Benny Kuriakose

Kuriakose has offered his services as a consultant to UNDP, UNESCO, various State Governments and other organizations. He has also presented many papers on Housing, Conservation and Cost–Effective Building Techniques in various seminars, conferences and workshops in India and abroad.

The project involved the conservation of Paliam Palace, Paravur Synagogue, Kottappuram Fort, Kottappuram Market and many other historic structures in the Muziris area It has set a precedent in India for adopting an integrated approach to heritage conservation and regional development. The project also envisages features such as interactive museums, visitor centres, a virtual reconstruction centre, facilities to travel by boat on the River Periyar to various monuments, cycle tours of the area and circuit tours, to name a few. Floated in 2008, it is India's largest conservation project, spread over 25 sites, and links Kerala's histories of Dutch, Arabic, Chinese, Jewish, Greek, Portuguese and Roman roots in the forgotten port of Muziris from 1st Century BC onward.

Kuriakose was selected as conservation consultant for the Muziris Heritage Project in 2007. Muziris is not just a place. It is a concept and the project was an attempt to educate future generations about heritage, and to throw light on Kerala’s pan-Indian and international trade links. The project's artifacts and monuments are spread out over an area of 150 km, and Kuriakose's team has located clusters, including 400 buildings of historic importance and architectural interest.

It is an alternate approach to heritage management, and the biggest challenge was to develop a concept which suits the local context. The Muziris Heritage Project has many dimensions. It is an educational project, a developmental project and a model for sustainable tourism. The project was the brainchild of Dr. Thomas Isaac, who had grown up in the area. An economics professor from the Centre for Development Studies, he became the finance minister of Kerala in 2006. He envisioned Muziris as a non-formal education project for future generations.

Kuriakose went on to design more than 1,000 individualized homes for fisherfolk in Tharangambadi and Chinnangudi villages in Nagapattinam, under the Tsunami Rehabilitation Project. The basic ideology of the project was to provide houses for the victims of the 2004 tsunami, which hit the east coast of India. Generally, in public housing programs in India and elsewhere, a single type design is used for the construction of all of the houses.

Kuriakose was awarded the Inside Outside Designer of the Year 2001 for the weekend retreat in Chennai, and in 2011, the Celebration of Architecture Award from Inside Outside magazine. In 2016, he was conferred with the 2016 Estrade Lifetime Achievement Award (the previous recipient of this honor, in 1980, was Architect Karan Grover). He was also listed as one of the top 10 Indian architects who is harnessing traditional wisdom to build homes of the future.

Since 1995, Kuriakose has been involved in continuing and developing the design of DakshinaChitra Craft Village near Chennai based on the original site plan and sketches by Laurie Baker. Baker's sketches were translated into plans by him. In 1996, he moved to Chennai where he was commissioned to do the Kerala Section and the Public Buildings in DakshinaChitra.

In 1994, Kuriakose was commissioned by Malayala Manorama to design housing for the village of Banegaon after the 1993 Latur earthquake. He also designed the layout of public and residential buildings in the village of Chapredi for the Earth Quake Rehabilitation Project, Bhuj District, Gujarat State, 2002.

Kuriakose was born in Koothattukulam and brought up in Thiruvananthapuram. There he attended the Government Model High School before joining the Government Arts College for his Pre-Degree course. He then attended the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, where he took a basic degree in Civil Engineering. In 1986, he received the Charles Wallace India Trust Award for a master's degree in Conservation Studies from the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies at the University of York, in the UK. He completed a doctoral degree at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 2015. Kuriakose is married to Dr. Milly Mathew and has two children. His son, Kevin is an architect settled in Denmark and Eileen Kuriakose is a medical student.

In 1984, as a recent graduate of the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, he started practicing architecture after a chance meeting with British-born, Indian architect Laurie Baker. After working with him for nine months, he started his own practice in 1985. During his early career as a self-taught architect, he worked with several organizations such as the Integrated Rural Technology Centre, Palakkad, the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD) and Kerala State Nirmithi Kendra for the development of alternative, low-cost and eco-friendly architecture. From 1985 onwards, he built low-cost houses that mirrored Baker's style, until in 1992 he built the house of actor Mammootty.

Benny Kuriakose (25 May 1962) was born in Kerala, India. He made his mark in architectural conservation and the design of new buildings, taking his roots from the vernacular architecture of South India. He is known for designing structures which are built from natural materials such as timber, stone and brick. He has practiced mostly in Chennai and Kerala. He runs a consultancy firm in Chennai.