Beautiful Mind

Blurring the lines between art, architecture, nature and design, architect Hiren Patel effortlessly creates buildings, homes, offices and hotels that are ahead of their time.

- RIDHI KALE

It's more like an art gallery than an architect's office," says architect Hiren Patel, while giving an interview from his workplace in Ahmedabad.

The space is truly an extension of his personality. Patel's mind works round the clock, thinking of ways to create spaces, adding equal parts of fun and functionality to his designs. An ideal day starts in the morning with 2.5 hours of hatha yoga, once he reaches office he gives equal attention to all the meetings taking place in the seven meeting rooms. In the evening, he goes for a swim, eats dinner and works until midnight, giving life to the myriad design ideas in his mind.

"I was always a brilliant student, and at that time such students became doctors or engineers. My father was a town planner and my brothers (who are nine years older) were civil engineers," shares Patel. It was when his brothers were making a prototype of a building he was introduced to architecture.

"They said, we make the building but the architect designs it," adds Patel. When he told his father he wanted to take up architecture, he was sent to an artist, who was teaching at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. One thing led to another and he found himself studying architecture at CEPT in 1983.