Creative urge produces everything out of nothing. Innovation enables one to find their way through insurmountable obstacles. Creativity and innovative spirits are complementary to each other, the way architecture and interior designs are mutually harmonizing aspects of civil engineering.

To build masterpieces out of empty spaces, shaping the nothingness into something beautiful and meaningful and with a purpose to nurture life into all its entirety into the flowing river of time, Aura Architects came into existence as the dream realization of Nimisha Kansagara, the Chief Architect and the Co-founder. 

Nimisha started her journey in the design field after completing her graduation with academic excellence in 2002. With dreams and aspirations to design something meaningful, she began working with senior architects and personal, small-scale projects with one laptop and many aspirations.

Belonging to a middle-class family and a society where women are generally full-time homemakers, she ventured into a completely male-dominated profession, balancing family life and professional life with perseverance to cross all the hurdles and gradually with her life and Design Partner Saket Kansagara established Aura Architects in 2006.

In an exclusive interview with the CIOLOOK INDIA team, Nimisha spoke about Aura Architects’ journey, achievements, and plans. The high points of it are given ahead.

Please describe your Firm in detail. 

Aura Architects is a design firm dealing in architecture, interior design, valuation, and turnkey design solutions since 2006 based in a fast developing city of Rajkot, Gujarat. As a young and dynamic firm, we believe in providing the best design services, from innovative concepts and thoughts on paper to materializing them in physical form. We believe that design is not just aesthetics; it’s how a space functions, experiences it creates, responds to the environment, and much beyond the physical form.

What was your inspiration behind venturing into the interior designing sector as a creative company?

The professions of architecture and interior design complement each other; venturing into interior design was more of a natural course than a logical one. Interior design is a profession where the free-flowing creative urges are more satisfied.

As a young architect, I initially resisted being recognized as an interior designer. Still, interior design is always considered more of a feminist profession, and gradually the two disciplines of architecture and interior design created a synergistic value for ‘Aura Architects.’ The main inspiration is to create spaces that are true to their purpose and designed to create a functional, aesthetic, and rich living experience.

What USPs make you stand out as an interior designing company?

Most effective and user-friendly space planning, minimalist and sustainable design solutions, innovative concepts and realistic budget and timeframe seamless process of design, execution, supervision, technology, and skill up gradation, friendly and approaching staff and office setup are the USPs that make us stand out as a promising interior design company. We believe in the theory of karma – believe in yourself and do work to the best of your abilities, and success and reward will follow automatically. We believe in creating a win-win situation for all associated with us.

What were the initial challenges after venturing into the field you are in, and what are the challenges now?

For any firm that starts from a zero, the initial challenges are always a lack of resources, finances, and infrastructure. But for a design firm, we require creative capability and a few clients willing to risk hiring without testimonials, and we were fortunate to have such clients. Back then, in 2006, the world was not so much social media driven, so challenges were lesser than now when a social media presence is a must for everyone.

Newer challenges are to remain updated with the technology and products and cater to a new techno-savvy generation more interested in virtual reality than physical reality. As an aspiring firm, it’s more important to expand the boundaries or territories of the work domain and reach globally. India is impacting the global economy, and we wish to be part of that impact.

Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how technology is transforming your sector and what future advancements we can expect.

Technology is transforming every sector and making its impact on how we design spaces and how we perform our day-to-day activities. As far as interior design is concerned, automation and upgraded gadgets govern how we live and conduct our daily rituals. Thermal comfort, voice commands, Mood and ambience lighting, security gadgets, WiFi connectivity, work from home, versatile work environments, etc. are changing the design parameters. Living and working in a world where information travels at a light speed greatly impacts the design process. Actual 3d walkthrough and digital visualization will add to the client’s experience of making an informed decision.

What would be your advice to aspirants willing to venture into your field?

Interior design is a field for only hard-core designers passionate about design and aesthetics and ready to put unending work hours into the profession. It demands fresh new concepts, dedicated hard work in transforming those concepts into technical details, coordinating with executing agencies, and getting a project executed. It’s not meant for people who want an easy life and fixed working hours, are unartistic, or are unwilling to explore venues beyond the conventional regime.

How do you envision scaling Aura Architects’ scope and offerings in the future?

We are targeting to create a team of highly efficient, future-ready, skilled, and technically qualified technocrats – a group of youth with a burning desire to create the best-of-life experiences of seamlessly designed spaces for the users of our services.

We aspire to make Aura Architects a global brand and promote the rich and diverse Indian arts and crafts and weave them with interior design, and present to the world a vibrant yet minimalist design trend. We wish to create a work platform where we can collaborate with designers across the globe and provide our services to newer areas.

Clients Testimonials:

• “Thank you, Nimisha and Saket, for helping me to redesign my home and clinic with your magic touch. You really have a very good vision of your design that comes truly magical at the end.” – Dr Neelesh Padodara, Priyadarshan Hospital.
• “It’s a very good design firm with a nice approach to work and a good client interaction and orientation.” – Nirav Godhani.
• “Innovative ideas, homely feel, and receptive mindset… what else you need… great place for the architectural feast.” – Dr Pareen Kantesariya, Joint Replacement Surgeon.