Architect and urban planner Mr Prasoon Kumar has what it takes to make big pots of money in the industry: charisma, sterling academic credentials, awards and an impressive resume which included stints with big-name firms in India, the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore.
However, he turned away an offer of employment from one of the biggest architectural firms in the world in 2013 before he founded billionBricks, a non-profit organisation to tackle homelessness.
It did not feel right to him that architects were designing bigger homes and shopping malls for a few rich people while not doing anything to solve homelessness, a problem which affects several millions worldwide and which becomes more serious by the day.
It took him some time to work out a plan, but in 2013, he finally set up billionBricks. The non-profit design studio focuses on shelter and infrastructure solutions that are sustainable and scalable for the homeless and vulnerable.
Mr Prasoon Kumar studied for his Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi and graduated in 2001.
In 2009, he joined global design firm Space Matrix, where he relished working on public/private development projects. By then, he had started thinking about cracking the issue of homelessness with design and sustainability and by 2013, he decided to quit.
On learning of his decision, his chief executive, Mr Anurag Srivastava, asked him what his plan was. Mr Prasoon told him, and was taken aback when the head honcho came on board as co-founder of billionBricks.
“Not only did he come up with money, he also helped me structure a business plan,” says the Singapore permanent resident, who is married to a fellow architect with whom he has two sons, aged four and six.
Barely two months later, he got his breakthrough – working with the Salaam Baalak Trust to turn an abandoned building into a shelter for street children in Mumbai.
Since then, billionBricks, which has a team of eight based in India, Singapore and Europe, has worked on about eight projects and settled at least 4,000 homeless in several countries including India, Nepal, Indonesia and Cambodia.
He and his team has also designed weatherHYDE, an all-season tent which Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher, also a savvy investor and philanthropist, described as “innovation at its finest“.
“Eventually, the idea is that all the homeless should be able to afford one. Better still, log on to our website to gift one to the homeless,” says the urban planner, who is also working on solar versions called powerHYDEs.
He has no regrets about joining the non-profit sector but wishes that players would do more, and talk less. “People do not realise the urgency of the work that needs to be done.”
Watch his video story below:
Read more here.
Source: The Straits Times, 18 March 2018