“Every built space can sing poetry, only one has to appropriately feel the blend that nature and materials offer.”
• K Jaisim
Krishna Rao Jaisim is a Bangalore architect and educator who founded Jaisim-Fountainhead in 1970, naming it after Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead. After early work across South India and four years in Oman, he returned to Bangalore, his ancestors' home town, in 1980. His firm is based in Jayanagar.
Plenty of architects read The Fountainhead in college. He is one of the few who named a practice after it and then spent fifty years living up to the title. Here is the documented record.
Quick Information
Architecture runs in the family, stubbornness apparently does too, and Bangalore got fifty years of both.
Who Is K Jaisim?
K Jaisim is an architect, teacher and writer whose Bangalore firm works on homes, institutions, offices, landscape and urban planning. After his bachelor's degree he worked with L M Chitale and Son in Madras before starting his own practice.
Why Is His Firm Called Jaisim-Fountainhead?
He named it after Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead, which inspired him to start the practice in 1970.
What Did Jaisim Build Before Bangalore?
Between 1970 and 1975 the practice won a national competition for the Cochin stadia, a President's nomination for the Small Industries Pavilion, and designed the Taj Fisherman's Cove near Mahabalipuram. From 1975 he worked in Muscat, Oman, for about four years.
- Cochin National competition win for the stadia
- Mahabalipuram Taj Fisherman's Cove
- Kumbakonam Mydeen Tobacco offices
- Madras Printing factories for Dinathanthi
What Is Jaisim's Architecture Like?
His work is described as iconoclastic, individualistic and eco-friendly, with a heavy use of local stone, jalis and play of light and shadow. He has written more than 150 papers and articles and speaks often to architecture students.
He lives in Suvidha Retirement Village in Bangalore, a project his own firm designed.
Why Does K. Jaisim Belong in People of Bangalore?
Bangalore is his ancestral home town; he settled here in 1980 and has run Jaisim-Fountainhead from the city ever since.
I haven't interviewed K Jaisim for this piece. It's pieced together from online research: published interviews, news reports, books and official records, cross-checked against each other. If you know K Jaisim and spot something I've got wrong, tap the WhatsApp icon at the bottom right and tell me, and I'll fix it.
FAQs
Who is K Jaisim?
A Bangalore architect and founder of Jaisim-Fountainhead.
When was Jaisim-Fountainhead founded?
In 1970.
Why is it called Fountainhead?
After Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead.
Where is Jaisim-Fountainhead based?
In Jayanagar, Bangalore.
Contact Details
The firm lists its projects online.
Live in a Jaisim Home?
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