Gopalan Nair Shankar, popularly known as G. Shankar, is an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

from

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He advocates the use of locally available materials, sustainability, eco-friendliness and cost effectiveness. He founded the Habitat Technology Group, Thiruvananthapuram, in 1987 and , serves on a number of boards. He did his architecture studies (B.Arch) from

College of Engineering, Trivandrum The College of Engineering Trivandrum, commonly known as CET, is the first engineering college in Kerala, situated in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. It was founded in 1939 during the reign of the Travancore King, Chithira Thiru ...

(1982 batch) and later did M.S. from

Birmingham School of Architecture , mottoeng = "Do what you are doing; attend to your business" , established = 1992—gained university status1971—City of Birmingham Polytechnic1843— Birmingham College of Art , type = Public , affiliation = ...

, UK and postgraduate diploma in journalism. He has also won 3 national awards for green architecture, slum resettlement and eco city design.. His attitude to "green architecture" has gained him a reputation as the "people's architect". Shankar was awarded the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

by the Government of India in 2011.Padma Awards Announced
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* * * 1960 births Living people Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering Businesspeople from Thiruvananthapuram 20th-century Indian architects Artists from Thiruvananthapuram {{India-architect-stub