SAMEEP PADORA >>

Sameep Padora is the principal founder architect of 'sP+a' (Sameep Padora and Associates) in Mumbai, India. His projects include a varied range of interventions: product design, residential, commercial and hospitality design in which he has won awards of distinction and recognition. He won the 'Young Designer's Award 2000' in the product design category and the 'Innovative Designer of the Year' in January 2002. He also won the 'ARCASIA' award for the best Undergraduate thesis which was a documentation of 1000 year old Buddhist Monasteries in the Himalayas. His work has been published in 'Architectural Design', 'A+D', Indian Architect & Builder and 'Home Review'.
>Honorary position as the Speaker at the Urban Development Research Institute
>Advisory board member of the National Association of the Students of Architecture.
>Guest critic and guest lecturer in the Pillai College of Architecture, Rizvi College of Architecture and Academy of Architecture in Mumbai.

INTERVIEW: ARCHITECT SAMEEP PADORA.

Tell us about your first brush with design…what prompted you to pursue architectural design as a profession…
The interests early on were merely suggestive in expression, an interest in the poetics of varied everyday activities … the articulations and juxtaposition of varied materials and textures etc in matters of playful investigation. There was an inherent leaning towards the implied, the not so literal, an interest in artists like Nicholos Roerich and their imbibing of eastern spirituality in their work is a poignant memory.

What are your memories from your initial years at design school? Your early influences, styles that shaped your thinking.
Years at school were spent oscillating between early impressions of the work of Wright Corbusier and Nari Gandhi closer to home. Interactions with the work and personalities like Geoffrey Bawa and Laurie baker was also significant in shaping design ideologies at various stages of my time in design school. To the point where almost every design exercise and program was an expression of a specific interest. This retrospect was helpful cause it developed a greater understanding of typological architectural expression.
The writings and thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi were also a great influence and helped create a belief in the virtues of an uncompromising idealism. A belief in the idea that every individual had to be the change he/she wanted to see in the world.