Eight partners - Krishna Parikh, Monik Shah, Vedanti Agarwal, Aman Amin, Kishan Shah, Manuni Patel, Prasik Chaudhari and Nishita Parmar - got together in 2017 to found Compartment S4, a design practice with studios in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bengaluru. With a mandate to create buildings and spaces that achieve social, economic, and environmental sustainability, the young studio has the principles of dialogue and research at its heart; and true to its collective nature, the concept of collaboration is central to its operation.
With eight partners at the helm, a firm spirit of cooperation is necessary to reach decisions, so design ideas are continually filtered through discussions among team members. Openness and diversity are equally valued in finding each project’s solution and enriching designs through a nuanced, layered approach.
This ethos has led to the completion of a series of projects with recent work including a public plaza in South Mumbai, an experiential sensory park in Uttarakhand, the development of a lake precinct in Chennai, a large private school in Ahmedabad, and several private residential projects. Meanwhile, Basa, a community tourism centre in rural Uttarakhand is considered a ‘defining moment’ by the team. The project engaged the local community and created livelihood opportunities for the women in the village, acting as a precursor to the firm’s broader, following work in public spaces.
‘We believe that project programming is as crucial as the design itself,’ the team says. ‘Establishing a well-considered program from the project's inception ensures feasibility and clarity while reinforcing an understanding of how built environments will serve the community long after they are completed. Regardless of a project's scale, we strive to create meaningful impacts on both the context and the community.’
Asked about what is missing from architecture today, they add: ‘The field often prioritises redundant stylistic statements over nuanced, context-specific decision-making. Compartment S4 believes that each project deserves a unique approach and fresh perspective, treating it as a blank slate—tabula rasa—to fully understand its complexities. Moreover, the discipline is increasingly preoccupied with the pursuit of the ideal image, turning architecture and design into an exercise in image-making rather than inculcating a deeper understanding of processes, materials, and users. This focus diminishes the potential impact that thoughtfully designed built environments can have on communities and their interactions.’
Alongside the studio’s building work, a series of discussions and workshops in academic settings, titled ‘Friday Night Conversations,’ offers the co-founders the opportunity to address the complexities of their profession with peers; while the studio’s self-published magazine ‘Unmute’ regularly invites contributors to write on pressing issues related to the built environment.
