The First Lady Of Conservation

STYLE AND RESEARCH ARE THE KEY INGREDIENTS OF PADMA SHRI SUNITA KOHLI’S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS AS A CHAMPION OF HISTORICAL INTERIOR ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATION

- Maria Louis

The elegantly-clad Sunita Kohli wears multiple hats decorated with many feathers…and carries them off with impeccable style! A Padma Shri awardee, the self-taught interior designer, furniture restorer, heritage preserver and antique lover with degrees in English literature and classical music, is also a cookbook writer. An expert in Lutyens’ architecture, she is renowned for her work on the Rashtrapati Bhavan (the official residence of the President of India). Listening to her speak about the restoration process is edifying. Amazingly humble about her design interventions in a built space, she insists that research and understanding of the architect’s original intent is the key to maintaining the integrity of the space. “Only then can one sensitively restore [the interiors] such that, after two years, visitors shouldn’t be able to tell that a designer was here to restore the place,” insists the style icon.

To put her numerous achievements in [a rather large] nutshell, Kohli did her MA in English Literature from the University of Lucknow, BA (Honours) in English from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi and Visharad in Hindustani Classical Vocal Music, University of Allahabad (as a private student). She is the president of K2India, an award-winning firm of architects and designers whose CEO and creative director is her architect daughter – our iGen cover girl a few years ago, Kohelika Kohli. In 1992, she was conferred the Padma Shri, ‘for contribution to national life in the field of interior design and architectural conservation’.