2022 Spring Lecture Series: Khushnu Panthaki Hoof

This talk covers aspects across Studio Sangath’s practice from architecture to exhibition design, curation to book design and beyond. The constant effort has been to design for and with joy. Perception of lightness here refers to spatial experiences that make you feel light, joyful, calm, and immersed. This approach to architecture and design tries to seamlessly merge inside and outside, notion and reality, and silence and dialogue.

Khushnu Panthaki Hoof is an architect and designer living in Ahmedabad, India. Her research thesis at CEPT University examined the synesthetic experience of architecture with special reference to Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh, India. After graduating in 2003, Khushnu worked with Pritzker Laureate Balkrishna Doshi and continues to work on extensions of his earlier buildings. In 2014, she became the Director of the Vastushilpa Foundation for studies and research in Environmental Design.

Recently, she has been involved in post-occupancy studies. With Sönke Hoof, she is also co-founder of Studio Sangath. Their practice creates spaces through an integrated environmentally responsible approach. Among their projects, ‘Black Perch’ was shown at the India Pavilion, London Design Biennale in June 2021.

In 2014, the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi invited her to curate and design a retrospective exhibit of Balkrishna Doshi. A film on the exhibit with Khushnu as the creative director was the official selection at the Milan Design Film Festival in 2015. In 2018, together with Vitra Design Museum, she curated and designed the exhibit: Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People which traveled to Architekturmuseum in Munich, Architekturzentrum in Vienna and at Wrightwood659, Chicago. Khushnu also co-authored and edited the book, Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People that won the Richard Schlagman award of best book on contemporary architecture in 2019, and was listed as one of the best books of 2019 by New York Times. She is passionate about preserving and celebrating the subcontinent’s rich cultural heritage by supporting local artisans through proactive interventions and creating a platform for collaborative practices.

Architects earned 1 LU/HSW credit by attending this lecture.