Vishwakumar Vishwanath Badawe Studied 1959-1960

Vishwakumar Vishwanath Badawe was born in India in 1936 and studied Architecture at the Sir J.J. College of Architecture in Bombay (today Mumbai), graduating in 1958. Whilst studying, he worked for a number of local firms, including the office of Desai & Kirtikar, in Bombay. He subsequently won a Commonwealth Scholarship and travelled to the UK, where he enrolled on the 1959-60 postgraduate programme run by the Architectural Association’s (AA) Department of Tropical Architecture. On completion of his AA studies, he was initially employed by Michael Lyell Associates, in London, but in 1961 moved to Copenhagen, where he worked for a year with Herr. Mogens Black Petersen. He returned to India in 1962, and became a partner with the young architecture firm of Thorat, Pawar, Badawe, Architects-Engineers-Surveyors’, in Pune. After only six months, Badawe decided to leave the practice and travelled to Ahmedabad to work for B.V. Doshi, before returning once more to Pune and establishing his own office as ‘V.V. Badawe Architect’, in 1963 (to become ‘V.V. Architects Pvt. Ltd.’, c1976). His early works, in the 1960s and 70s are across a range of typographies, from the master-planning of factories and workers housing for the Kalyani group, at Bharat Forge, Pune, and for a large paper mill in Gujurat, to the design of Alankar Cinema (1976) and a primary school. He also worked for a Christian NGO, ‘SOS Children’s Villages’ to design large scale housing for orphans at Yerwada, Pune (1978). Amongst some of his most significant works are in Pune, including the ‘Tilik Smarak Mandir’ public auditorium (1972-76), and the ‘Lokmangal’ office building, for the Bank of Maharashtra, on Ganeshkind Road (1978). Badawe has also been very much involved in promoting green building and sustainable design, incorporating environmental standards and principles in his later projects for Vestas Wind Energy and for the Grundfos Industrial Facilities in Chennai. His practice continues to flourish, with one of their most recent works being the Danish Embassy in New Delhi (2018), for which they were the local architects. Alongside his practice, Badawe as remained engaged with academia. At the start of his career, in 1964, Badawe was asked to design and implement the Design Class curriculum for the 5 year Architecture Diploma at Bharatiya Kala Prasarini Sabha, where he was to continue to teach there until the 1990s.  Badawe was also deeply involved in the development of the profession, within Pune, being a founder of the Architects, Engineers and Surveyor’s Association. He has also been active within the community, through the Rotary Club of Pune South and overseeing Rotary Clubs in the Maharashtra regions of Baramati, Wai, Ahmednagar and Lonavala.

 Sources

•  Architectural Association Student Register, 1959-60. AA Archives
• Melsons, S. ‘Architect, Engineer or Builder? A history of professional demarcation through practice and discourse, Pune (India) 1930-92). PhD University of Antwerp, 2020.
• 'About Us' website for V.V. Badawe Arcitects Pvt. Ltd. Accessed 23rd March, 2026: http://vvarchitect.com/AboutUsVBadave.html
• Personal correspondence, V.V. Badawe to S. Bhoopathy, August 2025