Vivek Rakotu and Roshan KSS from JNAFAU emerge victorious

The grand finale of the 14^th edition of Grohe Archumen 16-17, India’s biggest architecture quiz, was held on October 21 at The Capitol, Bengaluru. Archumen is conducted as a four-zone contest and this year too students from top architectural institutes across India participated and battled hard to win the top position. The champions of Archumen 15-16 were Akshay Ajit Marsute and Aniket Raskar from PVP College of Architecture, Pune.

The aim of the quiz is to build awareness about the built environment and inculcate among students the habit of observing, imbibing and retaining knowledge. Fighting their way through the regional rounds in Pune, Bhubaneswar, New Delhi and Bengaluru from amongst 600 teams and 120 colleges, 8 teams paved their way to the finals of Grohe Archumen 16-17. The prize was a Rs 25,000 award and the coveted Championship trophy. From the West Zone, students from Sir J J College of Architecture, Mumbai and Sinhgad College of Architecture, Pune emerged as champions; from the East Zone, students from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and National Institute of Technology, Raipur made it to the finals; from the North Zone it was Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Gurgaon and Chandigarh College of Architecture that qualified; The Southern Interface preceded the national finals in Bengaluru and the winning teams were from JNAFAU, Hyderabad and MSRIT, Bengaluru.

In a nail-biting finale hosted by popular quiz host Lloyd Saldanha, Vivek Rakotu and Roshan KSS of JNAFAU, Hyderabad ran away with the Championship trophy. Close on their heels in second position were Kshitij Bahl and Puneet Bansal of Sir J J COA; and the third position was taken by Vikas Pawar and Shruti Baliga of MSRIT, Bengaluru. Each of the quizzes was structured in five rounds that comprised a sustainability round from Grohe, video rounds, buzzer rounds and crosswords.

Besides the national finalists from different parts of India, The Southern Interface of Archumen saw teams from Kollam, Calicut, Mallpuram, Pallakad, Kochi in Kerala; Coimbatore, Thanjavur, Chennai, Madurai, Erode, Trichy and Hosur in Tamil Nadu; Vijayawada in Andhra; Hyderabad in Telengana;  Tumkur, Hubli, Mysore and Bengaluru to name a few.

Enthused with the overwhelming response, Grohe India managing director Renu Misra said, “This is one of the oldest and most renowned architecture-based quiz contests in India. Due to the advent of technology and the reduced attention spans of students, many of them don’t end up reading as much as one used to back in the days. Quiz contests like Archumen help students inculcate reading habits to stay abreast of important concepts in architecture and design. Archumen is specially designed to help practicing architecture students understand various nuances in the field and keep themselves abreast of all that’s happening across the globe.”

Archumen was organised by Ethos and the idea of a quiz contest was conceptualized by Gita Balakrishnan, a Kolkata-based architect. Apart from India, Archumen has travelled to Sri Lanka and Pakistan as well. The research by Ethos ensures that students are exposed to relevant and valuable information from the construction world. Ethos focuses on networking students of architecture, design, planning and civil engineering across the country on a common platform that would facilitate easy dissemination of information and help build confident professionals who have been awake to the external situation right from the time of joining the graduate programme. In the words of Gita Balakrishnan, “Oustide-the-classroom events such as Archumen energise the young brigade and an energised profession is the need of the hour.”

The event was supported by The Indian Institute of Architects and National Association of Students of Architecture. The awards were given away by Ar Leena Kumar, Ar Alex Jacob, Ar Dinesh Verma, Ms Sanchari Ghosal, Ar Bindumadhava, Ar Harsha Babu, Prof Rama Subramaniam, Ar Subbaiah, Prof Santhana Krishnan, Ar Prasad, Prof Vimala, Prof Vidya and Ar Madhuri