Bimal Patel

Bimal H.

Patel
Dr. Bimal Patel, the son of Ar. Hasmukh Patel is one of the greatest
architects of India..
Practicing in Ahmedabad, Gujarat...
• EARLY LIFE & EDUCATION:

• Bimal Patel lives and practices architecture and city planning in Ahmedabad, India.
• Ahmedabad is also the city that he grew up in and its architectural history and planning culture
have influenced and informed his work.
• He studied at the School of Architecture, Center 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, Bimal 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.
• CARRER:

• While still working on his Ph.D. " Bimal Patel returned to India in 1990 and joined his father’s
architectural practice."
• One of his first building design projects, a campus for The Entrepreneurship Development Institute,
Ahmedabad, won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1992.
• In 2000 he was selected to build the New Campus for the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad.
• Over the years he has built up a significant body of architectural and urban design work ranging from
single family homes, to institutions, industrial buildings and urban redevelopment projects. HCPDPM
the firm that he heads has won numerous awards for its projects.
• Urban design projects, like the Kankaria Lake Development, are the first of their kind in the country.
• PHILOSOPHY:
• HCP is strongly committed to bringing effective and progressive management practices to design,
planning and construction. Its management philosophy is rooted in the belief that a collaborative
and fair approach is essential to ensuring high quality and timely implementation within available
resources
• AWARDS:
• Distinguished Alumnus Award, College of Environmental Design, University of California,
Berkeley, 2008
• Prime Minister's National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design, awarded to the
Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, 2002
• Emerging Architect Commendation Award, AR+D, 2001
• World Architecture Award, 2001
• Salzburg Seminar Fellowship, 2000
• UNCHS, Best Practices Award, 1998
• The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 1992
• Research Fellowship, American Institute of Indian Studies, 1990-91
• Newhouse Foundation Grant, 1988-89
• Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, 1987
• College of Environmental Design Council Scholarship, 1985–86
• PROJECTS:
AMA, Ahmedabad
• Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project,
Ahmedabad
Student Housing, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar
Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Bhat Gujarat High Court , Ahmedabad

• New Campus for IIM, Ahmedabad, 2010
• Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, Ahmedabad
• Kankaria Lakefront Redevelopment Project, Ahmedabad
• Student Housing, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar
• Ahmedabad Management Association , Ahmedabad
• Corporate Headquarters, Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bhat
• Newman Hall , Ahmedabad
• Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Bhat
• Gujarat High Court , Ahmedabad
• Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Bhat:
• The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) was established in 1983. It is located
close to Ahmedabad Airport at the village Bhat in Gandhinagar District. The project was a part of a
design competition which was won by Ar. Bimal Pate. It is a 23-acre (93,000 m2) lush green
campus consisting of residential facilities, classrooms, offices and a library, organised within seven
buildings and received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1992.
• Plan
• The campus consists of
residential facilities,
classrooms, offices and a
library, organised within
seven buildings linked by
two axes.
• An auditorium, to be built
in the future, will
complete the master plan.
• Here formal orthogonal
geometry dominates the
layout. Each of these
blocks is organized around
a central courtyard on
two levels. The buildings
are juxtaposed in the
landscape to create a 1. Entrance
2. Inquiry
series of outdoor spaces. 3. Administration
4. Training centre
5. Research centre
6. Library
7. Trainees hostel
8. Deluxe hostel
9. Kitchen-dinning
10. Auditorium(2nd phase)
• As Ahmedabad was founded in 1411 by Muslims who
endowed the city with a splendid mix of mosques,
mausoleums, courtyard houses, labyrinths of public
thoroughfares and alleys, private cul-de-sacs and
gates, Bimal Patel's design for the campus was strongly
influenced by his wish to establish a connection with
this rich accumulation of India's past.
• The jury commended Bimal Patel "for his confident
use of formal elements growing out of the Indo-
Islamic architectural heritage.
• A series of geometrically structured courtyards and
loggias are the primary organising framework. The
variation of open, closed and transitional spaces
provides light and shade, and creates an inviting
environment for work, interaction and repose."
• The EDI campus consists of a sequence of
spaces linked by courts and corridors, with five
verandah type buildings - three for
academics, placed on higher ground and two
for dormitories.
• The area of courts is large in proportion to
building heights, with landscaped paving and
the campus grounds are planted with
evergreen trees.
• Bimal Patel claims his design of this campus
was shaped by three factors: first, his Master's
thesis at California, where he studied formal
patterns in Indian Islamic architecture, while
reading the work new urbanist and new
classical architecture theorists. Secondly, an
awareness of the fact he was heading a design
firm that had for long been practicing a of
'Modem' architecture in western India,
and finally, the client's insistence on making a
campus that was in harmony with the
landscape - one that was not dependent on
artificial energy.
• MATERIAL PALLETE
Here Ar. Bimal Patel has used
exposed materials in order to
minimise the maintainance cost as
well as giving justice to the pallete
The architect's organisational

