Architecture Brio

Architecture BRIO engages actively in the creation of contextually appropriate, sustainable design solutions within an increasingly dynamic world. Set up in Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Mumbai (India) in April 2006, it is a design-based practice focusing primarily on the fields of Architecture and Interior Design bestowed with numerous national and international awards. Its principals are Robert Verrijt (TUDelft, the Netherlands) and Shefali Balwani (C.E.P.T, India). The seed of Architecture BRIO was planted in Sri Lanka, where the founders met in the early start of their life as architects. They immersed themselves in the tremendous body of work by the late architect Geoffrey Bawa. His work is often situated in the most breathtaking, but sensitive environmental settings. His interventions are nonetheless bold and often intensive. Contradictorily, this does not lead to the overpowering of its surroundings. This duality has become one of the main themes in the work of the practice. The studio strongly believes that architecture should remain a backdrop to life rather than taking centre stage. Yet it is a life full of awareness and imagination. Our architecture has the potential to weave ourselves within the world of the past and future. It mediates between necessity and luxury, frugality and poetry. And more so it embeds us within the unpredictability of the natural world and shapes the one we want to live in.