Reimagining Our World

Country’s top design artists are steering the practice of architecture towards unconventionally stunning results. We look for their uniqueness and shared principles.

- Nidhi Raj Singh

The cityscapes are changing in India, thanks to fresher and bolder ideas conjured by contemporary architects. They are rethinking the built form from inside out, creating unique ways to experience space. As they strive to create spaces that catalyse our thought process with their choice of alternate materiality, design language and volumes, they are not hesitating in deploying cutting edge building technologies. We pick their best creations.

SAMEEP PADORA

Founder Principal, sP+A Sameep Padora & Associates

Sameep Padora’s design aesthetic combines a varied mix of elements. From the use of vernacular brick, metalwork, locally sourced stone and timber, his projects are unique and lend a dynamic charm to the space. His Mumbai-based studio’s approach is to look at context as a repository of latent resources connecting production process and networks, appropriating techniques beyond their traditional use while allowing them to evolve. “India’s socio-cultural environment requires multifarious means of engaging with the country’s varying contexts. Type, program, design and building processes are subservient to the immediacy of each project’s unique frame of reference,” he says. He remembers being interested in design when he was in class eight. “I think it has to do with growing up around my grandfather who dealt in Kashmiri craft objects and walnut furniture. I spent time looking those being repaired, touched up with paint and polished. The only other professional consideration I ever made were cinematography and archaeology,” he says.

OUR PICK: Maya Somaiya Library at Shri Sharda English Medium School, Kopargaon Maharashtra