‘Design is a functional expression of art’: Preshita Shah Gupta in Room For More Art

Abir Pothi presents Room For More Art —a series of features on interior designers across geographic boundaries, discussing with them the nuances of their profession, their methods of sourcing and projecting art into their work, the challenges they face, and a whole lot more perspective.

Preshita Shah Gupta: When art and design are two sides of one coin

Architecture, interiors and art — these are the cornerstones of practice at The Design Chapel, founded in 2014 by Mumbai-based Preshita Shah Gupta, an alumna of the Centre of Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT University), Ahmedabad, and an interior architecture student of the School of Interior Design (SID). A painter herself, Preshita operates on the philosophy that design is about engaging the audience and user in empathetic storytelling — that like art, spaces should evoke emotions, too. Her relationship with art began very young, as her mother is a painter, and she grew up around canvases, colours and artists in her home. She finds that design is a more structured, pragmatic and functional expression or take on art, which has always been a strong way to express feelings and emotions. And, Preshita insists that art plays a subtle, underlying role in every design profession — the two are symbiotic and cannot be separated from each other. In her practice, she believes in a holistic and tectonic approach to realizing design ideas, executed via continuous and careful dialogue with structure, details, art, material and order. As a result, her vast experience in executing residential, commercial and hospitality projects has witnessed the creation of spaces that are classy and comfortable at the same time, with a subtle display of practicality blended with aesthetic value. Preshita also ensures that her well-lit spaces have a touch of beauty infused into them to soothe the mind of the user, such as through wall art, indoor flora, statement fixtures, and more.

Some samples of her work: