Ulrich de Belchior
B. Arch. (Sir J.J. School, Mumbai)
Commenced his professional career under the guidance of his mentor whose legacy continues, Architect the late J. R. Ralino de Souza, before his recruitment to the Emirates in 1975 by El-Amin Muddathir, a Sudanese firm and in 1978 joined Franz Ulm, with its head office in Munich, Germany.
In the year 1980, the then ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan invited him to join the U.A.E. Armed Forces in the Design Department, where he was engaged in various projects ranging from Military hospitals, Doctors/Nurses accommodations, Officers’ clubs etc., including numerous grandiose villas for the local Army Officers. Towards the end of 1985, he was posted at an Air Base working alongside Coutino Caro and Co. (CCC) a German firm, in supervision to their prestigious project of Aircraft Shelters for Mirage 2000, until he returned to his home land in 1987.
A portrayal of the legendary Frank Lloyd Write and his philosophy, ‘‘form follows function’’ where aesthetics is not governed by the use of unwanted elements to make a building look beautiful, but only those with a function.... to derive its shape and form. Hostile over monstrosities like overhead water tanks, the repulsive drain pipes or for that matter, the brutality in the manner by which those “indispensable beams” are used callously by some unkind Structural Engineers blemishing a structure, battles his way out to make them inconspicuous, or converting them into a feature.
Rather emphatic as regards the landscaping, a fundamental entity in a habitation where a good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but the one which makes it more beautiful than it was, before the building was built.
A die-hard perfectionist with his doctrine that every waste material in a construction could be recycled to its fullest form, similar to that in a well organized kitchen. This prompted him into hospitality for a number of years, to run a memorable fine dining restaurant named “Crab Key Cuisine” calling it “The food of Love”
When one holds someone’s well being above one’s own, then one arrives with tangible results, making his structures graceful, poised and sublime. He took this very path to make this happen in a most passionate manner which is….. “the simplest way to exist”.
Should anyone be interested in knowing more about this Unconventional Architect, then one can always find him on www.ulrichb.in or visit his studio at “ Casa de Belchior” Khorlim, Mapusa, Goa.