Room For More Art: \’I call myself an artist before architect or entrepreneur,\’ says Dharal Surelia

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.

Dharal Surelia: A bright, youthful dynamic balanced out with elegance

It has been two enthusiastic years since architect Dharal Surelia founded her multi-disciplinary design practice based out of Ahmedabad, Butter Concepts. Today, the team has already successfully executed projects ranging from residential to commercial to interiors with bespoke furniture designing. Their design philosophy explores materials, palettes, forms and details while developing meaningful and efficient spaces and products. Dharal is armed with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from CEPT University in Gujarat and a Masters degree in Science in Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Babson College, USA. Interestingly, her thesis was on how environmental graphics create a beautiful experience inside any space, from paintings to wall art or even informative graphics — she strongly feels these change the way one experiences a space, giving it character and taking it a notch ahead on the aesthetic level. Dharal involves the client with spaces dedicated to art in a project right from the initial sketching stage and allocates art that does not distract, but enhances a space, generating a unique dynamic. An artist herself, she also customizes the art for many of her projects. In fact, she chooses to call herself an artist even before architect or entrepreneur, and says her sense of appreciation of art that stems from creating it herself — which is a very personal connection. At the same time, Dharal sources art from a wide variety of origins — in this endeavour, she says online forums and e-galleries are an invaluable portal to give art buyers more time to consider artworks, connect with them and budget for them accordingly, once their importance is embedded in their vision. She tries to integrate as much art as possible into a project, and not just paintings but also art of ceramic, glass, metal, wood and lots more. This translates into plenty of youthful energy, brightness, harnessing geometry, balanced colour schemes, elegance and modern yet classic designs in her projects.

Some samples of her work: