Gerard da Cunha

One of the most impressive and unusual works of da Cunha's has been the township which he has built for the JSW Steel Plant, about 30 km from Hampi called Vidyanagar. The entire project was built at a cost of Rs 150 crore. This township is spread across 300 acres and the project involved creating housing to settle 10,000 people. With not even a single tree on the site, creating an entire township seemed to be an arduous task. The township also has a movie theatre, school, airstrip, parks, and botanical garden. It also houses a club, temples, shopping centre and restaurants, thus making it a complete city town. This unusual project of creating an entire township from scratch got da Cunha the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design offered by the Ministry of Urban Development in 1998–99.

Da Cunha won the prestigious Prime Minister's National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design in 1998–99 for the project Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Limited (JVSL - Now JSW Township as "Vidhya Nagar"), Toranagallu, Bellary (Karnataka, India). He is also credited with winning the 'Commendation Award-1990' for rural architecture for his project 'Nrityagram' at Bengaluru, Karnataka. The design of Nrityagram can be termed as 'Natural Architecture.'

Another project that gave da Cunha wide recognition is Nrityagram dance village at Bengaluru, designed for famous Odissi dancer Protima Bedi. This center for the study of dance was built using traditional building forms and techniques, with stone and thatch being the primary materials. The whole concept of the 'village' presents a mosaic of texture and colours, earth, bricks, tiles and thatch. Nrityagram received the award for best rural architecture from the Vice- President of India in 1991.

Da Cunha was briefly married (1978-1982) to Indian writer and author Arundhati Roy while they lived together in Delhi. They subsequently separated and divorced in 1982.

Gerard da Cunha (born 1955) is an Indian architect based in Goa. He is the founder and principal architect of the architecture firm Architecture Autonomous. An alumnus of the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, he is known for utilizing locally available materials and traditional construction techniques in harmony with its ecosystem.

Born on 10 February 1955 in the city of Godhra, Gujarat, da Cunha travelled across the country since childhood as his father worked with the State Bank of India and had a transferable job. He did most of his schooling at St. Mary's in Mazgaon, Maharashtra. Later, he studied at the prestigious School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, which is regarded as the best institution in the country for architecture. During his 3rd year at SPA, da Cunha took a one-year break from the school and travelled to Kerala to work closely with the world- renowned architect Laurie Baker, whom he greatly admired. After his course in architecture from School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), da Cunha joined DDA in 1979, but he found the experience of working there extremely monotonous. Bored with his job, he went to Goa (his home state) hoping for some exciting element in his life.