
SUNEET MOHINDRU
FOUNDER PRINCIPAL | PARTNER
Suneet Mohindru, practicing architect and landscape designer, founded ‘Oracles’.
The consultancy practice focusses on landscape design, planning and conservation with a view to bring to the fore intense theoretical background and passionate rigor.
Its foundations lie in its vision as an organization that would not only serve its patrons to deliver highest standards of professional work but also provide a fertile ground to foster young, aspiring individuals to develop and contribute collectively to the profession.
Having graduated in architecture from ‘School of Planning and Architecture’, New Delhi, in 1995, Suneet completed his Masters in Landscape Architecture from the same institute, bagging proficiency awards and gold medals for academic excellence for both the courses. These included the Narendra Juneja gold medal for the best final year thesis in Landscape as well as SPA gold medal for highest rank as an aggregate over the entire course. He also bagged the CM Master Memorial award for the best student in Architecture along with a general proficiency prize for ranking first in the five-year course duration. He received a merit award at the International Students competition organized by the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) at their 33rd World Congress in Italy for 21st Century Riparian Gardens. His pioneering research into site planning methodologies in the Himalayas and a critical, hands-on primary appraisal of post-earthquake construction in disaster-hit Uttarkashi town was picked up for further study by the Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture (CASA) at SPA, New Delhi with him being a key team member.
A fellowship from the Charles Wallace Trust took him to ‘De Montfort University’ in the UK for furthering his theoretical backing and practical experience in conservation of historical landscape precincts. He has pursued this as an academic interest and developed a detailed framework for documenting cultural sites and their settings. This research was published after a paper presentation at the XIII ICOMOS General Assembly in Madrid, Spain. His work on landscape conservation and heritage tourism in the historical town of Mandu in Madhya Pradesh was taken up by Indian National Trust for Architectural and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) for listing of open spaces and landscape character zones around monuments and natural settings in the fort-city. He was also a key member (as the Landscape consultant) for the International Design consortium that won the 1st prize in the two stage International design competition for the North South University, Dhaka.
His work and interests have seen him travel though the globe and acquire extensive exposure while also establishing strong collaborative bonds with leading international practices. He has constantly endeavored to use his consultancy practice to polish his own skills and engage in innovating responsive and responsible design ideas towards creating stimulating living and working environments. His key competence lies in developing landscape master-plans, open-space structure planning, landscape-urban interface, site planning and landscape design, context assessment, landscape history and theory, and landscape construction technologies.
Academics are Suneet’s strong parallel pursuit. He is appointed as Visiting Professor at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and Senior Advisor and Visiting Professor at the Landscape Department at PVP College of Architecture, Pune. He regularly engages himself with special courses, electives and as a jury member in various other institutes. Cultural Landscape, open spaces associated with learning environments and Hill Architecture have been his key research areas. Apart from being an active member in the studio design teams, he runs lectures on ‘Landscape Theory and History’ for graduate students at the Department of Landscape Architecture. He also leads studios and lectures for ‘Site planning’ at the Department of Urban Design.