Belfast architects have designs on India

A Belfast firm of architects is bidding for its third deal in India to counter the effects of the downturn in construction at home.

Hall Black Douglas in the east of the city has already completed work on a shopping mall in India and this week announced a contract to design accommodation for elderly people with dementia near Mumbai.

Now the practice is bidding for work on a large apartment block in India after building up a relationship with a client for over two years.

Director Alistair Beckett was tight-lipped on the value of the work it has done so far in India.

But he said the downturn at home architecture is the profession which has contracted the most in the collapse of the construction market had forced it to look overseas.

Its thought to be the only Northern Ireland architecture firm working in India, a territory it first explored on an Invest NI trade mission, though some have entered the market in the Middle East.

We worked exclusively at home for the first 20 years of the practice, said Mr Beckett.

But then there were diminishing workloads at home, and we saw the opportunity for the Indian market, and its just a market we felt comfortable in. It is based on British law, its English speaking and they respect UK design.

He said the variety of work it had done at home had left it in good shape to benefit from a range of opportunities available in India.

Fortunately we were quite diverse in our portfolio, with health care, churches, community groups and conservation projects.

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Belfast architects have designs on India