Ar. Nilesh Gandhi, Metadesign

'Architecture is a noble profession', is what he learned and so the journey started for Ar. Nilesh Gandhi, Principal Architect at Metadesign (India) Pvt. Ltd. He graduated from Nasik College Of Architecture, and later pursued M.Arch in Construction Project Management from CEPT, Ahmedabad. He credits his academic journey to neighbour, senior architect Late Ar. Jadhav, who guided him into architecture, and his final year thesis on "Time Cost and Architecture" that laid the foundation for his CEPT journey.

After working with corporate giants like Gherzi Eastern, Shapoorji Pallonji and Edifice, Nilesh pursued his passion into practice. With strong ideology of 'organization before individual', and his firm belief in brand creation Metadesign emerged.

Identifying the importance of specialization early on, to be able to differentiate and survive in this competitive environment, Metadesign started with landscape design. They have designed and or developed more than 500 acres pan India, to build up a formidable landscape portfolio of projects across the country.

Operating in the field of landscape and greening spaces, one incident led to a very surprising and fortunate connect to Green buildings. Ar. Nilesh was amongst the first few to attain the global LEED AP+ accreditation. Extending its area of specialization, he and his firm Metadesign has played a pivotal role in certification of new and existing buildings like interiors, institutes, factories, not only pan India, but catering to the global arena as well. Metadesign put its first global foot print with a factory LEED certification in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Ar. Nilesh being an LEED AP+, IGBC AP, TERI Trainer and Evaluator, has kept abreast with the developments in the industry. With millions of square feet of spaces green certified till date, Metadesign also conducts Green building awareness workshops in its attempt to spread its expertise and help corporates embrace green buildings as an ideology. Keeping a tab on academics, Ar. Nilesh is a visiting faculty at several architecture and engineering colleges, contributing and has he says "learning" from the younger generation.

Joining back the dots in his career, Ar. Nilesh recollects a skit during Young Architects Festival in his college days, with his friend Indranil playing 'Prabhu' asking Nilesh as 'Parth' in a discussion at a tea stall, as to what he sees on the earth; to which "Parth" replies "nothing at all, but a Tree". "We owe it to our future generations" he says. His concerns for further research in environmental space got him an opportunity to pursue his Doctorate at IIT Bombay.


Nilesh's vision for Metadesign is to be the "Google" of design, developing deep rooted specialization competencies, for his fellow architects and clients. His uncanny 'detail-ability', and project management skill has carved out a path for Metadesign for a promising future. "It has to be different, or what use of it to be", says he. He feels an opportunity wasted if there isn't something created by self for society, worth being proud of. Nilesh strives hard to constantly raise the bar of performance, and do justice to each task at hand.

He sees a huge opportunity for architects to let their creative juices flow and achieve a deep sense of satisfaction in creating buildings that ought to last atleast a century, leaving behind their mark on the society. He is grateful to all the forces on the earth, which enabled him to be an architect, and wishes each one reading this, exciting times ahead. "Be the change you want to see in the world" is one of his favourite quotes by Gandhiji.