Category Archives: Architecture

SITE-VISIT: HILLTOP SCHOOL BY DesignAware

Perched on a hill top within the walls of the majestic Golconda Fort sits the stark but vibrant Hilltop School designed by the Hyderabad-based DesignAware led by Architect Takbir Fatima.  Arshiya Syed, a Hyderbad-based Architect and Urban Designer writes about her readings of a space designed for an education that has much to learn from.

For children, a place for play holds special importance, and in the changing paradigms of education, outdoor learning has become just as important as learning inside the classroom. Continue reading SITE-VISIT: HILLTOP SCHOOL BY DesignAware

Ratan J. Batliboi on Designing Exhibitions

In conversation with Ratan Batliboi, Principal, Ratan J. Batliboi Consultants, we discuss exhibition design as a discipline and an area of his creative endeavour, drawing from his exhaustive portfolio in design of an array of temporary and permanent exhibitions and his insight into the processes that work on the front and back-end of the experience.

Continue reading Ratan J. Batliboi on Designing Exhibitions

ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION: A ROAD MAP TO REFORM

In a curated series on archival texts, views, discussions and comments on the state of architecture and design education in India, Prem Chandavarkar assesses the state of architectural education and the role of the Council, the practice and the institution in an increasingly urban India- outlining his thoughts on an appropriate paradigm for an architecture school and the urgency for a competitive standard of excellence. 


Continue reading ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION: A ROAD MAP TO REFORM

Book: Brinda Somaya: Works & Continuities

Stories of intention, aspiration and imagination form a gently woven fabric of implicit and explicit meanings that often transcend into a collective reality. Architecture enables these stories. 

Narrated by Principal Architect of Somaya and Kalappa Consultants (SNK) Brinda Somaya, BRINDA SOMAYA: Works and Continuities is an inspiring autobiographical account of stories of a gratifying practice. Continue reading Book: Brinda Somaya: Works & Continuities

TRIBUTE: Hasmukh C. Patel, (7 December 1933 – 20 January 2018) by RIYAZ TAYYIBJI

Riyaz Tayyibji writes about the significance of the work and legacy of Hasmukh C. Patel remembering him for his unique oeuvre and his ability to design humane spaces of delight.  


For the last decade and more, I have called a place designed by Hasmukh C. Patel; ‘Home!’

My apartment is on the ‘4th Floor’, which happens to be the eighth level, as each apartment is a duplex with rooms organized around a double height living room. A large balcony overlooks a public park and a sculptural stair physically connects the rooms. There are days when we forget we are living seventy feet above the street- there is something grounded about the way the apartment works. Our children often refer to our lowest bedroom as ‘the basement’. There is no sense of disconnection, no sense of the typically isolated
apartment. This is not a ‘flat’ that is born from Continue reading TRIBUTE: Hasmukh C. Patel, (7 December 1933 – 20 January 2018) by RIYAZ TAYYIBJI