‘Yet to sink in,’ says Pune-born architect invited to coronation of King Charles III

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A 38-year-old Pune-born architect and teacher is among the few Indians who have been invited to attend the coronation of Britain’s new monarch, King Charles III.

Sourabh Phadke, stunned by the invitation, says the news is yet to sink in. The charity champion was chosen for his association and great success through the causes supported by the Prince’s Foundation, the charity founded by Charles when he was the Prince of Wales.

“It’s still sinking in and I don’t know what to expect considering I’ve never been to a Coronation before. It’s with that spirit in mind that I’m approaching it,” Phadke said, reacting to his royal invitation to Westminster Abbey on Saturday.

A trained architect, Phadke joined the foundation’s Traditional Building Skills programme and expanded his repertoire by specialising as a stonemason. It was during this course that Phadke’s work stood out as he was based for four months at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, the Scottish headquarters of the Prince’s Foundation, and he and his fellow students built a new education pavilion on the estate.

Earlier, Phadke also received an Albukhary Foundation Scholarship to do a Masters’ Course at the Prince’s Foundation’s School of Traditional Arts, where he now works as a tutor. After travelling from place to place teaching and also building schools in India, Phadke moved to the United Kingdom a few years ago when his wife Persis won a scholarship to do a geography PhD at King’s College in London.

“It was an opportunity for me to become a student again and become part of the [Prince’s Foundation] programme. I was really happy that I got the opportunity. Even though I’d done stonework in the past, I hadn’t trained as a stone mason,” he says.

In India, he lived and worked in communities around the country – helping design and construct buildings using local materials such as mud, stone and bamboo.

“It could be houses, toilets, schools, anything that a community needed. It could be in deprived communities, schools, farmers, or women’s collectives. I basically lived where I was working and moved from place to place. The circumstances would differ widely but in some cases, we would reach a place and start building, let’s say a toilet in open land where there was no toilet, and we would camp outdoors. It taught me a lot,” he shares.

“Crafts and skills are opportunities to reflect. I might be building a toilet in India or working with a student on a project in the United Kingdom, but it’s still the same. We need to be able to respect everything in the same way and it can offer us the same joy and the same love,” he said.

The Prince’s Foundation was set up to provide holistic solutions to challenges facing the world and champion a sustainable approach to communities – a subject close to the heart of the 74-year-old monarch.

Gordon Neil, Executive Director of the Prince’s Foundation at Dumfries House, said: “We are so proud of Sourabh’s achievements, before he arrived to study with us at Dumfries House, all the way through our traditional craft skills programme, and while at the Prince’s Foundation’s School of Traditional Arts. His selflessness and dedication to study are being greatly rewarded by being a guest of ours at this weekend’s Coronation, which is sure to be a special day for our charity founder His Majesty the King as well as Sourabh and his fellow guests.”

The monarch’s charity works across the world focussing on the heritage-led regeneration of the Dumfries House estate in Scotland as well as the wider community.

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FP Staff

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