before quantity, clients are constantly looking for value. No one is looking to spend an extra buck for frivolous interventions, more so in the extremely cost-conscious Indian setup. This value is derived either through direct or indirect cost savings in capital and/ or operational expenditure, or marketing advantage.
“We potentially add both dimensions to a project through our BIM and Performance Engineering consulting, where projects can be incubated and operated in an empirical, data-based workspace throughout its lifecycle, enhancing their longevity and resilience on both technological & environmental parameters. On one hand, where BIM plants projects into the digital ecosystem for future integrations with construction, operations, and management applications in the digital and IoT spheres, Performance Engineering makes
projects environmentally responsible and healthier to occupy and use in a measurable, tangible way”, briefs Kinshuk. We go the extra mile to ensure that our offerings have top-notch quality and are delivered within the stipulated time frame
In light of global attention toward ESG policies, corporate reporting, carbon emissions and climate change, ‘Sustainability’ has become the prime focus at present. Studio Sustain strives to focus its consulting on the buildings’ aspect, and tries to address tangibly how buildings can perform better for both the environment and the occupants. While the primary service areas of the firm remains energy efficient, indoor environment quality, and minimization of ecological impact of projects, none of this is really useful till there is a measure of such impacts, which is why Studio Sustain is also offering sustainability accounting and reporting, focused largely on the building sector. This is an extremely nascent subject domain, but one that is of core relevance.
While most of what we do is backed by solid data and analysis, far beyond conventional wisdom-based interventions, every proposal we make is also tested across numerous iterations through processes of iterative design and sensitivity analysis, to optimize a range of parameters working in conjunction with each other. Most of these processes have been developed and evolved from European experiences and academic research, and are hence well validated. Every detail from heat loads, electricity consumption, surface temperatures, operative temperatures to ventilation patterns, wind drafts, air temperatures, to carbon emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 is simulated, calculated, quantified, and then optimised.
A Notch Ahead Of The Rest
Today, most engineering service organizations are linearly focused on their knowledge domains, with leadership and guidance being provided by strong engineering backgrounds and experience. Studio Sustain is backed by a team of architects who hold international educational and professional background in sustainability and project execution. Most often, design teams struggle with communicating what is called ‘design intent’ to engineering consultants, who inspite of possessing raw horsepower in the form of human and monetary resource do not speak the same language, creating a significant scope for error in the process.
“At Studio Sustain, we provide unique skill set, with our parallel architectural practice keeping us consistently warmed up, that can communicate and understand what complex project delivery entails and demands, both in achieving environmental performance, and efficient design management, and delivery through BIM. Much like everything else, there is no 'one size fits all' in BIM. More often than not, we break away from industry jargon and customize delivery parameters and target outputs at a granular level, to suit the scale, intent, KPIs, and success factors of any particular project. Our small yet skilled team leaves no stone unturned to meet client objectives through bespoke processes and deployments”, adds Kinshuk.
With its core mission being able to use the best that technology has to offer to enhance project through put, Studio Sustain continuously tests and develops new processes that extract the most, and more, out of any given software. Proof of this are their US associations, which have come to Studio Sustain after their clients’ numerous bad experiences with other Indian consulting organisations. Whether it is Revit, ArchiCAD, Rhino, AutoCAD, or any other software solution, Studio Sustain is known for making these work for them, rather than being constrained by any software’s capabilities.
With word of mouth publicity, Studio Sustain has successfully been able to associate itself with industry bigwigs such as DMRC, TATA Projects, IKEA, DLF, HINES India Real Estate, TCE, Maruti Suzuki India to name a few, and delivered projects mapping over 15 million square feet through these associations over the last 18 months alone. “Although, we don’t consider revenue to be a measure of quality, but for benchmarking, we've consistently doubled annual revenues over the last four years. From a small, shared office space in a ‘barsaati’, today we have two offices in Delhi NCR. Our client base has also expanded to the US market where we have design associations with architectural practices, helping them with design and production management on American and Asian projects”, says Kinshuk.
While Studio Sustain is still a young firm, it is slowing making its way towards the larger scheme of delivering on this vision of making projects comprehensively responsible for all stakeholders. It has adopted a multi-dimensional approach to hone and prove various key skills necessary to realise it. “BIM is one method we use to maintain quality and granular control over how projects progress through their lifecycle, bringing in data precision and participation into the process.
Performance Engineering ensures the ‘what’ of the project, defining and tuning the planning, design, details, and record of every intervention that is implemented. Our architectural background and experience ensures that we are able to envision projects from various perspectives and gauge the dominos that could fall with every intervention. These three pivotal verticals of our practice run in parallel as we graduate from a single service consulting team to a super specialised, cutting-edge design and engineering consulting group”, sums up Kinshuk.
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