In conversation with Soumitro and Nisha Mathew Ghosh

Soumitro and Nisha met each other at CEPT School of Architecture in Ahmedabad before starting their practice in 1995 in Bengaluru. “It was a touch-and-go thing. My dad passed away the year when I was planning my undergraduate studies admission. We found under his pillow the brochure of CEPT Ahmedabad,” Nisha shares. Soumitro studied seven semesters at Lucknow’s Government College of Architecture before transferring to CEPT on the advice of his mentor, Shubrajit Das who also helped him with an internship at Dr B.V. Doshi’s Studio SANGATH, beginning a lifelong association with the Pritzker laureate. Architecture, they believe, is not measured by form but by context. On any given day in Bengaluru, a motley crew gathers at Bob’s Bar in Indiranagar, jostling for a prized spot beneath tree-filtered light in the courtyard, overlooking the street. There is deliberately no music, but no one complains about the hubbub. (Bob’s, for the uninitiated, is a rite of passage.) Or they take the scenic route and find themselves at Byg Brewski Brewing Company in Hennur, a microbrewery that put the city’s pub culture on the map, redefining the typology itself. Then there’s a weekend visit to the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), where visitors are drawn in by an exhibit or the glimmer of the rainbow film on the stairs. Many may not know that these spaces bear the mark of Mathew and Ghosh Architects. And perhaps that is the real test: when architecture becomes so embedded in the life of a city, it slips quietly into its collective memory and identity.“I realised that architecture was actually not enough,” Nisha tells us.

From working with eager but unemployed women in Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) as a project for upcycling virgin textile waste and raising design awareness to upskilling economically challenged individuals with weaving stainless-steel wire products, her work often veers into the sphere of art and society. “It is difficult to reflect and say where it begins and when it starts to make sense,” Soumitro muses about his design process, “It fluctuates between observation and the pragmatic, between material as light, mass, space, structure and the experience of inhabitation.” This intentional practice of delayed definition allows their studio to not be informed by the image of architecture but by the multiplicity of factors that form the social, the political, and the environmental. Nisha and Soumitro have cultivated this approach of looking at design as part of a larger whole since their time at CEPT. After three decades, it has become a reflex, manifested more than ever through the Mathew and Ghosh Sustainable Creation Care Foundation. Contemplating the socio-cultural context of their practice, Soumitro muses, “I’ve always wondered why monarchies produced better public spaces, and why in a democracy (by the people and for the people) architecture suffers more than it ever did.” It is a provocation that reveals his deep engagement with history, politics and society. It brings us back to the project we began with and what it says about the two designers’ relationship with the city. As the sole site of protest in the city, Freedom Park was never meant to hold crowds as large as it is seeing today. “We often assume infrastructure, especially public spaces, can sustain the engagement it initiates, but that is not so,” he says. Their involvement has not ended with the creation of the urban park designed early in their practice. They’re currently in talks with the BBMP, the Bengaluru city body, to form creative partnerships to enliven the park and restore it so that people come more often with purpose and joy. As it would appear, design and democracy are both acts of constant negotiation, demanding engaged practice and critique. “The story of architecture,” Nisha posits, “begins and ends with people.”

At the intersection of art, memory and politics, Nisha Mathew and Soumitro Ghosh trace the arc of their praxis over the years

BYG BREWSKI BREWING COMPANY, BENGALURU

If there were one place responsible for rewiring the pub culture of Bengaluru for tourists and long term visitors alike, it would be this. Modelled after the dramatic openness of the Roman Colosseum, Byg Brewski on Hennur Bagalur Road was the largest brew pub in Asia at the time of its conception. The central open space presents as a stage for events, bringing together the community of patrons along with the multiple levels and smaller open spaces. Recycled materials like Mangalore tiles, local stones and rainwater-fed cascades create a richness of experience.

MUSEUM OF ART & PHOTOGRAPHY (MAP), BENGALURU

Housing a diverse collection from the Indian subcontinent, MAP situates itself squarely in the narrative of the city. In a dynamic interplay between structure and skin, it is clad in embossed stainless steel, evoking water tanks, likening the crucial role of art in society to the preciousness of water.

CINNAMON, BENGALURU

Rai Bahadur Arcot Narrainswamy Mudaliar, a philanthropist and social reformer, established an orphanage during the Great Famine of 1876–78, with its foundation laid in 1892. Located in Halasuru’s wetland zone, the structure suffered severe damage over 120 years and now has been carefully conserved and adapted into a boutique store called Cinnamon, acting as a space for design and culture. Restoration involved underpinning the foundation and stitching fractured corners with stone slabs and steel staples to ensure structural continuity. These efforts addressed the foundation, walls and roof, extending the building’s life. In a city where heritage is rapidly vanishing, such projects reclaim fragments of Bengaluru’s layered past.

A HOUSE IN NILGIRI

Set in the Nilgiris, this weekend home dubbed Wildgrass explores outdoor living through material choices and climate responsiveness. Inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World, the residence is arranged around a central seating area overlooking forested valleys. A cantilevered living block faces the western horizon, while a glass and steel bridge links it to the sleeping quarters. Careful site intervention included water harvesting, retaining native boulders and minimising tree felling — prioritising memory, landscape and architectural clarity.

TIGER TIGER

The tiger sculpture by Nisha Mathew Ghosh sifts through the symbolic narrative of the animal and its socio-political appropriation. Handwoven in stainless steel wire, it operates in a paradoxical condition, where the tiger is associated with power while facing the ecological tragedy of diminishing populations.

FREEDOM PARK, BENGALURU

Built on the site of the former Central Jail, old and new come together as distinct forms in dialogue in this urban park, retaining abstracted elements like the panopticon tower and the barracks from the 19th-century predecessor. A faceted pavilion roof, independently supported, replaced the old structure. This layered composition brings tension and resolution together.

Read More: Nipa Doshi examines the intersections of practice and culture