All Things Design

Founder of Vizag-based design studio, Ameet Airpuri is an interior designer with a passion for creating beautiful spaces. He converses with Tina Thakrar about his 13 year run in the industry

- Tina Thakrar

We often find our calling in life after multiple experiences with things that don’t exactly pique our interest. Sometimes, the path is right there in front of us, but we choose to look elsewhere. This is probably the perfect description of Ameet Mirpuri’s tryst with interior design, which starting 2002 has now lasted 17 years.

Ameet is the founder of interior design firm Design Studio, along with his father Prem Mirpuri. Set up in 2006, the firm has created its own niche in the design industry with its award-winning residential and commercial projects in cities like Goa, Mumbai, Bangalore, Siliguri, Asansol, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Vijaywada and of course, his favourite playground, Vizag.

The Mirpuris moved to Vizag from Karachi during the Partition and have called it home ever since. Born and raised in the coastal city, Ameet’s creative bent meant that he was more drawn to design than to the sciences. A number of unsuccessful attempts to get into fashion schools made him take up business management for a graduate degree. But even then, he was more interested in helping his father in his interior design and furniture manufacturing studio. It was almost as if his creative side had come alive again, propelling him to get a diploma from the Marathwada Mitra Mandal’s School of Interior Design in Pune. Upon his return, he set up Design Studio in Vizag.

For the first two years, Ameet focused on designing only homes. As time passed, his portfolio expanded to envelop commercial spaces as well, more specifically, hospitality projects like Farzi Café in Hyderabad and the upcoming Radisson Blu Hotel in Vizag. “I would love to be doing more hotels and go international,” he shares ambitiously.