Dr. Anil Kumar: Making a more sustainable world

In a field where aesthetics more often than not takes precedence over practicality and sustainability, Dr.  P P Anil Kumar is an exception. An academic by profession and architect by passion, Dr. Kumar’s designs are at once practical, sustainable and beautiful. He not only creates designs but also actively contributes to the academia through his research papers and books.  The Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, National Institute of Technology – Calicut,  Dr. Kumar has also played the role of a mentor to many up and coming architects.
In his extremely rich career, Dr. Kumar has guided 15 B.Tech and 25 B.Arch projects/thesis ranging from Music academy to Software Technology park. He has also guided six Ph.D. students in Land Use, Green Buildings, Environmental Management, Built Space Management.
The sentiment of creating products that are beneficial to the larger community is clearly reflected in his bio where he succinctly points out that he aims to employ “cutting edge technologies and techniques in science, engineering, architecture and planning and thereby making a change to the country, its people and the society at large.”
Dr. Kumar’s insistence on sustainable designs comes at a time when growth in terms of skewed development is being heralded, without any consideration for the terrifying repercussions.  To counter this, Dr. Kumar has invested years educating and informing people about the need for more eco-friendly and green designs.
His academic research is a testimony to his steadfast commitment to creating awareness about the usage of solar energy, and the need for energy efficient buildings.  Dr. Kumar’s years of research culminated into the informative Ph.D. thesis; ‘Impacts of land use on the environmental health of urban coastal zones-an analytical evaluation framework.’
His other well-received papers include ‘Environmentally sensitive Land use allocation for Smart coastal cities,’ and ‘Overview of natural stones as an energy efficient and climate responsive material choice for LEED certified green buildings’, among others.
His paper titled ‘Formulating a coastal zone health metric for land use impacts in urban coastal zones’, won the award for the best publication of the year from amongst the entire faculty of NITC in 2010.  Just one of the many feathers in Dr. Kumar’s cap.
His expertise has found many an admirer both nationally and internationally. Dr. Kumar is the board member of the INTBAU’s (International Network for Traditional Buildings, Architecture, and Urbanization) Island States’ chapter in Mauritius. He is also one of three member expert panel that evaluated the architectural designs for the Cyberpark in Kozhikode.
Catch Dr. Kumar on July 30th  at  Cindrebay Nurture’s Living Edge seminar.  The Seminar will bring academicians, well-known architects, and Design influencers together and give an opportunity to up and coming designers to network and bond over a common theme; love for design.