Most Indian institutions hire architects expecting them to deliver a design brief.
An institution has a vague idea. Hires an architect. Nine months later: redesigns, delays, costs explode.
Why? They confuse "we need a building" with "we need a solution." Architects, pressured to start designing, rarely ask hard questions first.
But here's what we've learned: The projects that work aren't the ones with the clearest initial briefs. They're the ones where we spent weeks making the brief before touching a pencil.
A design brief is not a document the client writes for the architect. It's a conversation - between architect and users - about what success actually looks like. This conversation must precede design. Most clients and architects treat it as overhead.
"Flexible laboratory."
That could mean anything. We asked: Flexible for whom? For what? We discovered they needed a building that could accommodate research programmes that didn't yet exist. That one insight shaped every design decision.
"Campus masterplan."
We were handed site plans and building lists. What we needed: How do researchers actually spend their day? Where do breakthroughs happen? What prevents collaboration?
Once we asked, the masterplan designed itself.
We insist on a pre-design phase - where we sit with users and ask hard questions. We make the brief together. We observe. We listen. We challenge assumptions. We walk the site.
The building that emerges is only as good as the questions that preceded it.
If you're planning a research facility, campus, or an institution - you need clarity about what you're actually trying to achieve. Everything else follows.
What's the ONE question you haven't been asked by any architect? Ask it now. That's where the real design work begins.
