HCPDPM - HCP Design and Project Management Pvt. Ltd.

A Modernism For India: The HCP Practice 1960-2010
Madhavi Desai and Miki Desai
The year was 1969. We were young, starry-eyed students of architecture, immensely pleased
at being invited to a party, at the newly built house of our teacher, Hasmukh Patel. The party
was in the back garden of this avant-garde modernist building. We were, of course, charmed
by it and also by the graciousness of the host ………….this is our lasting memory of Hasmukhbhai
Chandulal Patel, whose house still remains one of the best examples of Brutalist modern
architecture rooted in the Indian cultural context while adhering to international principles of
modernist design. His practice then bore the name M/s Hasmukh C. Patel Architects (HCP).
Today, when HCP Design and Project Management Pvt. Ltd. (HCPDPM) of Ahmedabad
celebrates its golden jubilee, it is also celebrating the grit, talent and vision of Hasmukh
Patel who began the practice in 1960 with 3 employees! Atmaram Gajjar, whose practice
was taken over by Hasmukh Patel, had a moderate legacy of good buildings mainly
in the revivalist style. Hasmukh Patel’s new practice shifted boldly to join the modern
movement. A purist modern movement took root in Ahmedabad when the Art Deco
and inklings of International Style were in vogue in Mumbai and Calcutta. Locally, there
existed, works by Gregson, Batley and King and international style landmarks, such as,
the ATIRA building by the late Achyut Kanvinde. The patrons of architecture in Ahmedabad,
however, embraced the modernist idiom unquestioningly. Within this scenario,
Hasmukh Patel, a Cornell graduate, focused on ‘professionalism and practice’ as the
core dictum of his architecture.
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