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Passionate about his work and an enduring inspiration to youngsters today, architect Karan Grover has grown in stature since he began his firm Karan Grover & Associates over two decades ago – and it’s all thanks to his innate insight of what it means to be green.

Karan Grover is the quintessential jet-setting architect – yesterday in Dubai, today in Baroda, tomorrow in Kolkata, the day after in Bangalore, then to Mumbai for a brief stopover packed with meetings before catching a flight to Oman. But back in Baroda, he takes great pride in his home, as anyone invited over for a meal will attest. On the occasion of Hong Kong-based cybertect James Law’s visit to India last month, he played the gracious host with ineffable style. While wife Nisha was in Delhi enjoying a well-earned break from running her school for deaf children, he was supervising the running of the household, rearranging the furniture, doing the flower arrangements, planning the menu and ensuring that each of his guests was comfortable. Despite digging his fingers into many pies, the champion of causes ranging from heritage conservation and green architecture to art promotion and city improvement always ensures that the meal he presents looks, smells and tastes the way he has imagined it.

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COMMENT   I am a diploma holder civil engineer & have been working since 15 years in this field. I realy like houses that are eco   1 Comments Read more comments »

Everything that Grover does, he does with style and passion. That’s what makes him a charismatic crusader. He made news in 2004 when the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre designed by him in Hyderabad was awarded the platinum rating by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a voluntary certification system developed in 1998 by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) – the first building outside the USA to have won it. Moreover, he has the distinction of being the first architect in the world to win this award. The USGBC criteria are classified according to: sustainability of the site, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation and design process; and out of a possible 69, the Grover design won 56 points.

Thanks to his bond with the late archaeologist Arun Mehta, formed while he was still a student of architecture at the M.S. University of Baroda, Grover had promised his “mentor” that he would make the ancient historical site and medieval capital of Gujarat Champaner-Pavagadh his cause celebre. For 30 years, he led two parallel lives – juggling his work as an architect with his mission to put Champaner on the world map. “I started practising in 1975 and, till 2004, I would focus on architecture in the daytime. Then, from the evening till the next morning I would work on Champaner, devising strategies to create awareness. We started the Heritage Trust in 1984 and promoted the Heritage Club for children. I did not realize at the time, that my architecture and this heritage involvement were connected. I thought they were two different things, so I never spoke to architects about Champaner, and I never spoke to archaeologists and other activists about my architecture.”