Samarth Das

Samarth Das is an Urban Designer and Architect based in Mumbai. He is a graduate with Honors of the Architecture and Urban Design Master’s program from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, and prior to that a graduate with Honors of the Bachelor of Architecture program at KRVIA, Mumbai.

Samarth’s work focuses on engaging public and private sector actors to design and articulate shared spaces within cities that promote participation and interaction amongst people and how architecture can perform an important role in shaping one’s experience of their built environment. He focuses on exploration of architectural and design narratives that drive the evolution and design of spaces for people in projects across various scales. Consciously stopping short of ‘high design’ endeavors, larger ideas and messaging of projects and how they speak to their context and people at large is what excites Samarth about the work that the practice engages in.

Since 2014 Samarth has been working in Mumbai as the Design Lead of PKDA Architects (formerly PK Das & Associates) founded by his father PK Das in 1980. He is currently working on projects that include the rejuvenation of the Irla Nullah precinct in the Mumbai suburb of Juhu, the design of the new Sales and Tax department offices for the State of Maharashtra, and the Marathi Bhasha Bhavan in Mumbai along with various other private sector engagements including airports, townships, commercial buildings and museums.

Samarth is one of the Founding Trustees of the “Equal Streets” Movement – a citizens group that promotes walking and cycling in Mumbai, as well as a Founding Trustee of PUDDI – Participatory Urban Design and Development Initiative. Other engagements include co-scripting and co-directing a documentary film in 2017, entitled “Reading Architecture Practice: Mumbai.”