HCP Interior Design Pvt Ltd

Tweaking Techniques To Reflect Indian Ethos

Canna Patel has had a 30-year career as an architect and interior designer, executing over 300 projects of varying scales. However, none of it may have come to fruition if fate hadn’t intervened. A failed attempt at getting into an undergraduate programme in textile design led Patel to explore her love for art and architecture.

“I enrolled for a bachelor’s in architecture at CEPT University, and have since never looked back,” says Patel, daughter of architect Hasmukh Patel.

In 2006, Patel established interior design and architecture firm HCP Interior Design Pvt Ltd in Ahmedabad, which has worked on projects in Delhi, Mumbai, Indore, Jaipur, and Gujarat. There is a distinctive Indianness in its works, which helps to render them timeless for the setting they occupy. “Our projects reflect a fine sensitivity to the Indian climate, social norms, cultural values and aspirations; features that are essential, yet often missing in contemporary projects,” says Patel.

The Sachivalay project is one of its landmark projects that reflects the practice’s ethos. Swarnim Sankul 1 and 2 were proposed on either side of the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha (Gujarat Legislative Assembly) building in the Sachivalay complex in Gandhinagar to accommodate the various ministers of state. “This required designing spaces that would represent the state—a personification of Gujarat,” says Patel. For the project, the firm integrated various traditional crafts, art and motifs inspired by the heritage of the state. “Each space, regardless of hierarchy, would encourage encounters with some element that was innately from Gujarat,” says Patel.

Currently, the firm is serving as the interior sub-consultant for the prestigious Central Vista Redevelopment Project in New Delhi.

Patel feels abstracting design concepts from the country’s culture is important. “As Indian designers, we need to rethink modern techniques and products, and tweak them to echo Indian sensibilities that will lead to more efficient daily living,” says Patel.

Canna Patel’s projects reflect a fine sensitivity to the Indian climate and social norms.

By Darielle Britto