IORA Studio is a design firm specializing in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Planning. Its services include Master Planning and Urban Design, with expertise in the fields of Urban & Regional Planning and Environmental Planning. Set up in November 2005 as Milind Patel Associates, IORA Studio is based in Ahmedabad and also has a branch office in Surat.
IORA Studio takes a holistic approach to every work and attempts to assimilate the various issues through a back-and-forth process of part-to-whole and whole-to-part. This approach creatively encompasses the micro-level and macro-level aspects into a built environment that is appropriate to the region, both in a geographical context as well as cultural context. The attempt is always to create built environments through a seamless coming together of the natural and the designed. We strive for sustainable urban growth through harmonious integration of economic and ecologic development, with the objective of creating urban forms that strike a balance between the universal and the contextual. In this regard, interpretation of regional dimensions and cultural associations is the guiding principle behind IORA Studio’s endeavours.
The vision of IORA Studio is to plan built environments in a sustainable manner through an in-depth understanding of the issues of regional development, regional disparity and the need for balanced regional planning in the context of globalization and rapid economic transformations. The works of IORA Studio at town/ city level include Regional Development Plans, Master Plans of large townships and Institutional Projects, Local Area Plans, formation of Development Control Regulations, formulating Urban Design guidelines, etc. With a premise that development is both inevitable and necessary, IORA Studio aims to reduce the impact of development on the natural environment. Landscape design creatively encompasses the environmental technologies of storm water management, recycling of grey water and rainwater harvesting.
Though a relatively young firm, IORA Studio has already provided planning consultancy services on several projects, both for private developers as well as the public sector. The projects are mainly divided into three categories: (a) Landscape Architecture, (b) Architecture, and (c) Urban Planning/ Research.