Building the Future: The Life and Legacy of Bimal Patel
Bimal Hasmukh Patel is an architect from Ahmedabad, India. He has over 35 years of professional, research and teaching experience in architecture, urban design and urban planning.
He was the President of CEPT University in Ahmedabad during July 2012 to January 2024. He leads HCP Design Planning and Management Private Limited, an architecture, planning and project management firm. He also founded Environmental Planning Collaborative, a not-for-profit, planning research and advocacy organization.
His research is focused on Land Use Planning, Real Estate Markets, Building Regulations, Land Management and Urban Planning History. He received Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1992. He received the Padma Shri Award for his contributions in the fields of Architecture and Planning in 2019.
Early life and education
Patel was born on 31st August 1961. He was born to Hasmukh Patel and Bhakti Patel. His father was also an architect. He has a sister Canna Patel. She is also an architect.
Bimal Patel lives and practices architecture and city planning in Ahmedabad, India. He was educated at the St. Xavier’s High School, Loyola Hall, Ahmedabad. Later he studied at School of Architecture, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, CEPT, from 1978 to 1984. In 1981, he apprenticed with Frei Otto at the Institute for Lightweight Structures, Stuttgart, Germany.
After receiving his first professional degree in architecture from CEPT in 1984 and a year of work in Ahmedabad, Patel moved to Berkeley to study at the College of Environmental Design, CED. He graduated with M.Arch. and M.C.P. degrees in 1988 and a Ph.D. from the Department of City and Regional Planning in 1995.
He worked closely with Prof. Allan Jacobs, Prof. Donlyn Lyndon, Prof. Manuel Castells and Prof. Mike Teitz at the CED and Prof. Richard Walker of the Geography Department.
Career in Architecture
In 1990, Patel joined his father’s practice in Ahmedabad at HCP Design Planning & Management Private Limited. One of his first building design projects was a campus for The Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad. It won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1992.
Over the years he has built up a significant body of work ranging from single-family homes, to institutions, industrial buildings and urban redevelopment projects. Urban design projects, like the Kankaria Lake Development and the Sabarmati Riverfront, are the first of their kind in the country.
His significant and award-winning projects include the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad, Ahmedabad Management Association, Bhuj Development Plan and Town Planning Schemes (post-earthquake), C G Road Redevelopment, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Gujarat High Court, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad New Campus, Kankaria Lake, Sabarmati Riverfront and the Swarnim Sankul at Gandhinagar.
His work and his projects have been conferred with numerous awards including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1992, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements’ Award of Excellence in 1998, World Architecture Award in 2001 and the Prime Minister’s National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design in 2006. He was bestowed with the Padma Shri Award in 2019.
Patel has been the President of CEPT University in Ahmedabad from July 2012 to January 2024. CEPT University focuses on understanding, designing, planning, constructing, and managing human habitats. His work there involved academics as well as institutional leadership and development.
Some of his significant projects are:
Architecture and Urban Design
- Parliament House and Central Vista Transformation, Government of India, New Delhi, 2019 – Ongoing
- Vishwanath Dham, Sri Kashi Vishwanath Mandir, Varanasi, 2018 – ongoing
- Ministers’ Blocks and Secretariat Campus Development, Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, 2014
- Aga Khan Academy, Hyderabad, 2014
- Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, 2006 – ongoing
- Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, Detailed Design – 1998 – ongoing
- Tata CGPL Township, Mundra, 2009
- New Campus, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, 2000
Re-development of C.G. Road, Ahmedabad, 1995
- The Gujarat High Court Building, Ahmedabad, 1992
- The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad, 1985
Planning
- Redevelopment of Mumbai Eastern Waterfront (Mumbai Port Trust), MbPT, 2017 – ongoing
- Planned Densification of Ahmedabad’s CBD, AUDA, 2015
- Town Planning Schemes, Ahmedabad – Statutory, 2012
- Streamlining Urban Planning and Land Management (SUPLM) World Bank – 2007
- Bhuj Development and (walled city) Town Planning Schemes – Statutory, 2004
- Walled City Revitalization Plan, Ahmedabad, 1997 etc.
Publications
- The Realm of the Public – A Conversation with Bimal Patel (2023). Matter. Inside Publication, Volume 3, Issue 1, 88-111.
- Bimal Patel. Central Vista Redevelopment Project (December 2022). NIC, Yojana, Architect’s Reflections, 11-16.
- Bimal Patel. Balkrishna Doshi’s Architectural Practice. (2023) Architecture Time, Space and People. Remembering Doshi: Special Edition, 44-46.
- Bimal Patel. (2021). Improving Indian Urban Planning. In Mumbai Reader 20/21. Urban Design Research Institute.
- Bimal Patel. (2019, September 18). Unfolding the architecture of Hasmukh Patel. STIR.
- Bimal Patel. (2018, March 1). The Architects Regulations of 1989 must evolve to match present realities. IFJ.
- Patricia Clarke Annez, Bijal Bhatt, & Bimal Patel. (2017). What Getting Legal Land Title Really Means: An ‘Anti-commons’ in Ahmedabad, India? Review of Market Integration, SAGE, 9(1–2), 1–26.
- Bimal Patel. (2015, July 11). City Planning – ‘Vertical growth: Do not limit floor space index to limit congestion’. Indian Express.
- Bimal Patel. (2015, June 6). On land, a new way. Indian Express.
- Bimal Patel & VK Phatak. (2014). Integrating redevelopment of slums in city planning. In Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Ravi Kabur, & P.K. Mohanty (Eds.), Urbanisation in India- Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Forward (pp. 260–296). SAGE India.
- Bimal Patel, Shirley Ballaney, CK Koshy, & Matthias Nohn. (2009). Reforming urban land management in Gujarat. Oxford University Press.
- Shirley Ballaney & Bimal Patel. (2009). Using the ‘Development Plan—Town planning scheme’ mechanism to appropriate land and build urban infrastructure. India Infrastructure Report, 190–204.
- Bimal Patel. (1995). Gujarat High Court, Ahmedabad. Architecture+ Design, 12(3), 65–76.
- Bimal Patel. (1995). The space of property capital: Property development and architecture in Ahmedabad – ProQuest [University of California, Berkeley].
- Bimal Patel. (1988). Form, space and order: Learning from formal structure in Indian Islamic architecture. University of California, Berkeley.
And many more…
Teaching
- Visiting Faculty at School of Architecture and School of Planning, CEPT, Ahmedabad, India
- Guest Lectures: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; LBSNAA, Mussoorie
Awards and honors
- Padma Shri, 2019
- Distinguished Alumnus Award, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley, 2008
- Prime Ministerʼs National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design, awarded to the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, 2006
- World Architecture Award, 2001
- UNCHS, Best Practices Award, 1998
- The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 1992
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