Who?

white ant studio is headed by Fabian Ostner as per the guidelines of the Auroville Foundation. Fabian brings in several years of experience in the fields of design and people management and a deep passion for the culture he has chosen to live in.

Depending on the individual project requirements, the studio is collaborating with professionals from the field of architecture and design and/or – depending on the size of a project and the scope of work – with larger architectural firms.

Fabian Ostner graduated from the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen / Germany as architect in 1997 and aside of his independent practice has since been working in various architecture studios in Berlin, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Fabian has come to Auroville first for an one-year internship with the Auroville Building Centre /Earth Institute in 1994/95 and again in 1996/97 to work on his thesis on a German Cultural Pavilion in Auroville (this thesis work was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD). His thesis was completed with honors in July 1997.

After that he studied advance architectural design at the School of Arts Berlin-Weissensee during which time he worked as architect with the renowned architect and town planner Rahul Mehrotra in Mumbai (1997/98; again funded funded by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD).

Since moving permanently to India in 2000, Fabian has been working with various Auroville architecture studios and with large offices in Bangalore (Venkataramanan Associates) and Hyderabad (FHD Group) and as independent design consultant with his own studio.

The studio’s work has been awarded twice a special mention in the prestigious A+D / Spectrum Foundation award and has been published in various magazines (ELLE Décor, Wallpaper, Better Interiors, Home Review). Additionally Fabian has been invited to give lectures at various architectural schools in India and is regularly training students from India and abroad in his studio.

The contact with India has been decisive for Fabian from the very first moment he touched ground in Mumbai some 30 years ago. The abundance, the romance and the intensity of life here captures and moves him deeply and his work cannot be understood without this deep connection to the land, its culture and people.

In his design work Fabian then aims to bring together his longing for a higher order based on geometry and rational thinking with the powerful, fertile and creative plentitude of tropical India.

The quest for minimalism (the search for the most refined and pure solution), the resourceful use of materials, the integration of light and air in balance with the other elements and a deep respect for the nature of things (and humans) are defining parts of the design process – be it for a small showroom, a private residence, an office building or a larger institutional building.

Please click below for a short CV of Fabian.

Fabian CV