RITZ catches up with the man behind some of the city’s most creative spaces.
Siddharth Ninan has made his mark in Chennai with his quirky designs and out of the box ideas for various spaces such as Radio Room and Double Roti. While his young team is ever growing and innovating, RITZ catches up with the man behind some of the city’s most creative spaces to understand what makes him tick.
While clients are flowing in for Siddharth Ninan the first thing he looks to do is meeting the brief they come up with within the given budget. “I do not only focus on the architecture of the place, but the interiors well,” the young turk tells us.
In a world like ours today, everyone is looking for new and exciting things, they want to be unique and Siddharth helps cater to such unique and innovative requirements. Places like Fully Local and Radio Room are projects that Siddharth has worked on with the quirk element being the primary focus, with Radio Room being his favourite as “the team gave me the liberty to be as creative and innovative as possible with ideas thereby allowing the end result to look amazing. Another project that I loved working on is Double Roti in Pune,” he explains.
Siddharth completed his education at SRM Institute in Chennai, after which he took up a job with a starting salary of just Rs. 10,000 per month. With the thought of bank loans looming over him, he was sure that this was not going to work out for him. He then went on to work on a project on a pro bono basis and the client loved it. “This was how Siddharth Ninan Architecture was born in 2012,” he says. He soon managed to land the project for Double Roti and it has been an uphill journey from there on. “With new concepts – the signature one being minimalistic use of interiors to create the ‘wow factor’ I had got the attention of the masses.” Siddharth adds, “After Double Roti, people saw what I could deliver based on their budget and requirements and projects just kept flowing in.”
Right now as a developing firm that’s only three years old, the youngster has managed to establish himself in the market. Siddharth believes the way the firm works is what makes them stand out from the other competitors in the city. He explains, “In our firm it is not only the principal architect that designs projects for the clients, but all my employees do. It is my job to get the client on board and after that I hand it over to my team and they take it forward. Since we focus on architecture as well as interiors the work is split between various teams and they take care of it completely.”
His five-year plan? Siddharth wants to work towards making his company a national presence. “Although we do have projects located all over India, it is a small presence only, and the aim we are working towards is to make the company the go-to place for precisely what the client is looking for within a set budget.”
Right now Siddharth and his team are working on a micro-brewery in Goa, as well as a three-level bar in Bengaluru, which is their biggest break as of now. They are also working on close to 25 other projects which clearly indicates that he is on his way to reaching his aspired goal. The food and beverage industry is his prime focus at the moment and they are expanding rapidly in that field. Siddharth says, “The excitement of working on a project that has a deadline is something I find very fulfilling. Decisions are made fast by the clients and things progress quite rapidly, and that is something I enjoy.”
The common thread you would find in all the projects that Siddharth has worked on is the colour black. His love for the colour has permeated into all his work and seems to be quite a trend these days. Siddharth ends by saying, “Design is key – if my team can work out some great designs then they don’t have to worry about the technical aspect of things, I handle that. This is how we create some of the most amazing spaces.”
