Bharat Patel
Founder, Aaditya Interior
Bharat is the founder of Aaditya Interior and leads client relationships, space planning and site execution across 180+ active projects.
Blog
Design notes.
Thoughts on homes, materials, detailing and craft – written by the people who design your spaces.
Latest Articles
From the partners' desk
Lighting
Ducted AC and False Ceiling Coordination
A ducted AC needs a ceiling void of about 350–450 mm over the unit and its main duct, a planned route around every beam, a return-air path, a drain with a proper fall and a 600 × 600 mm access panel. Get those five things drawn before the ceiling framing starts, and the system stays quiet, even and serviceable for years.
Bharat Patel · 09 Oct 2026 · 33 min read
History of Design
B.V. Doshi: India's Pritzker Architect and His Design Lessons
Balkrishna Doshi (1927–2023) became the first Indian to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 2018, for an architecture that joined modern construction to Indian climate, craft and everyday life. His buildings — Sangath, IIM Bangalore, Aranya and Amdavad ni Gufa — teach lessons that still work in any Indian home: shade first, light from above, generous thresholds, honest materials and space that can grow.
Afrin Mirza · 09 Oct 2026 · 24 min read
Commercial & Hospitality
Visual Merchandising Basics for Shop Owners
Visual merchandising is the planned placement of goods, light and signs so that customers notice, understand and pick up products. The basics are simple: keep an open entry zone, put key products between about 1200 and 1600 mm high, build displays as pyramids of three with one focal point, light goods brighter than the aisle, and refresh windows every few weeks.
Bharat Patel · 09 Oct 2026 · 27 min read
Vastu
Vastu Remedies Without Demolition
Most Vastu concerns in a built home can be addressed without breaking a wall: change which room is used for what, rearrange furniture, fix light and ventilation, and use colour and screens. Demolition is rarely justified for Vastu alone — and the fixes that help most, such as an exhaust fan, a foyer screen or a repainted dark corner, typically cost ₹3,000 to ₹1.5 lakh rather than lakhs.
Bharat Patel · 09 Oct 2026 · 28 min read
Materials & Finishes
Quartz Countertops: Brands, Sizes and Care
Quartz is engineered stone — mostly crushed quartz bound with resin — sold in slabs of about 3000 × 1400 mm (standard) and 3200 × 1600 mm (jumbo), in 15, 20 and 30 mm thicknesses. For an Indian kitchen, 20 mm quartz at about ₹250–600 per sq ft (indicative October 2026) is the sensible default; keep it away from hot pans, bleach and direct sun, and it needs no sealing.
Afrin Mirza · 09 Oct 2026 · 30 min read
Architecture & Planning
Porch and Car Parking Design
A comfortable single-car porch in an Indian bungalow is about 3000–3300 mm wide and 5500–6000 mm deep, with at least 2200–2400 mm clear under beams, a gate of 3000–3600 mm and a driveway slope no steeper than about 1:8 to 1:10. Get the paving build-up, the falls and the drains right, and plan an EV-ready circuit from day one.
Bharat Patel · 09 Oct 2026 · 26 min read
Cost Guides
Pooja Unit Cost Guide
A wall-mounted mandir with a backlit panel typically costs about ₹8,000–20,000 all-in, a full-height cabinet mandir about ₹38,000–73,000, and a small finished pooja room about ₹65,000–1.35 lakh before any wall changes (indicative October 2026). Size, finish and lighting decide the price far more than carving does.
Bharat Patel · 09 Oct 2026 · 25 min read
Design Styles
Wabi-Sabi Interior Design: Beauty in Imperfection
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese way of seeing that values the natural, the handmade, the worn and the incomplete; in an interior it means fewer objects, honest materials such as lime, clay, timber, stone and linen, a soft earthy palette and surfaces allowed to age. In Indian homes it works best as a calm base of lime-look walls, matt stone or oxide floors and solid wood, with one or two hand-crafted pieces per room rather than a styled collection.
Afrin Mirza · 08 Oct 2026 · 24 min read
Future of Design
Low-VOC Paints and Healthy Indoor Air
VOCs are solvents that evaporate from paints, enamels, polishes and adhesives and are a major source of the smell and indoor air pollution after a renovation. Choose water-based emulsions with a stated VOC content (low-VOC labels commonly mean under about 50 g/L; matt interior wall paints in the EU are capped at 30 g/L), switch to water-based enamels and wood finishes, and ventilate hard for at least 3–7 days after painting.
Afrin Mirza · 08 Oct 2026 · 22 min read
Heights & Depths
Lift (Elevator) Size Guide for Homes and Buildings
Typical Indian passenger lifts are sized by persons at 68 kg each: a 6-person car is roughly 1100 × 1000 mm in a shaft of about 1700–1800 × 1600–1700 mm, and an 8-person car roughly 1100 × 1400 mm in a shaft of about 1800–1900 × 1900–2100 mm, with a pit of about 1200–1500 mm and an overhead of about 3600–4200 mm for a 1 m/s lift. Home lifts need far less, but the exact shaft, pit and overhead must come from the licensed lift company before the structure is drawn.
Bharat Patel · 08 Oct 2026 · 23 min read
Room Ideas
Kitchen Island Design for Indian Homes
A kitchen island needs room: allow at least 1200 mm of clear aisle on every working side, which usually means a kitchen at least about 3.6 m wide for a wall run plus island, and about 4.5 m for two runs with an island between. A practical Indian island is 900 mm high, 900–1200 mm deep and 1500–2400 mm long, used for prep, serving and seating, with the main hob kept on a wall under a ducted chimney.
Afrin Mirza · 08 Oct 2026 · 22 min read
Architecture Icons
Indian Parliament Building (Central Vista): Design Overview
India has two Parliament buildings side by side on the Central Vista: the circular Parliament House designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker and opened in 1927, and the triangular new Parliament building designed by Bimal Patel of HCP Design and inaugurated in May 2023. The first is organised around a domed central hall ringed by chambers; the second places a central hall between two large chambers seating 888 and 384 members.
Bharat Patel · 08 Oct 2026 · 22 min read
The People
Meet the partners
Afrin Mirza
Co-founder, Aaditya Interior
Afrin is the co-founder of Aaditya Interior, leading the design studio – materials, colour, detailing and finishing – along with the office and design team at Katargam, Surat.