ABSTRACT
Perin Jamshedji Mistri1 was born in Mumbai in 1913 in a progressive Parsi family. Her father Jamsetjee Mistri was a renowned architect. Having had her early education in a Gujarati school in Mumbai, young Mistri entered as a boarder in Miss Kimmin’s High School in Panchagani. At the age of ten she went to England and completed her education from the Croydon High School. When she returned to Mumbai, she wished to pursue the legal profession. But at the behest of her father, she joined the Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (J. J.) School of Art. Being the first girl, dressed in simple skirt and blouse, she caused quite a flutter in the all-male bastion, even as she showed great talent for design. After obtaining her diploma in architecture in 1936, she joined her father’s firm M/s. Ditchburn, Mistri and Bhedwar in 1937 which was started in 1891 and had opened a branch in Karachi in 1916. She married Ardeshir Bhiwandiwala, founder-partner of Great Eastern Shipping Company, and encouraged both by her husband and by her father blazed a trail for women architects to follow. She preferred to use her maiden name in her professional life. She is believed to be the first woman architect to be professionally qualified in India.
