Ketaki Poonawala

I work out of Flat No. 5 in Raghuvansh Apartments. It’s a quiet little building in Model Colony, which is a nice change from the chaos of Fergusson College Road just a short walk away. Being an architect here means my living room and workspace kind of blur together. There’s usually a pot of tea going and some music playing while I look at site photos. I’ve lived and worked in Pune for a long time, so I’m used to how these old apartments feel. The space is filled with books, old sketches, and material samples that I’ve picked up over the years. It’s not a big fancy studio with a glass front. Instead, clients just come up the stairs and we sit around the table to talk about their homes. Sometimes the neighbor’s cat wanders near the door, or you can hear the birds in the trees outside. It’s a very personal way to work, I think. I spend a lot of time on my laptop or sketching by hand when I get a quiet moment. Dealing with contractors and site visits takes up most of my afternoons. It can be exhausting when things don’t go according to the drawing, but that’s just part of the job. I don't have a big team, so it’s mostly just me handling everything from the first sketch to the final site check. It’s a lot of work but it feels right. I've been in this apartment for years and don't see myself moving.