At just 21 years, Aditya Mishra is not only designing other people’s homes, he has his own life designs sorted too. The civil engineer who got his degree this June, is already working relentlessly to make a success of his venture, an interior design and solutions company called Sky 360 that was started last year.
“It’s best to make the most of the salad days while one is young and energetic. One can enjoy work-life balance after a decade or so. Most youngsters want easy or fast money and don’t realise that hard work in younger days pays off later,” says the Kolhapur resident.
During his internship in a real estate firm last year, he utilised his free time to learn the ropes of design and architecture from YouTube to service some clients in the firm. Today, as the managing director and co-founder of his Mumbai-based company, Mishra is going strong in building clientele and is on a hiring spree too. He and his co-founder have till date serviced over 40 clients in the past one year, some of the top deals being with the Tata Group, Lodha Group, and several private interior designers. Besides design and architecture, the company is also catering to services such as 3D visualisation, branding and marketing for various projects.
Integrating augmented and virtual reality (AR, VR) in his work, he says it has “made life easy for consumers, designers and real estate developers. I use an application for VR and AR technology, which when combined with smartphones, can show how a dream house or space would look like in reality. It becomes more than just a virtual tour”.
What’s also novel is how he has overcome the biggest challenges in the world of interior designing. He feels it is the lack of accessibility and affordability that prevents people other than the affluent class to have homes that can be seen only in magazines or catalogues.
“But now more and more people consider this luxury of a well-designed home a necessity and look for functional spaces with instant output. With use of technology, I offer solutions that are both accessible and affordable,” he says.
With VR, Mishra feels the design philosophy of 3D models can go to the next level and help developers and designers show their clients the kind of decor and interiors they desire without any constraints.
How does it work? One can stand and take a walkthrough on the actual land or site where the house or room is being constructed, view the space or look at wall colours, match the fabric and make changes to interiors, or look at the floor plan. Mishra uses a headset to show his clients 3D visuals of the space designed by him in the walkthroughs with decor elements as these help them see and visualise the actual space. It also limits uncertainty in the development phase of the design process.
“It’s a walkthrough to your dream home that one can’t encounter in the actual world.”
Mishra designs the interior space and shares them as links accessible on a phone. This time, he has invested in a JioDive smartphone-based virtual reality headset, which lets the client take a virtual tour of the space. The design options let one click and choose the best options for spaces like home, office, restaurant, etc.
Even though Mishra hasn’t partnered for any such technological advancements and headsets with any branded company yet, he thinks there is an opportunity here as he is keen to expand and offer innovative and creative solutions to his clients. “There is a huge opportunity and possibility of company partnerships in the future. It could be with Reliance Jio or other device makers,” he adds.
Low operating cost is his USP, as Mishra puts it, “Interior designing is not affordable, and most people end up spending more than what is required. To avoid complicated, unnecessary features, we have simplified the process so that a builder or a designer can adjust as per the requirement and make changes before construction starts. It lowers cost, time, and mistakes. The links have an overall design conceptualised in a manner to give a 360-degree view and experience.”
One doesn’t even need to carry any company brochure. “The easy navigation enables designers to see their plans in actual environments and gives a clearer picture of how the final design will appear once it is finished and helps them determine what alterations need to be made before the construction begins,” shares Mishra, who charges Rs 5,000 for one virtual room display. The rates can go up to Rs 5 lakh, depending on the services and the scale of the project, he adds.
