Chandhana Ramesh
Founder / Chief Architect
For Chandhana, ever since childhood, art forms have been the central theme of life. Having grown up in a home with plenty of plants and animals, she developed a sensitivity and love for nature.
She is a proficient classical musician and a Bharatnatyam dancer and finds purity of purpose in self-expression through artistic endeavors.
Architecture followed as a natural progression of her versatility and creativity.
She found her skill sets struck the right balance between art and the practical world implications, and this having an ability to impact people's everyday lives.
She perused her under-graduation in School of Architecture and planning, Anna University, Guindy Chennai, followed by Masters in Sustainable Environmental Design from Architectural Association School of Architecture, London UK, which is at the forefront of Architecture design and sustainability.
Her Master thesis was based on the ancient building science of India Vastu Shastra, and its interpretation as a guide to context-based climatic/Sustainable Architecture adapted and applied in a modern-day context rather than a purely spiritual belief.
This concept was explored in the design of housing with a living –working community. It combined Contemporary passive strategies with the traditional principles of Vastu shastra. The focus was to redefine the residential typology as a live-work space without compromising the growing demand for Vastu compliance in the housing sector. Each residence provides workspaces that can be used flexibly at different times of the day and year. Manually operable features provide adaptive strategies for various seasonal conditions. Interaction with outdoor, is a cultural and psychological need and, is addressed with both private and public spaces
After graduating from AA in 2014, she joined Architecture RED, Chennai, under the guidance of Mr.Biju Kuriakose and Mr. Kishore Panikar. During her time there, she was involved in various Residential and Institutional projects.
Chandhana then joined Edifice Architects, Chennai, under the mentorship of Mr.Pramod Balakrishnan and spent 4 years handling the design, coordination, and execution of various projects ranging from Villas, Interiors, Apartment buildings and Institutions.
With a wealth of experiences and acquired skill set combined with her passion and unique acumen in creative functionality, she took the step forward to start Empatio architecture.