Making Space For Innovation

As Executive Vice President, Godrej Properties Limited, Anubhav Gupta wears multiple hats. Design thinker, innovator and architect, he moved home after a decade abroad to ‘Design Think and Design Do in India’. The GPL Design Studio, which he helped set up, gives him a platform to do just that!

What drew you to architecture?

AB: I was a curious and imaginative child. As a thinker, I was drawn to creativity and creation as far as I can remember. I could see worlds in my head, feel them on my skin, smell them on my breath and experience them almost like I was a living part of what I could see. Real life was somewhat different though. I’m not sure if architecture was drawn to me or the other way around. Maybe a bit of both! It’s actually the result of a curious puzzle where this question appeared: ‘Imagine you are a little seed amongst many on a slice of a papaya. Draw what the room will look like to you.’ I was intrigued and that is how architecture happened. The rest as they say is history.

How has formal education shaped your career?

AB: For me, formal education was like a fertile crucible that spurred growth and tickled my imagination – it’s probably why I have spent so many years on and off jumping into it head first both as a student and a professor. After a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) degree, I went on to acquire Master of Science in Architectural Studies (S.M.ArchS) and Master in City Planning (MCP) degrees, and then a PhD in Land Economy. I gained empathy, knowledge, tools, articulation, life skills, business and the ability to realize what I could see into tangible experience, and all this gave meaning, purpose and a credible storyline to otherwise unrealized visions.