principles, as well as his use of a very
limited palette of building materials -
exposed brick, stone and wood with a
minimal application of reinforced
concrete, steel trusses and corrugated
aluminium sheet - directly reflect their
traditional Islamic sources.
• Iim-ahmedabad new campus
• The Indian Institute of
Management Ahmedabad (IIM
Ahmedabad, also known as
IIMA), was the second Indian
Institute of Management to be
established in India after IIM
Calcutta.
• It was built by Ar. Louis I. Kahn in
1961
• Later in 2001, Ar. Bimal Patel
won the national competition for
the extension of the old campus.
• The new campus is seperated by
a road from the old campus.
• The new campus acts as an
independent body with the
similar language and spirit.
• Plan
• Located on a 39-acre
plot, the extension
includes facilities like; 9
dormitories for 340
students; an academic
block with 5 classrooms
and seminar rooms;
administrative facilities ;
IMDC Hostels; 20 blocks
for married students; 6
VIP suites; a sports
complex; kitchen &
dining facilities; a CIIE
Block and 100
guestrooms.
• The public areas are
designed to be
accessible to the
disabled and adequate
land has been
demarcated for future
expansion.
• The underpass
• Although the new campus functions
independently from the old without
any direct visual link and even has its
own approach road and entrance
halls, it is connected to the old
campus by means of an underpass,
which houses an exhibition on Louis
Kahn’s work. The buildings of the
new campus use exposed concrete as
the primary building material with
fenestrations in a combination of
mild steel and wood.
• Comparing both, Kahn’s and Bimal Patel’s campus, Bimal Patel has tried to keep the Louis Kahn spirit
alive.
• There is a continuum, in both spirit and body. If one takes an aerial view and draws a straight line,
the classrooms and dormitories in both the campuses seem to be placed along it. Even the room
numbers are continued.
• Bimal Patel believed that to copy Louis Kahn is to insult him. To honour him, the new building had to
uphold the same values that he held dear.
• Bimal Patel densified

his plan, bringing
greater intensity to
those all-important
courtyards, corridors
and passageways
• According to him,
these open spaces
addressed one of the
perceived problems
of the Kahn site - that
many of the
professors saw its
‘empty spaces’ as
wasteful and
inefficient’
comparison
New campus Old campus
• Bimal Patel focused
on circulation by
using elevated
corridors as the
principal ordering
device same as
Kahn did.

• Bimal Patel has
used the bull’s eye
arches same as
Kahn in order to
maintain the
architectural
language of the
institute.
• Both of them used
scale as a mojar
factor to show the
monumentality of
the institutional
building.
• Similar to Louis New campus Old campus

Khan, Bimal Patel
also use exposed
materials in order to
give justice to the
materials.
• Louis Khan use
concrete with bricks
while Bimal Patel
used bricks with
concrete.

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Bimal H.

Student Housing, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar

Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Bhat Gujarat High Court , Ahmedabad

The architect's organisational

• Bimal Patel densified

New campus Old campus

• Similar to Louis New campus Old campus

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