Himanshu Parikh


Himanshu Parikh is a leading Indian engineer.

Early life

Himanshu Parikh was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He graduated from Cambridge University, where he obtained both his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering sciences with honours. He practised in Cambridge for ten years before moving to India in 1982. In India, he has done innovative work in structural engineering as well as in urban planning, environmental upgradation and infrastructure design, with an emphasis on low-income urban and rural areas. His focus is to use water and environmental sanitation infrastructure as a principal catalyst of poverty alleviation. In structures, Mr. Parikh has developed the concept of ‘mindful buildings’ based on simplicity, frugality and multiplicity. Currently, he spends most of his time in India on developmental work, teaching intermittently.

Career

He established Himanshu Parikh Consulting Engineers in Ahmedabad, India in 1982.
His practice focuses on urban planning, infrastructure design, and environmental upgrading. He developed a new concept for slum development, Slum Networking.
On the structural engineering front, his work offers an alternative paradigm to "green buildings" in order to deliver affordable and low embodied energy structures within the holistic framework of light, ventilation and thermal comfort.

Teaching career

Parikh was a professor at the School of Planning, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, a visiting lecturer at the Human Settlements Management Institute in Delhi and has taught occasionally at Martin's School of Architecture at Cambridge University. He has also presented his concepts both in infrastructure and structures at several international fora.

Awards