Opolis is a practice of two individuals- Sonal Sancheti and Rahul Gore,  who work together as their ideologies are aligned and synched. Sonal and Rahul have had the same education (B.arch at CEPT and Masters at UCLA)  , travelled together and both trained at Maki and Associates, Japan- a large part of their earlier careers that they built together,  is to which they owe their successful coalition.

Their practice emerged in Mumbai in 2001 , with a keen focus on Interiors and architecture and has evolved to do urban design and masterplanning as well. They have a portfolio of over 98 completed projects in wide ranging sectors- institutional, hospitality, corporate, retail , residential or urban across the wide landscape of India. 

The core beliefs that they hold onto are the values they have for design time , commitment of delivery to clients in the decided time  and working as a ‘family’ of specialized generalists. They believe in the act of making and learning by doing rigorously. The firm is riveted to maintaining a certain cost and delivering appropriately that allows them to set high and work rigorously for that rather than negotiating for cost and giving less work proportionately. This helps them in levelling cost and reputation both. 

 

By Working on similar typologies , the office tends to evolve their decision making, ability to foresee problems and subsequently create a course of action. The drawings are meticulously checked by Rahul and Sonal after every stage before leaving the office, which is also a way in which they keep evolving the drawing standards. The hand plays a role and methods of working by the hand are ingrained in the process by the principals, reinforced in the very act of ‘Model making’ ( both for interior and architecture projects), which becomes a communal activity within the office, over which conversations occur, designs are modified, ideas are ceded, people are forced to interact and react. The inculcation of this ideal helps in communication, collaboration and helps keep everyone on the same line, while contributing to design.  

 

The office functions horizontally where within a team of 12 architects, all projects, interior and architecture are handled by everyone. Model making is often done by interns, except for which all  are involved at every step in the process. Every project involves both Rahul and Sonal along with the architects or the interior designer , where only after a certain point in the project, one of them releases the baton and the other supervises only for execution purposes. This results in holistic development of the architect’s skills on different aspects of design across projects. They have had architects who have learned and moved out from office to join larger offices or do practice whereas have some architects who have now been working for more than 15 years in the office.

 

In the interview with Rahul Gore, stark differences between practices of Interior and Architecture came up. Also, the pro bonos of doing both together were discussed that revealed interesting implications on monetary aspects ( that mainly only remain in knowledge of the principals and everyone is encouraged to work on everything with same passion) , design time and hence on the mindset of members working on interior verses those on architecture as division of work changes. Involvement in the interior design helped the firm to set up systems also. An interior project being intensive and demanding, can be handled singularly  by a senior architect whereas 2-3 architectural projects can be handled by the architect simultaneously. 

 

Rahul says that the collaboration with Maki and Associates on the ‘Bihar Museum’ was a game changer for the practice, that could happen only because they were ideologically aligned. That helped them improve their drawing standards as in the process, the drawings would go to various offices and deemed architects. Over time , they have been able to develop drawing standards , while they have no stringent details or standards when it comes to design. However, Rahul believes that details keep evolving over projects , reused, rethought, modified to capture the essence which is necessary because as one gets over detailing , there are chances of more explorations in the project on other aspects. Hence, Competition and collaborations are keystones in the development and growth of a practice!