Dr. Bimal Patel is an architect, urban designer, urban planner and an academic. For over thirty years, he has crisscrossed disciplinary, professional and institutional boundaries to explore how architecture, urban design and urban planning can enrich the lives of people living in India’s cities.

He is the Chairman of CRDF and President of CEPT University in Ahmedabad, which is focused on training professionals in the disciplines of human habitat.  Dr. Patel heads HCP which is a fifty-year-old multi-disciplinary design, planning and management firm based in Ahmedabad. At HCP, he has led work on a wide range of residential, institutional, commercial, housing, industrial and urban design and urban planning projects across India. 

His significant and award winning projects include the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad, Ahmedabad Management Association, Bhuj Development Plan and Town Planning Schemes (post-earthquake), C G Road Redevelopment, Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Gujarat High Court, Himmatnagar Canalfront Development, IIM Ahmedabad New Campus, Kankaria Lake Development, Sabarmati Riverfront Development and the Swarnim Sankul.

His work and his projects have been conferred with numerous awards including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (1992), World Architecture Award (1997), UN Centre for Human Settlements Award of Excellence (1998), Architecture Review High Commendation Award (2001), Prime Minister’s National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design (2003) and the HUDCO Design Award (2013). He was bestowed with the Padma Shri Award in 2019.

He received a Diploma in Architecture from the School of Architecture (now CEPT University) in 1984.  He holds a Master’s in Architecture, a Master’s in City Planning and a PhD in City and Regional Planning in 1995 from the University of California, Berkeley.