Tag Archives: Ahmedabad

DRAWING TO FIND OUT [05]: SHUBHRA RAJE

Shubhra Raje, principal architect of shubhra raje_built environments closely engages with different drawing practices within her studio. By excavating and analysing visual material in Shubhra’s studio, we attempt to decipher the draftsmanship cultures, their relationship with the design process and the way in which they inform her practice.


Images and Drawings: Courtesy Shubhra Raje
Author: Vedanti Agarwal
Curation and Film: Matter.

Shubhra Raje’s practice emphasizes the act of drawing as a means of critical thinking. Her rigorous drawing habit traces back to schooling years at CEPT University, where drawing by hand was ingrained in the academic rigour. However, her perceptions on the necessity to draw as a mode of thinking (as against drawing to represent) evolved through learnings during her time at the Cornell University. Representational drawings command a style that is conscious of its viewers. Design-thinking drawings are undisturbed collaterals between the engaged hand and the searching mind, oblivious of another eye. The scale of Shubhra’s practice enables her to engage with all stages of drawing in the design development process.

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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

Indigo Architects: Mausami and Uday Andhare

Drawing to Find Out [04]

For Uday and Mausami Andhare, the process of sketching and drawing by hand pivots the design process as they work through the layers of an often messy path to architectural resolution. Looking through a cross-section of the rich visual material produced as a result, we attempt to capture the many purposes of drawing at Indigo Architects.

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Book: The Architecture of Hasmukh C. Patel : Selected Projects 1963-2003

With a career spanning four decades and a self-made legacy of some of the most significant works of Independent India, Hasmukh C. Patel’s architecture speaks volumes about the architect he embodies and the grit he possesses. A narrative of his personal and professional journey – the book showcases select 51 projects that summarise Patel’s architectural idiom in its entirety.

Book Cover: Looking between the expressed columns and the main wall of the front facade while entering the Newman Hall in Ahmedabad,1963
Book Cover: Looking between the expressed columns and the main wall of the front facade while entering the Newman Hall in Ahmedabad,1963

“…………………The human being is at the centre of my creative efforts…………………This is the only thing I understand and the only thing I practice.” – Hasmukh Patel Continue reading Book: The Architecture of Hasmukh C. Patel : Selected Projects 1963-2003

Book: Balkrishna Doshi: An Architecture for India

Written by William J. R. Curtis.

An engaging reprint of the seminal book by Curtis takes us through the experiments of the defining years of Doshi‘s practice – a practice that has presented us with some of the most challenging axioms and paradoxes of modern architecture in India and eventually – ‘an Architecture for India‘.

Book Cover
Book Cover

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