Startup News Magazine

Rendezvous with Aatika Manzar

Aatika Manzar Designs, a four-year-old design collaborative, enjoys working effectively in both indoor and outdoor spaces. With projects like Freemason’s Brewery, Playboy Club, Bombay Bakery, Station Bar, Out of the Box, Modern Bazaar, etc., in her kitty, Aatika Manzar is an architect who might end the search for creating your dream house or office. We had an opportunity to have a dialogue with Aatika. Here are the excerpts:

How & when did you decide to start Aatika Manzar Designs?

I worked at big brands and companies before I launched my company. I wanted my initial years to be dedicated to learning and exploring, and it was in 2017 when I found myself in a place to fly solo, and that’s when Aatika Manzar Designs came into being. It took me three years to hire my first employee in 2020, and there has been no looking back ever since.

What are the various services provided by your company?

Since I am both an architect and a designer, I can do everything from finalizing the structure to the most intricate details about designing. We take up projects from the very scratch and finish them till the last detail.

What makes Aatika Manzar Designs different from other firms offering similar services?

I think what makes us different is our entire team sits together to brainstorm before every project. We aim to understand and integrate the ideas and vision of our client. We also emphasize the budget so that the client is comfortable spending their money. For example, we recently worked on a project in Faridabad for a patisserie where the client had a PVC factory, so we used those pipes to create a unique design using the client’s material. It turned out to be stunning, and we saved a lot of money as well.

What are the struggles and challenges you face?

The only challenge we face now is that my entire team is girls only, and whenever they have to go for structure-related meetings, the contractor expects a guy to oversee those details. But I think the reluctance will go away in the times to come. We are currently facing budget issues because clients don’t want to spend too much on the ongoing pandemic. So we try to come up with ways that can help us cut down the costs.

How do you plan to grow in the future? What do five years down the line look like for Aatika Manzar Designs?

We plan to grow in the future by taking up more challenging projects. We want to convince people to use local materials. We want to promote local art and artist. We also plan to do adaptive re-use projects where we convert an abandoned property into a different function.

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting, what would it be?

My only advice is to go for it. If you believe in yourself, people will start believing in you automatically. So start taking action now.