Architect Speaks || Green Building - Featured in ACE Update Magazine

When I look back on my path as an architect, I realize it has never been just about drawings, walls, or roofs. For me, it has always been about asking: how can a building breathe in harmony with its surroundings, and how can people feel more connected to nature within it? 🌿

This question shaped my journey as a biocentric architect, and it continues to guide every project I touch. I see buildings not as isolated objects, but as living entities that are part of a larger ecosystem—where culture, climate, and community must come together.

Recently, this perspective found a new platform. My reflections on “What is more to green building adoption?” were featured in the September 2025 edition of ACE Update Magazine. ✨

In that article, I shared not just theories, but challenges I’ve seen up close:

🏡 How smaller towns and cities often struggle to embrace green practices because of lack of awareness, resources, and supportive policies.

⚡ How digitalisation—through tools like BIM, IoT, and digital twins—can make sustainability a living, evolving process instead of a one-time certification.

🌱 How context-sensitive design is not a luxury, but a necessity if we want our buildings to truly serve people and the planet.

Writing it felt like piecing together my own story—of learning, questioning, and sometimes struggling in a world where “green” can be treated like a trend, instead of a way of living.

Being featured in a magazine is an honour, yes, but for me it is also a responsibility. A reminder that as women, professionals, and dreamers, our voices matter in shaping how the world builds and grows.

I carry this experience as encouragement—to keep questioning, to keep experimenting, and to keep sharing stories of resilience and imagination. Because the future of architecture, and perhaps even the future of our planet, will be shaped by those willing to build differently. 🌍💚

Together, I believe we can create not just sustainable buildings, but sustainable ways of living.

By

Thamarai Selvi S

Architect,

Chennai,

Tamil Nadu, India