Dr. Bimal Patel is a practicing architect, urban designer, urban planner, and academic. He is the Director of HCP. Dr. Patel heads HCP and has led work on a wide range of institutional, commercial, housing, industrial, and urban design and urban planning projects across India. In 1996, Dr. Patel founded Environmental Planning Collaborative (EPC), a not-for-profit consultancy, policy research, and advocacy organization. EPC’s innovative approach and nationally recognized work have transformed planning and urban design in Gujarat.
For over thirty years he has traversed 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 received a Diploma in Architecture from the School of Architecture, in Ahmedabad, India in 1984. In 1981 he apprenticed with Prof. Frei Otto in Stuttgart Germany. Between 1985 and 1990, he studied, researched and taught at the University of California, Berkeley, from where he received a Masters in Architecture, a Masters in City Planning and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning in 1995.
Since 2012, Dr. Patel heads CEPT University as its President. In March 2019, Dr. Patel received the Padma Shri award for his work.