Bimal Patel


Dr. Bimal Patel is an architect from Gujarat, India, with over 35 years of professional, research and teaching experience in architecture, urban design and urban planning. He is the President of CEPT University in Ahmedabad and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal. Dr. Patel leads ., an architecture, planning and project management firm. He also founded Environmental Planning Collaborative, a not-for-profit, planning research and advocacy organization.
Dr. Patel’s practice has focused on transforming urban design and planning practice to make them more effective in improving Indian cities. His research interests are in Land Use Planning, Real Estate Markets, Building Regulations, Land Management and Urban Planning History. He received the Padma Shri Award for his contributions in the fields of Architecture and Planning in 2019.

Early life and education

Dr. Bimal Patel lives and practices architecture and city planning in Ahmedabad, India. 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 , 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 in 1995. He worked closely with Prof. Allan Jacobs, Prof. Donlyn Lyndon, Prof. Manuel Castells and at the CED and Prof. Richard Walker of the Geography Department. UC Berkeley and the openness of CED provided him with the opportunity and freedom for intellectual exploration beyond the confines of Architecture and City Planning.

Career

In 1990, Patel joined his father's practice in Ahmedabad. One of his first building design projects, a campus for The Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad, 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, C G Road Redevelopment, Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Gujarat High Court, IIM Ahmedabad New Campus, Kankaria Lake Development, Sabarmati Riverfront Development and the Swarnim Sankul at Gandhinagar.
His work and his projects have been conferred with numerous awards including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, UN Centre for Human Settlements Award of Excellence, World Architecture Award and the Prime Minister’s National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design. He was bestowed with the Padma Shri Award in 2019.
Dr. Patel is President of CEPT University in Ahmedabad since 2012. CEPT University focuses on understanding, designing, planning, constructing and managing human habitats. His work there involves academics as well as institutional leadership and development.

Significant projects

Architecture and Urban Design

In Periodicals