Vaikunth Sardesai was born on the 1st January, 1935 and attended secondary school in Pune, India, before studying at the Sir J.J. School of Art, where he qualified with a BArch degree in 1959. In the late 1950s he also gained practical experience working in the offices of Yahya C. Merchant, and of R.S. Godbole, in Bombay (now Mumbai). In 1961 he joined the six-month, post-graduate course run by the Architectural Association’s Department of Tropical Studies, in London. In the period immediately after completing the course, he worked in London, for Leo De Syllas, of the Architects Co-Partnership’ and also for the practice of AA graduate, Rodney Tucker. A short period followed, working with Albert Mayer, in Berlin, before returning to Pune in 1964, where he set up his own practice. Amongst his significant early work is the Kamayani school, Pune and a number of industrial buildings, apartments and detached houses. Alongside his practice, Sardesai worked in academia, serving as a lecturer. He was subsequently appointed Principal of the Bharatiya Kala Prasarini Sabha's College of Architecture (BKPS), in Pune, a role which he held from 1976-1994, overseeing the College’s Government Diploma course being supplanted by a B.Arch degree course affiliated with the University of Poona – only the second such course available in  Maharashtra. A highly respected academic and administrator, Sardesai also served on the Board of Studies for the University of Mumbai, the University of Karnataka and SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. In 2009 he was presented with a lifetime achievement award from the Indian Architects, Engineers and Surveyors’ Association. 

Sources 

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1961-62. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Council Minutes, 19th February, 1962. AA Archives
• Melsens, S. ‘Architect, Engineer or Builder? A history of professional demarcation through practice and discourse, Pune (India) 1930-1992’ PhD thesis, University of Antwerp, 2020.
• Personal correspondence with Vaikunth Sardesai’s son, 2025.
• ‘Short Profile of V.R. Sardesai – Architect – Teacher’, supplied, personal correspondence with Vaikunth Sardesai’s son, 2025.