ABSTRACT
Sensitized with the colours of Chicago School of Design and the Bauhaus, Mehta first travelled extensively around the country. Then she established her practice – Associated Architects – in Mumbai and designed a variety of buildings. Coming from a well-to-do family, she was well connected with people in civic administration, industrialists and nationalist leaders. Over a period of seven years, she shared her practice with Hema Sankalia, a younger architect who is also profiled in this chapter. Mehta was socially committed and as an urban planner was very conscious of the disparities between classes, especially in the provision of housing. She would design community buildings for very little remuneration. She was strongly grounded in art and graphics. The New Bombay Plan with basic guidelines was proposed in 1965 by Pravina Mehta along with Charles Correa and Shirish Patel. It was published by MARG (Modern Architects’ Research Group) and partially implemented by the state government.
