About Us
MO-OF/ Mobile Offices is a design practice set up in 2001 in Mumbai which focuses on Architectural, Urban and Interior design. The studio is led by two principal architects Shantanu Poredi( AA, London; C.E.P.T. India) and Manisha Agarwal (Cornell, NY ; C.E.P.T. India).
The firm has completed projects of various program categories such as educational campus, hospitality, residential communities, offices, exhibitions and healthcare. The firm has also won the ‘Architect of the Year Award’ for a university group housing project in 2010 amongst several other awards. The firm had been invited to design the visitors pavilion at Urbanism and Architecture Biennale at Shenzhen, China in 2013. They have exhibited at the Aedes Gallery in Berlin and have been invited by the NAI and Dutch DFA for workshops and as speakers at conferences in Netherlands.
MO-OF’s interest in architecture and design stems from the debate on the evolving cities and the potential it offers a designer. The engagements with communities, the context the works are situated in, create design frameworks for the architectural rhetoric. The primary issues that the practice engages with are Social, cultural, environmental sustainability – these issues usher explorations that transform building types and typologies.
The firm won the first prize at the national open competition for the residential campus of the ‘Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University’ at Wardha in 2002 in their first year of practice. More recently in 2012 the firm won the first prize for the campus of ‘School of Planning and Architecture’ at Vijayawada with an area of 4,50,000 sqft which is presently under construction. A postgraduate boys’ hostel at the premier V.J.T.I engineering college in Mumbai was awarded in 2015 through a two stage competition.
Ideas are tested through the various competitions the practice engages with at all levels. This has led to an opportunity for realizing some of the largest projects of the practice. The firm has anticipated research areas that have raised curiosity with diverse subjects and ushered the practice towards an unsolicited architectural realm. The belief is that a repository of design knowledge is available to each member of the team working towards growth within the firm’s life cycle. The essence of the practice is embedded in the idea of collaboration with diverse co-creators. The practice has been informed by pedagogy and academic research through a multidisciplinary approach to design and its execution.
Manisha Agarwal
Architect, urban designer, academician and the founding partner of MO-OF Architects/Mobile Offices in Mumbai. She studied at the School of Architecture at CEPT, Ahmedabad (1996). In 1994 she received a fellowship for the student exchange program at the Bezalel Academy of Arts. Jerusalem, Israel. After a brief professional training period at Reinhold Pingel in Auroville, she worked with Kiran Kapadia Associates, Bombay after finishing from Ahmedabad.
She further pursued her Masters in Architecture (Urban Design) during 1998-2000 at Cornell University, New York where she received several scholarships. In 2000-2001 she worked as a project architect at Rafael Vinoly Architects in New York.
In 2001, she founded MO-OF along with her partner Shantanu Poredi in Mumbai. She is also currently visiting faculty at Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture, Mumbai where she has been teaching since the past 8 years.
Her areas of interest and concern are community housing, educational institutions, hospitality and environmental aspects of design.
Shantanu Poredi
Architect, urbanist, academician and the founding partner of MO-OF Architects/ Mobile Offices in Mumbai. He studied at the School of Architecture at CEPT, Ahmedabad (1995). After a brief professional training period with Anant Raje, he worked with Architects Combine, Bombay for four years after finishing from Ahmedabad.
He further pursued his Masters in Architecture (Urban Design) on a J.N. Tata Scholarship grant during 1997-1998 at the Architectural Association, London. In 1999-2000 he worked as an assistant architect at Terry Farrell and Partners, London.
In 2001, he founded MO-OF along with his partner Manisha Agarwal in Mumbai. He is currently visiting faculty at Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture, Mumbai where he has been teaching since the past 18 years.
He has been invited to lecture and also present the firms work in Amsterdam, Berlin, Shenzhen along with several other cities and towns in India. He has also been invited to speak at Indo German Urban-mela at Bangalore.
His areas of interest and concern are design of offices environments, healthcare institutions, educational institutions, exhibition design and art collaborations.
