Walk for Arcause: Our Cause, Our Responsibility: A Talk by Gita Balakrishnan

Gita Balakrishnan speaks on “Walk for Arcause: Our Cause, Our Responsibility” on 6th November at 18:30 hrs at Bengal Institute. She will share her experiences, learnings, and explorations from the walk, talk about unity through design, Arcause, and architectural social responsibility.

Founder of Ethos, Gita is currently en route her journey on foot from Kolkata to Dhaka to showcase the essence of unity through design. Earlier this year, she completed a 1700 km journey on foot from Kolkata to New Delhi to raise awareness on the role good design can play in changing lives. ‘Walk for Arcause’ is a campaign that aims to take thoughtful, empathetic and sustainable design ideas to the masses, focussing on the difference architects and designers have made, through their holistic interventions, in different spheres of life. The overall intent of ‘Walk for Arcause’ is to bring the focus on architects in the social realm and on Architectural Social Responsibility.

A graduate from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, Gita Balakrishnan completed practical training at the Centre for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. She underwent a training programme on Stabilized Mud Blocks and other alternative methods of construction at Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. She worked with an NGO, AVAS – as a shelter coordinator in theslums of Bangalore. She started Ethos in 2002 with the intention of making the architectural and civil engineering community alive to the changes happening globally and in our country in the field of architecture and construction. Gita was shortlisted among the top 25 people in Kolkata in the ‘Lead India Campaign’ by The Times of India.

An avid runner, she has completed three full marathons and multiple half marathons.