Dikshu Kukreja

Name

Dikshu Kukreja

Company Name

CP Kukreja Architects

The largest unwritten document, as Dikshu Kukreja calls architecture, was one he always wondered about even as a child. Fuelled by the determination of proving his talent to his father — senior architect CP Kukreja and founder of CP Kukreja Architects — he pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture at SPA, New Delhi, followed by a Master’s in Urban Design at Harvard University. At the Taliesin Fellowship at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, he learnt the importance of ‘Learning by Doing’. The renovation of the prestigious Delhi Gymkhana Club and the restoration and extension of the Oberoi property in Srinagar (which was taken over by the Lalit Hotel Group) — the first two projects he handled on his return to India, after working with the legendary architect Kevin Roche in the US — taught him how to deal with private and government clients. Respecting the power that architecture wields when it comes to changing societies and affecting people’s lives, Kukreja strongly believes in creating meaningful spaces that celebrate positivity. This sentiment is embodied in the two projects he considers as milestones: the 500-acre Gautam Buddha University (significant owing to its sheer scale and the ideology of the design) and the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) project in the capital city that symbolises a major breakthrough in city planning.