Dispatches from Somerset and Rajasthan: Studio SAAR – ADC

How did you two come together?

Ananya Singhal We met while studying at the University of Bath in 2003. Having collaborated on several projects since graduating, we decided to join forces and set up our own practice in 2019. Our lasting friendship and shared vision in crafting uplifting places and spaces underpins all that we do.

Jonny Buckland Ananya and I go way back to university days. After graduating, we went our separate ways until 2014 when we collaborated with another colleague to extend a home in Hampshire. We worked together off and on over the following years, making the decision to collaborate on the Third Space project. These experiences led us to formalise our work as Studio SAAR.

How do you balance working in Frome and Udaipur and why do you have offices there?

Ananya Singhal Udaipur is home for me and so is Frome for Jonny, so it seemed natural to set up offices in these places. In terms of balance, some of our larger projects are in India, while we are working on some smaller projects here in the UK. We love the dichotomy of our practice and take a huge amount of learning from one country to the other.

Jonny Buckland Our work ranges across projects in the UK and India and we thought we could benefit from a cross-cultural sharing of ideas while creating bespoke design solutions that respond well to the project’s geography and overall context – something that could only happen if we have active bases across the two continents.

How many people work for you in each office?

Ananya Singhal Our India office has a team of 14 while the Frome office consists of 4 people (three full time and one part time).

What do you find is the biggest difference in approaches to building between the two places?

Ananya Singhal India needs more buildings, we do not have enough built fabric to accommodate our peoples, businesses and communities. The challenges in India are enormous, and our ability to have an impact is also magnified.

In the UK, we are very interested in reusing existing buildings and structures. Sometimes gentle nudges can make all the difference, sometimes a new way of thinking is needed.

In both places, we want to show people that building with a regenerative purpose can be cost effective and joyful. But, given the economic, social and climatic differences our solutions are very different.

What’s your relationship with Secure Meters? How did that come about?

Ananya Singhal Secure is the parent company of Studio SAAR. The Singhal Family, my family, own and manage Secure. We also manage the not-for-profit organisation called Dharohar.

I work at Secure as joint managing director and am also co-founder and managing partner at Studio SAAR. Until 2019, I was the chief architect at Secure, working on all our expansion projects.

Is this your biggest project to date? What was that like?

Ananya Singhal We have undertaken a few ambitious projects, Third Space is one of them.

It was a joy to work on Third Space and provide much needed resources and world-class educational facilities to the city of Udaipur and its people. Throughout the design process, we’ve worked closely with our client, Dharohar (a not-for-profit organisation) to develop a space that will appeal to visitors and staff alike. It was wonderful to draw inspiration from the architectural heritage of Rajasthan and have the freedom to reimagine it, bringing multiple uses into a single coherent building that will hopefully bring joy to the community for years to come.

Scale is a complex question. The largest site we have operated in is 80 acres, we have also worked on a large electronics factory for Secure in Sanand. Each project has led to another that has had its own challenges.

The one with the deepest long-term impact may indeed be our parks projects, which include four small parks and the ‘Jungle’ project by Dharohar. These projects involve a deft touch in the urban landscape of Udaipur, trying to create a social movement to plant and nurture 1,000,000 trees in Udaipur.

What’s coming up next for you?

Ananya Singhal We have two super interesting projects on at the moment. Secure is building a PCB manufacturing facility in Central India. This project is more than 500,000 square metres, and involves 4,000,000 litres of water moving through the building every day, and 14 megawatts of power consumption. Our challenge is to make this project environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. We are rethinking everything about how the architecture makes the process more effective as well as thinking about the use and reuse of waste material and future uses for the building and building materials.

Jonny Buckland On the other hand, we are breaking new ground with a project called Mayday Saxonvale. Which is the UK’s largest community participative urban design and regeneration project. The project involves a complex network of consultants, clients, ownership structures, management methodologies and procurement practices. The scheme will have homes for different economic conditions, an incubator, creative spaces, a lido and a hotel. Some of this will be in commons ownership.

We are in competition with a developer who is focusing on creating homes for people who will not actually work in Frome. If we succeed in winning the project, it will be a game-changer.

Ananya, what lessons did you learn from studying under Doshi?

Ananya Singhal Working with Doshi was incredible. He was a great teacher and educator. Everything from looking more deeply at spaces and buildings, to understanding the impact of architecture on spirituality and sociology. Doshi’s schemes were humble and have had a major impact on the architecture and placemaking of India. I would hope that I can have a similar impact.