HCPDPM - HCP Design and Project Management Pvt. Ltd.

Early in his career Hasmukhbhai was able, with some financial help, to design and build
a residence for himself and his young family. This project, in which his wife Bhakti Patel
was an equal and able partner, was completed in 1968, and is still one of the finest single
family homes designed by him (the practice has designed and executed more than
100 homes over the years). At the time, it gave a “leg up” to the fledgling practice by
drawing in several commissions for single family homes. It was a project that he was
able to invite potential clients to and one that elucidated clearly the values and design
principles that M/s HCP stood for. The practice attracted younger talent as it grew in
strength. Mr. Jayant Gunjaria, who is still with HCPDPM, joined the firm on the 1st of
June 1969 as a young architecture graduate from M. S. University Baroda. Architect Leo
Pereira, who heads his own practice in Ahmedabad and teaches at CEPT, joined the firm
in mid 1968.
By the late 1960s, western Ahmedabad was expanding rapidly. Ashram Road, on the
west bank of the river Sabarmati was the new commercial hub. M/s HCP Architects
had grown steadily. The office on Astodia Road was now rather cramped. The previous
few years had also demonstrated the volatility and unpredictability of life in the
old city, and the time seemed right for M/s HCP to move out to the western suburbs.
Never one to shy away from risk, Hasmukhbhai took the plunge and purchased a 1250
sq. ft. office space in Bhavani Chambers on Ashram Road, a prime location at the time.
The office moved there in December 1969. M/s HCP was now a well established practice
with projects completed and underway not only in Ahmedabad, but all across the
smaller towns of Gujarat. Hasmukhbhai, never refused a project that was located in too
remote an area or seemed too insignificant in scope. Homes, hospitals, movie theatres,
schools, seminaries, apartment buildings or community halls were all tackled with the
same vigour – a need to be met, a design problem to be solved in the most efficient
and elegant way possible within a given set of circumstances. This approach to design
has remained the corner stone of the practice till today. The firm, even in the early days,
had built a strong reputation for “professionalism” in the fullest sense. Many young
architects who joined the firm in the 1960s and ‘70s, later went on to establish their
own practices.
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