Anupama Kundoo

Anupama Kundoo is an Indian architect academic, and researcher. Her practice and research focus on material experimentation, sustainable architecture, and low-cost, energy-efficient building technologies.

Early life and education Kundoo was born on 24 April 1967 in Pune to Bengali parents who relocated from Dhaka to Bombay. Kundoo is a descendant of Hatkhola and Manikganj royal family via Peary Charan Sarkar and Maharaja Manik Ram Basu and also Dar Raj Kashmiri Zamindari via Judge and former Dewan of Mayurbhanj Mohini Mohan Dhar Esq.

Kundoo established herself as an architect in Auroville in 1990 where she designed and built many buildings with "energy and water efficient infrastructure" adaptations. She worked here from middle of 1990 till 2002.

Kundoo taught at Technische Universität Berlin and later at Technische Universität Darmstadt during 2005. She worked as Assistant Professor at Parsons The New School for Design, New York Since 2024 she has been a Full Professor for Architecture and Design Methods at TU Berlin.

Work Her approach to building design is based on material research that minimizes environmental effects. Her basic design approach is to use "waste materials, unskilled labour and local communities".

One of the notable buildings built for her own residence is titled the "Wall House", built in a community area of with a built-in space of constructed for one million Rupees in 2000, in Auroville for communal living. This house is L-Shaped in the plan, has a courtyard in the middle; while it is modern in concept it adopts traditional "vernacular" use of materials such as compressed earth, concrete, and steel. The bathroom is set in an open-to-sky design, with smooth merging with the interior and external spaces and landscaped, giving it both a modern and a regional appearance. A full-sized replica of her Wall House was made by hand and exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.

In 2024, Kundoo joined the judging panel for the Dezeen Awards alongside other prominent architects. In the same year, she was part of the multidisciplinary advisory committee for the inaugural Ammodo Architecture Awards.

Select architectural projects Wall House, Auroville, India, 1997-2000. Town Hall, Auroville, India, 2006-. Nandalal Sewa Samithi Library, Pondicherry, India, 2018. Sharana Daycare Center, Pondicherry, India, 2019.

Publications Books Roger Anger: Research on Beauty/Recherche sur la beauté Architecture 1958–2008, jovis Verlag GmbH, Berlin, 2009 AVPNY Auroville and Pondicherry Architectural Travel Guide, Altrim Publishers, Barcelona, November 2019 Anupama Kundoo.The Architect's Studio, Lars Müller Publishers, 2020 Abundance not capital, Architekturzentrum Wien / MIT Press, 2025

Papers Das Tauziehen zwischen Umweltschutz und Entwicklung, Bauwelt, Bauverlag BV GmbH, Gütersloh, March 2011 More than cladding, Design Today, Living Media India Ltd, New Delhi, June 2010 Who decides what’s green, Design Today, Living Media India Ltd, New Delhi, March 2010 Urban development, Options for urbanisation, Survey of the environment, The Hindu, Chennai, 2008 Roger Anger: Chief Architect of Auroville, Architecture Time Space & People, Magazine of the Council of Architecture, India, Delhi, May 2008 Auroville: An Architectural Laboratory, Made in India, AD Architectural Design, John Wiley and Sons Ltd., London, November – December 2007 Eco-friendly Approach, Architecture + Design, Vol. XXIII, No 2, Media Transasia, Delhi, February 2006 Sustainability and Globalisation, Indian Architect & Builder, Jasubhai Publications, Mumbai, July 2005 Devoted to Dance, Ray Meeker´s expression to Protima Bedi´s parting gift, a fired temple at Nrityagram, Inside Outside, Mumbai, October 2000 Cues from the Past – Local details and traditional elements in a contemporary structure, Indian Architect & Builder, Jasubhai Publications, Mumbai, October 1997 Comments on Building Blocks, Indian Architect & Builder, Jasubhai Publications, Mumbai, January 1992

Exhibitions Abundance not capital, Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna, Austria, 18 September 2025 – 9 March 2026 The Architect’s Studio, Anupama Kundoo – Taking Time, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, 8 October 2020 – 16 May 2021 High‐speed housing, Roca London Gallery, London, United Kingdom 31 March-18 June 2016 Wall House One to One, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2012

Awards 2021: The RIBA Charles Jencks Award, awarded jointly by the Jencks Foundation and the Royal Institute of British Architects. 2021: The Auguste Perret prize