My colleague Amarjit Singh Kalsi, known to his friends as Amo, who has died aged 57 after suffering a heart attack, was an architect who enjoyed a distinguished 33-year career working with Richard Rogers and played an influential role in designing some of the practice's most famous buildings.
A rare talent, he became a director at Richard Rogers Partnership ("RRP") in 1988 at the age of 30, stepping down in 2011 to become a senior consultant.
Over the course of more than three decades, Amo worked with Rogers and other key members of the practice on some of its most prestigious projects, including the now Grade I listed Lloyd's Building in the City, the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, the European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg and the Stirling prizewinning Barajas airport in Madrid.
At RRP, which became Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners in 2007, Amo inspired awe and respect in young architects, proving to be an inspirational mentor who led by example and stirred the imagination of others. On the Heathrow Terminal 5 project, his encouragement seemed to extend to every participating architect and engineer.
Amo possessed all the qualities of a great architect, including the all important "magic touch". His draughtsmanship was extraordinary, elevating technical drawing to an artform despite an unconventional habit of using only one thickness of Rotring technical writing pen, which he argued lent clarity and simplicity to the representation.
The result was always a thing of beauty.
Amo was born in Nairobi, Kenya.
It was his grandfather Bachint Singh who had first migrated from Rurhka Kalaan in Jalandhar district, Punjab, to Kenya in the 1930s. His parents decided to move to Britain when Amo was still a young boy, for a better quality of life and education for their sons. They were also seeking advanced medical care for their eldest son, who later died of muscular dystrophy.
At school in Plaistow, east London, Amo demonstrated great passion and skill for technical drawing, a talent that led to his enrolment at the Architectural Association in 1975 and a full-time role at RRP after qualifying with a diploma in 1981.
Affable and fond of fine dining, Amo was the one to ensure everyone enjoyed the very best choucroute and confit de canard on work trips abroad. Outside his work, he was a music-lover, a keen supporter of the Indian Gymkhana cricket and football club in Osterley, west London, and always talked fondly and enthusiastically about his family.
He is survived by his wife, Gurjeet Kaur, whom he married in 1982, and by their four daughters.
[Courtesy: The Guardian. Edited for sikhchic.com]
October 9, 2014