MICROHOME #10 competition Honorable mention winners - Carlyle Lazarus D'sa, Harshita Harish Amin, Sanden Antonio Vaz and Avni Gupta

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce the Honorable Mention winners of the MICROHOME #10 competition - Carlyle Lazarus D'sa, Harshita Harish Amin, Sanden Antonio Vaz and Avni Gupta from United Kingdom!

Carlyle Lazarus D'sa, Harshita Harish Amin, Sanden Antonio Vaz and Avni Gupta from United Kingdom

Please tell us about your company (when it was founded, where it is based, how many employees, etc) Alternatively, if you do not have a company, please give us some insights on your own professional/academia background.

We are a team of four friends with diverse architectural backgrounds, united by shared curiosity and a belief that thoughtful design can create meaningful impact. Our collective experience spans sustainability, strategic entrepreneurship, spatial experimentation, and human-centred architecture forming a collaborative practice grounded in research, creativity, and intent.

Carlyle: With a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Dubai and a master’s in business Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the United Kingdom, my work merges design intuition with strategic foresight. At BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group London, I contribute within the bidding and commercial environment. Beyond practice, I explore speculative and experimental design with fellow architects, continuously challenging assumptions and pushing the boundaries of architectural possibility. This dual engagement has shaped a mindset rooted in curiosity, innovation, and purposeful design.

Harshita: I hold a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Dubai and a master’s in environmental design of buildings in the UK, specialising in sustainable design. I currently work as a sustainability consultant and architect, integrating environmental performance into architectural thinking from the earliest stages. My work bridges analytical frameworks and creative exploration ensuring that design is not only compelling but also resilient, efficient, and future-forward.

Avni: I am an Architectural Designer with cross-cultural experience in the UK and India, passionate about innovative and human-centred design. I contribute conceptual thinking, visualisation skills, and a commitment to meaningful spatial outcomes. My approach focuses on blending creativity with practicality to elevate the design narrative, ensuring that each project reflects sensitivity to context, users, and purpose.

Sanden: I am an Architectural Designer and Architectural Assistant whose work uses micro-architecture as a lens to explore how small spaces can hold big ideas. My approach blends conceptual storytelling with technical precision, transforming constraints into opportunities for spatial poetry, sustainability, and human-centred living. With cross-cultural experience in the UK and India, I approach design as a balance of imagination and practicality distilling architecture into its most intentional and expressive form.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been Involved?

As a team, we have collectively engaged with a wide spectrum of architectural work across academic, professional, and competition-based contexts. Our experience spans multiple scales from micro-living prototypes and interior interventions to residential developments, cultural spaces, and large-scale masterplanning. Individually, we have contributed to sustainability-focused projects, strategic design proposals, commercial developments, and conceptual explorations, including work within globally recognised practices, multidisciplinary studios, and independent research-led design environments. Together, we use competitions as a platform to collaboratively explore new methods, narratives, and spatial possibilities allowing us to merge diverse expertise in environmental design, visual storytelling, strategic thinking, and human-centred architecture. While our project backgrounds vary, what unites us is a shared commitment to experimentation, thoughtful design, and the pursuit of architecture that is contextual, innovative, and socially responsive.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

For us, architecture is more than the design of buildings it is a way of understanding how people live, connect, and experience the world. It is a discipline that bridges imagination and reality, translating ideas into spaces that shape daily life and influence cultural identity. We see architecture as a dialogue between people, place, and time; a practice that requires sensitivity to context, environmental responsibility, and a willingness to question existing norms in pursuit of better futures. We believe that architecture shapes more than skylines; it shapes mindsets, behaviours, and the way communities’ function. The built environment becomes the framework through which society grows, learns, and interacts.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

We participate in architecture competitions because they provide a space for exploration unconstrained by commercial, procedural, or pragmatic limitations. Competitions allow us to test ideas, challenge norms, and engage with global conversations about the future of the built environment. As a team with diverse architectural backgrounds, these platforms give us an opportunity to merge our different strengths from strategic thinking and sustainability to narrative-driven design and spatial experimentation. Competitions are a way to continually challenge our understanding of architecture as an experience, not just a discipline. They push us to rethink how spaces influence behaviour, how design can respond to social needs, and how architecture can shape more meaningful ways of living.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

We would encourage anyone who is unsure to view competitions not just as a test of skill, but as an opportunity for growth and exploration. Participating allows you to experiment freely, push the limits of your creativity, and develop ideas you might never explore in day-to-day work. Even if a submission does not win, the process itself researching, conceptualizing, and refining offers invaluable experience and insight. Competitions also provide a platform to see how your ideas resonate with broader architectural conversations, and to learn from the approaches of others. My advice would be to embrace them as a chance to challenge yourself, expand your perspective, and fuel your curiosity. If you approach competitions as a learning journey rather than just a contest, the experience is always worthwhile.