GNH
Sarath Chandra B
Principal Conservation Architect
Documenting architectural heritage has been a passion for Sarath since his years at graduate school at the Department of Architecture, PDA College of Engineering. This further inspired him to convert his passion into a profession through specialization in Architectural Conservation at School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi (2004). Later, he interned at ICCROM, Rome in the Living Heritage Sites Programme. Sarath has been instrumental in setting up and leading the Technical team of Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority (HWHAMA). He further worked with the Vijayanagara Punaschetana Trust (VPP Trust), Department of Tourism in establishing an Interpretation centre at Hampi.
Whilst his term at ICCROM taught him conservation from a global standpoint, his experience in working at the grassroots towards managing the Hampi World Heritage Site garnered him with an understanding of the complexity of heritage management in India. With this unique experience, he established GN Heritage Matters in 2012.
Sarath also plays the role of Project Manager for Deccan Heritage Foundation (DHF), an international NGO dedicated to the protection and promotion of the cultural heritage of Deccan, and is responsible for grounding its mandate.
Institutionalizing conservation practice through a value based approach amongst all stakeholders of heritage, as a means for development is his key interest.
Akhila Udayashankar
Principal Conservation Architect
Akhila has been working in Architectural Conservation field for over six years now. She has worked on various projects in the field of conservation ranging from listing and documentation to restorations works.
Apart from practicing conservation, Akhila has also assisted author Rekha Rao in editing three of her indological publications.
Akhila received her Masters in Architectural Conservation from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi (2010) Her Masters’ thesis entitled Integrated Conservation of Historic Island of Srirangapatna, Karnataka was a detailed work on heritage of Srirangapatna.
Neeraj Kulkarni
Associate Conservation Architect
Neeraj is responsible for several documentation, building conservation and adaptive reuse projects in various of GN Heritage Matters’ sites. He has also been involved in undertaking architectural design projects at heritage sites in Bidar and Tenali. Structural Conservation, adaptive reuse, exploration and mapping historic sites are his key interest areas. With a keen eye for details, he can be seen spending countless hours adding intricate details to drawings.
Prior to his career as a Conservation Architect, Neeraj was working as an Architect in a reputed architectural firm in Ahmedabad where he was involved in designing and execution of public transit infrastructure and housing projects.
Neeraj strongly believes that a deep understanding of historic buildings and vernacular building traditions helps improve one's design capabilities. His interests include sketching, painting in oil and water colours, especially of cityscapes. He has received training in knife painting.
Neeraj is a an architect from Kolhapur with a masters in Architectural Conservation from the School of planning and architecture, New Delhi.
Apoorva Pillay
Conservation Architect
Apoorva is a conservation architect whose primary responsibility in GN Heritage Matters has been to document and monitor the ongoing conservation works at the Osmania University College for Women (Former British Residency) in Hyderabad. Apart from this, she plays a key role in managing the administrative functions at the site office in Hyderabad. She has also been involved in documentation of historic buildings and preparing technical reports towards its conservation.
She has a special interest in structural conservation of historic buildings. Besides heritage conservation, she aspires to work towards integrating traditional knowledge and innovation for creating a sustainable environment where each structure/complex would be a cultural, social or architectural rendition of the vernacular.
Apoorva has a fascination for architectural and street photography. She loves music and her favourite genres include classic rock, jazz and bollywood music.
She holds a Master of Architectural Conservation degree from School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal (2015) and did her Bachelors in Architecture from N.I.T. Bhopal.
Nishi Poojary
Conservation Architect
Nishi is a young member at GN Heritage matters who’s worked on heritage documentation and adaptive reuse projects. She has spent a lot of her time working on research and documentation of Vernacular houses of Coastal Karnataka. This has contributed to the firm’s vision of setting up an unprecedented national repository on Indian Vernacular architecture that would highlight traditional knowledge systems and building practices across the country.
Prior to her association with GN Heritage matters, she has briefly worked with Intach, Hampi and Samrakshan India, an NGO with whom she worked on a pilot documentation project of Vernacular architecture throughout Karnataka.
She is keenly interested in investigating the contemporary relevance of traditional architecture and believes its application in mainstream design can create very context specific and sustainable buildings. A paper she recently presented at the ICOMOS annual conference 2020 on a related topic was acknowledged as one of the top 10 papers.