Lucknow: What’s common between the upcoming new passenger terminals at airports of Jammu, Jodhpur, Ayodhya, Leh and Imphal, or the futuristic, redeveloped Indian railway stations of Andheri (Mumbai), Secunderabad, Bengaluru and Gaya? All have been designed from scratch by a Lucknow-based family.
Vipul B Varshney, city architect and urban planner, specialises in healthcare projects and institutional buildings. Born and brought up in Lucknow, she was introduced to the concept of architecture by her father J P Gupta, the former deputy director in the town and country planning department. In her quest to learn designing structure she met her life partner, IIT Roorkee passout Anuj Varshney, a structural engineer. Together, they started with designing residences.
Their first project as a couple was a house for a family in city’s Khurramnagar. Later, they designed several buildings, including Software Park in Mauritius for a Chennai-based company and in other parts of the world.
“Till 2010, we had a laidback pace, despite clients at global level,” said Vipul, who is recipient of UP Ratan in 2013 by Indian Conference of Intellectuals, adding, “After our elder son Harsh (32) joined the firm, along with his wife Khushboo Bansal, they brought new ideas to the table and our team grew to 50 members.”
The family of four designed the new building of National School of Drama (New Delhi), worth Rs 1.8 billion and expected to be complete by November 2025. Designed by Harsh, the campus has been built as an environment-friendly hub of education, using modern and traditional concepts.
It will comprise auditorium block with capacity to seat 750, academic block and boys and girls hostels equipped with intelligent systems.
Their upcoming projects include Delhi University (North and Dhaka campus), Income Tax building in Lucknow, bank offices, cancer hospital, business centres in Mauritius, Singapore and England, and multiple group housing projects in New Zealand as well as in the national capital region.
Vipul said, “Concept of architecture has evolved and there is sensitivity towards the green building concept. The government of India has taken initiative to depict native architecture of the area in their projects.”
“Our Jodhpur airport project is in Rajputana style of architecture, while Jammu’s terminal building façade takes inspiration from former royal residence of the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir of the Dogra Dynasty. For Andheri station in Mumbai, we have gone for a global look depicting the financial capital of India,” she added.
