Women in the Male dominant construction world

Ar. Suraksha Acharya || Founder, Midori Architects 

Over the 15 years I have been passionately developing my architectural style can be best described as a blend of natural and modern i.e. contemporary architecture. Starting Midori Architects was a natural step in my journey. As an innovator, I wanted to approach design challenges with a fresh, unique, modern sustainable perspective that crafts spaces for life well lived. My work strives to make our buildings as sustainable as possible without compromising on client’s requirements or our architectural vision. I am a firm believer in design which aims to protect the environment and natural resources, recreating urban areas and buildings that are designed to fully cover their energy requirements without inducing environmental damage. This organic design process results in buildings that are futuristic and green. Whenever I design a building or a space, I try to blur the lines between the inside and the outside. It is this delicate balance that is enhanced by elegant aesthetics and energy efficiency at its core, integrating renewable energy systems as a supplementary active strategy into our buildings that aims at reducing the building carbon footprint. In short, Midori’s architectural style can be described as daring futuristic forms powered by clean energy and generated by employing the biophilic approach that is driven by climate responsive design strategies. 

I have been very privileged to have my own firm and, in the past, have faced my share of the obstacles as most woman when working in big architecture firm. However, as a woman in architecture, I still face daily the challenge of balancing my workload and being a hands-on mom. Often, I find myself juggling talking to a municipal authority on the phone, a contractor who has an urgent request for info, a client negotiation trying to close a deal, an employee who needs feedback, and my six-year-old daughter wanting to tell me about her day. Even though my firm is female-centric, we are still very much aware that the construction industry is male-dominated, and there will always be men who try to undermine us. However, deal with it by proving myself in the boardroom with hard facts that makes one take themselves seriously and shows knows their job, it is much harder to do that. 

My advice to young architects is to persist and believe in themselves, even in the face of workplace adversity. Women deserve to reach the top of their profession and must be given a fair chance with equal pay. When so many talented women quit architecture due to personal or professional reasons, we all lose! The problem is bigger than just representation in the workforce and platforms such as connect by Nippon help like-minded professionals network making it easier to share our story’s and learn from each other.