MAVERICK OF DESIGN
ARCHITECT VINOO CHADHA IS AN OLD SCHOOL ARTISTE GIVING KOLKATA’S SKYLINE A CONTEMPORARY TWIST
Idon’t know AutoCAD—a software for architects and designers to produce 3D designs. I have to work with paper and pencil,” says Verinder Kumar Chadha, 55 better known as Vinoo Chadha, architect and owner of The Design Cell, a reputed architectural firm that’s behind many recent and forthcoming Kolkata landmarks.
Born and raised in Kolkata, Vinoo Chadha always knew he had an artistic flair and had long given up on the idea of joining the family business of lubricants after studying in St Thomas’ Boys School. After cracking the entrance test to the then Maulana Azad College of Engineering, Bhopal, he also
managed an internship under architect and interiors design consultant, Ashish Bhattacharya. “When I went to him looking for work, he was quite surprised that I was a first year student. He asked if I knew anything at all about architecture. I said I didn’t and that’s why I was there to learn. He then told me the only job he could offer me would be to make coffee. I agreed, I made coffee for 15 days and I was hired,” he says. More than engineering school, those hands on years are what he counts as his best lessons.
Interiors is what he specialised in for long. After six months in a “regular nine-to-five job”, after college, he decided to start his own venture. “Architecturally Kolkata wasn’t that exciting then. People weren’t looking for anything new so I started off with interiors taking in one room or two room projects. No job is too small,” he says. The Design Cell handles projects that range in value from Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000 for a square feet.
Mahal Lampshades on Ballygunge Circular Road, his very first project, is now a well-known landmark on the street. More retail outlets follow, especially big snazzy showrooms in Park Street. So much so that it is impossible to shop in Park Street without hitting a store designed by Chadha. Diwansons, Rozelles, Panghat, Skipper, Straavi—Chadha has left his mark on each of these.
One of the most recent challenges for Chadha was designing the The Park Plaza. “It didn’t look like a large enough space for a city hotel. It was a little less than four acres with a narrow approach road. The challenge was to get that sense of space. We had to make sure every inch of the space was used. No columns in the lobby give you that sense of space. It doesn’t feel cramped,” he explains.
Chadha believes in getting his hands dirty. “I was never formally educated in making tall buildings but now I’m working on one of the tallest towers in Kolkata (Unimark Solitaire). I got it because six years in a row I attended nearly every conference on high-rises in Dubai, Seoul, Singapore and more. I met with the best architects from across the world and that’s how I kept myself updated,” says Chadha. His travels are another source of learning and know-how for him. “I started going to Milan’s Salone nearly twenty years ago. I’d make it a point to travel and stay in budget one star hotels just for the exposure of seeing what the rest of the world is doing with design,” he says and makes it a point to visit the furniture fair every year.