Coming from a long line of accountants on one side of her family and businessmen on the other, Smita seemed to be headed for the financial sector. While painting came to her intuitively and she understood emotions as physical abstractions of colour and form, she also was inclined towards science and mathematics. By the time she was in her late teens, she realised that pursuing architecture was the logical alternative to studying business. Smita’s direction changed due to her high school and college – United World College in Wales and the Architectural Association in London. Both educational institutions encouraged critical thinking, re-contextualising and provided the right framework for her future. Once she decided to study architecture, Smita worked almost every holiday with different design practices. Her first internship was in London, at Arup Associates. She also worked in Mumbai at Serie Architects, co-founded by Kapil Gupta and Chris Lee. After her graduation in 2008, Smita decided to return home temporarily. She had begun experimenting along with a friend in 2003, but established Note-D as an integrated architectural and interiors practice with Hemant Purohit in 2013. Currently, Smita runs her own practice which specialises in large-scale architectural projects including Alembic City in Vadodara, building projects in Bengaluru and residential towers in Dubai. She frequently visits schools for architectural juries. “LuxeBook represents trends and interests in contemporary India. It gives an opportunity to showcase and a voice to this ever-changing landscape” Smita Khanna Director, Studio Smita Khanna Growing up in a middle-class family, Swathy Sivaraman’s childhood aspirations did not rise beyond educational excellence. After a brief affair with telecom engineering, though, her true calling manifested itself in her passion for design... and she acquired a B.Arch at UVCE, Bangalore. After shifting to Boston, she decided to do her Master’s in Sustainability Management at Harvard University. This milestone is a testament to her resilience and the support of her loved ones. Sivaraman gained valuable experience as an intern with WS Atkins (India) and then joined them as an assistant architect before moving to Nelson India as a project architect, Isicle as event head and KGD Architecture as business development manager. It’s not easy to find a business partner who sees potential in you, but she got lucky - and thus Storeyboard Design was born in 2016, and has completed over 200 projects (residential, commercial and institutional) for a clientele comprising some big names in the world of business. She explains the choice of name for her firm that has grown from four (she, her partner and two designers) to 50 professionals: “Every space has a memory, a story to be written or designed. Every building has a storey (floor) that we choose as our preference, and every design starts with a clean board.” Swathy Sivaraman CEO & Principal Architect, Storeyboard Design “LuxeBook is a platform that showcases innovation, elegance, and the artistry behind luxurious spaces and experiences” | 47 | 46
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