A five-day Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on ‘Affordable Housing’ was initiated by an overview of ‘Affordable Housing: Shelter for the Marginalized in Urban Areas’ by Dr Neelima Risbud in the first session. The focus was on the policies framed by the government, the failures of the policies and the best possible methods to improve the situation. Dr Risbud elaborated that an insight has been thoroughly provided that affordable housing is not just restricted to socio-economic issues but there are many other factors which are required to keep in consideration that includes affordable housing and household stability, economic security and health. There is a need of understanding that building aesthetics should not be primarily important. Architecture is collaborative and not isolated.

In the second day of programme, Mr S.K Mahajan, Chief Engineer (DUSIB), gave a brief on Delhi slums, policies and interventions for improvement.

The third day of programme was initiated by eminent speaker Dr Mukta Naik and focused on affordable housing on thinking through housing demand, wherein she mentioned Housing as a right.

The fourth day of the programme was initiated by Dr Mona Chhabra Anand wherein she discussed affordable housing in terms of human potential with sustainable development goals.

The final session was conducted by eminent architect, Pramod Adlakha, an expert in Alternate Building Technologies and materials.

Greater Noida, July 30, 2019: Apeejay School of Architecture conducted a Capacity Development Workshop for its faculty on July 29 & for both, faculty and students on July 30. On the first day in the opening session, eminent architect, Manoj Mathur, HOD SPA, Delhi conducted a session on 'Methodology of conducting Design Studios'. In the afternoon session, another well-known architect, Anurag Roy, Principal of Gateway College conducted a session on 'Teaching Building Construction in Contemporary Times'. Architect Manoj Mathur discussed teaching about methods relevant in today's time, engaging the student by 'out-of-the-box thinking' being informal, approachable to the students and inspiring them to do something different from what has been done before. Architect Anurag Roy discussed about the importance of the rationale behind ‘Building Construction’ and to be inquisitive, probing questions all the time. The sessions were spell-binding.

The second day of the Apeejay Capacity Development Workshop was exciting as the first one with both the speakers Architect Charanjit Singh and MEP Consultant, Ashish Rakheja, emphasised on the integration of Design with Services which is the need of the day. Ar Charanjit Singh demonstrated through his presentation showcasing voluminous range of work and deep knowledge of complex services an architect needs to know. He emphasised that an architect has to take command and position by himself such that the society feels the need to have his services rather than the architect searching for work. He compared his love and devotion for Architecture to that of celebration of life and be in ananda and urged the students to be fully involved in their learning process through sadhana.

Ashish Rakheja gave a mind blowing presentation showcasing today's need of net zero energy buildings and environment conscious buildings wherein the health and well-being of occupants is given prime importance. All progressive countries are fast turning towards professionals who can give them high performance energy efficient buildings and where the international energy standards are re-written every three years.