Sheila Sri Prakash (July 6, 1955, Bhopal, India) is an architect and urban designer of Indian origin. She founded Shilpa Architects inChennai, India in 1979 and has the distinction of being the first woman in India to have started and operated her own architectural firm. She has designed over 1000 completed architectural projects during her career in the last 35 years. As a world-renowned architect and thought leading sustainability expert, she served on the World Economic Forum's 2011 Global Agenda Council on Design Innovation, a 16-member team of international experts in Design and Innovation, to formulate ways that improve the state of the world. She currently serves on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Role of Arts in Society, in recognition of her signature works that feature art, culture and heritage. As part of her role at the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Design Innovation, she has developed a "Reciprocal Design Index" that prescribes parameters and metrics surrounding sustainable design to factor the environment, sociology and economics. She was named to the "Top 100" most influential architects in the world by the Italian Journal of Architecture Il Giornale dell'Architettura.[14] She also addressed the Indo-Australian Summit on the Future of Sustainable Cities and introduced the concept of a Reciprocal Design Index and Holistic Sustainability.
She studied architecture at the Anna University School of Architecture and Planning and also attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design's Executive Education Program. As a global leader in sustainable design that blends sensitivity for our environment with socio-economic progress for the underprivileged, she is also known for introducing vernacular and culturally relevant techniques into contemporary designs. She is regarded as the founding practitioner-researcher that identified and defined the field of Spaciology - the impact of space design and planning on society. Her research findings seed emerging perspectives of study that are globally significant, yet particularly appropriate in high-density rapidly developing economies. Her work probes the powerful reciprocal impact linking the built environment to human behavior, through urban design, architecture and sociology.
She was also a key charter member who was instrumental in establishing the Indian Green Building Council.
She is known for her contributions as an active member of Zonta International, which is an organization that aims to enhance the status of women around the world. Her influence as an architect and designer who combined design thinking to address social issues, heightens the significance of multi-faceted socio-economic priorities when designing in the developing world. She served as the area director of Zonta International for her district and participated in events internationally.
Several of her architectural designs can be seen at Mahindra World City, New Chennai, the Madras Art House at the Cholamandal Artists' Village, Kuchipudi Art Academy in Chennai, Paranur Railway Station etc., and the World Bank funded urban housing development program in the year of shelter for the shelterless. She is credited to be a pioneer among leading Indian architects, for combining the principles of Bharatanatyam, classical Indian music, sculpture and architecture in award winning projects
Current projects
Sheila Sri Prakash is currently working on several projects worthy of note. Of particular significance is the upcoming HITEX exhibition center in Hyderabad. The new South City Township by Larsen and Toubro that is an approximately 4000 apartment residential township. Another large scale housing project is within Mahindra World City, the upcoming Taj5-star beach resort near Pondicherry, the state of Tamil Nadu's first platinum rated office complex for Cethar Vessels, an office building for HDFC Bank, as well as the regional headquarters for the State Bank of India