Rahul Mehrotra (b.1959) studied at the School of Architecture, Ahmedabad and received a gold medal for his undergraduate dissertation. He graduated with a Master’s Degree in Urban Design, with distinction, in 1987 from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard.
The office of Rahul Mehrotra Associates was founded in August 1990 and has since designed and executed projects that include office interiors, boutiques, weekend houses, factories, institutes and office buildings. In addition, the practice has been involved in building conservation and master planning projects in the city of Bombay, thereby being engaged with diverse issues and a number of varying scales, from Interior Design and Architecture to Urban Design, Conservation and Planning.
From 1992 to 1999, Mehrotra has been member of the Committee that advises the Municipal Commissioner on the conservation of historic building and artifacts in the city. In 1995 he founded, and has been a principal in The Bombay Collaborative, a conservation architecture practice, which works with historic buildings in Bombay as well as consultant to organizations such as the Bombay Environmental Action Group, INTACH, The Orient Foundation, Portugal, Arch Foundation, (Austria) and various Neighborhood and Citizens Groups in Bombay. Since 1996, he has been on the Board of Governors of the Bombay Metropolitan Regional Development Authority’s Heritage Society, which administers grants for conservation projects in the region.
From January 1994, Rahul Mehrotra has been the Executive Director of the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) which promotes awareness and research on the city of Bombay through the organization on lectures, workshops and sponsoring of research projects and publications on the city.
Mehrotra has also been independently researching the city of Bombay and has written and lectured extensively on issues to do with architecture, conservation and urban planning in the city. His writings include co-authoring the book `Bombay - The Cities Within’ which covers Bombay’s Urban History from the 1600’s to the present, `Banganga - Sacred Tank’, `Public Places Bombay’, `Fort Walks -Walking Tours of Bombay Historic City Center’, ‘Anchoring a City Line’ - A History of the Commuter Railway in Bombay and `Bombay to Mumbai - Changing Perspectives’. He has also co-authored a book titled `Conserving an Image Center - The Fort Precinct in Bombay’, based on this study and recommendation the State Government declared the Fort area a Conservation Precinct in 1995. These books deal with the documentation and analysis of historic areas in the city as well as contemporary urban design and planning issues. His most recent publication is a book for the UIA which earmarks the end of the century and is titled `The Architecture of the 20th Century in the South Asian Region’.
The built work of Rahul Mehrotra include the LMW Corporate Office in Coimbatore, an Orphanage for Children of the World in New Bombay, the D.J. Institute of Management in Coimbatore and an extension to the Prince of Wales Museum in Bombay. Mehrotra has designed and built a number of houses around Bombay, in Alibag, Cochin, Indore, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Nasik, Pune and Lonavala. He has executed Factory Buildings, Office Buildings, a School for Deaf Children , a Winery and a number of Institutional buildings in and around Bombay. Rahul Mehrotra has also designed and executed interior projects which include the Jehangir Art Gallery and Sakshi Art Gallery in Bombay, as well as office interiors - including those for the Catholic Relief Services, Virgin Records and Turner Morrison. Mehrotra has worked on several Adaptive Reuse projects involving old buildings (often listed Heritage Buildings) in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Indore and Hyderabad. Currently, Mehrotra is working on a Rural Development Institute in Tuljapur, Digital’s Campus for Software Development in Bangalore, the restoration of the Chowmahalla Palace in Hyderabad and (with the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative), a Conservation Master Plan for the Taj Mahal.
The projects of Rahul Mehrotra Associates have been published in various architectural journals in India and abroad. In 1995, Interiors India nominated Mehrotra `Designer of the Year’. In 1996, Architectural Design (London) selected Rahul Mehrotra Associates for their issue entitled `Architecture on the Horizon’ – which covered emerging young practices from around the World. In 2003, Phaidon selected two projects designed by Mehrotra for inclusion in their Encyclopedia on Contemporary World Architecture – (published in May 2004) Shanti, a Weekend House and a house designed for a film-maker near Bombay.
Rahul Mehrotra Associates were awarded two honorary mentions for the Kenneth F. Brown Asia Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award 2000 for the LMW Corporate Head Office in Coimbatore and Shanti, a weekend house. In 2000, the firm received a J.K. Cements Award for the LMW Corporate Head Office. The projects of the firm have been exhibited at the RIBA in London, at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Ankara, Turkey, the Insitut Francais d’ Architecture, Paris, the Arts Biennale in Shanghai, the Aedes Gallery, Berlin and at the Claude Batley Architectural Gallery in Bombay.
Mehrotra has taught at The National Singapore University, (1998) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, (2000) where he is now an Associate Professor.