Architect - Softcover

Snehals interest in the monumental architecture of the past...astonishes. As an architect, he hasresearched medieval water architecture in western India, and his studies in that neglected field hitherto are producing remarkably insightful information. Professor M A Dhaky, scholar emeritus, American Institute of Indian Studies ...he has strategically located himself between the past and the future. ...Snehal has over the last 20 years embarked upon an ambitious repertory of private and public buildings that testifies to a unique cosmopolitan sensibility and refined aesthetic. Dr George Michell, art and architecture historian

Snehal Shah believes in making architecture that is 'of its time', as a Gujarati proverb states, vakhat tevu vaju. History confirms that buildings appropriate to their time, place and climate, endure. In learning to build, his architecture adopted a variety of expressions -- with the constant being the will to manipulate light and ventilation to the best advantage. He studies vernacular techniques as well as learns from wider Indian exemplars and also Western architectural history. References from all these find their way into his buildings, along with his debt to the geometry of Louis Kahn and Mario Botta. In this book, Shah exhibits the work of 25 years in practice. He describes his concerns and development as an architect in parallel with the emergence of India onto the world stage as a mighty, populace, modern nation rich in contradictions. Snehal Shah studied at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, graduating in 1980. Earning his masters degree from the Architectural Association Graduate School in London, he returned to India in 1987 and began practice in Ahmedabad.