Ar Aniket Bhagwat is one of India’s most respected landscape architects, carrying forward a legacy that spans three generations of a family deeply rooted in the relationship between people and the natural world. He is the principal of M/s Prabhakar B. Bhagwat, a practice founded in 1973 by his father, Prabhakar Bhagwat, who is widely regarded as one of the founding figures of professional landscape architecture in India. Over four decades of practice, he has worked across an extraordinary range of scales — from intimate heritage gardens and Rajasthan palace courtyards to large-scale affordable housing townships, city master plans and ecological restoration projects. He is also one of the key figures behind the UN Mehta Foundation’s public parks initiative in Ahmedabad, a first-of-its-kind private-public partnership that has transformed over twenty public parks in the city and is being studied internationally. He leads a studio of seventy people that is known as much for its radical transparency and ethical rigour as for the quality of its landscapes.
Website: https://www.landscapeindia.net/home
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/landscapeindia/
Guest Recommendation: Ar. Girish Dariyav Karnawat
Aniket is also the driving force behind LEAF — the Landscape Environment Advancement Foundation — a not-for-profit trust established in 2007 as an extension of M/s Prabhakar B. Bhagwat, dedicated to research, education and the advancement of landscape and environmental thinking in India. LEAF undertakes independent research on plant material, landscape design and environmental sustainability, while also running countrywide impact projects, exhibitions and fellowship programmes that bring this knowledge directly into public discourse and design practice. LEAF remains one of the very few organisations in the country committed to making landscape research freely accessible to everyone — designers, students and citizens alike.
https://leaf-india.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leaf_foundation/
Destination 100 (The Making of Smart Cities in India) (First Edition, 2014)
Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/Destination-Making-Smart-Cities-India/dp/8192468615
Ahmedabad’s Parimal Garden offers a poignant reflection of the city since the 1950s
https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/ahmedabads-parimal-garden-offers-a-poignant-reflection-of-the-city-since-the-1950s-prabhakar-bhagwat-landscape-architecture/
Chapters:
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction: A Newbie Meets a Legend
01:23 – Why Landscape Architecture is the Mother of All Arts
10:12 – Why Architects Still Don’t Understand Landscape
20:29 – The Indian Garden
29:08 – Measuring Success: Awards, Peers & Inner Validation
39:18 – The Real Scope of Landscape Architecture
42:40 – The Legacy of His Father – Origins of the Practice
56:47 – Aniket’s Personal Journey
01:10:15 – Work Ethic, Daily Joy & Talking to Your Work
01:24:38 – Honesty — The Only Real Inheritance
01:34:49 – Design Cannot Be Taught
01:38:13 – What Is Wrong with Design Education in India
01:50:00 – Portfolio Showcase
01:51:21 – Timba: Resurrecting a Dead Quarry into a Living Forest
02:25:23 – What is Restoration?
02:31:50 – DEVIGARH Fort: Reading a Palace Like a Story
03:08:31 – History and Symbolism
03:37:37 – PALAVA: Building City From Scratch
03:52:20 – What Indian Cities Get Wrong
04:25:21 – THE LITTLE GARDEN
04:46:04 – The Birth of a Garden
04:58:44 – Public Parks as True Patronage – The Ahmedabad Story
05:06:44 – Parimal Garden: Designing for Everyone
05:19:15 – Are Public Parks Truly Democratic?
05:38:10 – Heritage Garden: The Fort Wall & Storytelling in Landscape
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11 Comments
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction: A Newbie Meets a Legend
01:23 – Why Landscape Architecture is the Mother of All Arts
10:12 – Why Architects Still Don’t Understand Landscape
20:29 – The Indian Garden
29:08 – Measuring Success: Awards, Peers & Inner Validation
39:18 – The Real Scope of Landscape Architecture
42:40 – The Legacy of His Father – Origins of the Practice
56:47 – Aniket’s Personal Journey
01:10:15 – Work Ethic, Daily Joy & Talking to Your Work
01:24:38 – Honesty — The Only Real Inheritance
01:34:49 – Design Cannot Be Taught
01:38:13 – What Is Wrong with Design Education in India
01:50:00 – Portfolio Showcase
01:51:21 – Timba: Resurrecting a Dead Quarry into a Living Forest
02:25:23 – What is Restoration?
02:31:50 – DEVIGARH Fort: Reading a Palace Like a Story
03:08:31 – History and Symbolism
03:37:37 – PALAVA: Building City From Scratch
03:52:20 – What Indian Cities Get Wrong
04:25:21 – THE LITTLE GARDEN
04:46:04 – The Birth of a Garden
04:58:44 – Public Parks as True Patronage – The Ahmedabad Story
05:06:44 – Parimal Garden: Designing for Everyone
05:19:15 – Are Public Parks Truly Democratic?
05:38:10 – Heritage Garden: The Fort Wall & Storytelling in Landscape
Marathon 6 hours… what a ride… great stories and learning into the enchanting world of landscape architecture … thank you for this brilliant podcast
Good one, good one
Too much ad. Just too much
Amazing 👍
Even at 2x speed, It's 3 Hrs
❤
The man has discovered shunya in landscaping what a wonder
Loved this..
Loved the heritage park, Little garden part,
How he thinks and perceives things is amazing,
but please do talk about A'bad Riverfront with Him, and release that conversation as well 👏🏽🙌🏽
There is so much depth in this podcast.
What a journey .. excited to see the profession is featured in the best possible way, Many thanks for this podcast