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 ROMI KHOSLA  (born Romesh Chander Khosla, 5th September 1941) is an architect and development planner who is based in India. He has designed a number of significant buildings, written extensively on architecture and cities as well as conservation. Many of his buildings have been published in International and national journals. Designing iconic buildings and cities of the future have formed the central concern in his practice and theoretical work. His Ultimate City proposal submitted at the Architectural Association under the Tutorship of Peter Cook, first established his reputation as an urban theorist. Subsequently, many years later, his design and definition of Natural Cities culminated his work on the future of urbanism. His architectural work includes an extensive number of building types that include private houses, group housing, corporate offices, schools, industrial  buildings, libraries and hospitals.

Early Years
 Romi Khosla  was born in 1941 in the Himalayan town of Muree in undivided India. Named Romesh Chandra Khosla, he abbreviated his name to Romi Khosla when he began his practice in 1974. He comes from a distinguished family of learned people. His Grand father Morari Lal was a majistrate in the service of His Majesty’s service which he quit in protest against the directives he received to sponsor communal violence in his district. He then served the Maharaja of Faridkote as his Foreign Minister. His brother, Bisheshwar Nath was the first member of the family to be educated at Cambridge in Emmanuel College Romi Khosla’s father was also admitted to the university and Emmanuel College, to come down and join the Indian Civil Service where he rose to become the Chief Justice of the Punjab. He had three sons of whom Romi is the youngest followed by a daughter. All the three sons were educated at Emmanuel College. Before going upto Cambridge, Romi Khosla moved to England in 1958 to complete his A levels at the Quaker School of Leighton Park in Reading. He graduated in Economics with honours in 1963 where he was taught by some of the most revered teachers in Economics attending courses by Amartya Sen, Joan Robinson, Maurice Dobb, E.A.G Robinson, Dr.W.J. McPherson.

On graduating from Cambridge, Khosla joined Price Waterhouse the accountancy firm in the City of London where he completed articles and Intermediate certificate of the Royal Institute of Chartered Accountants. Instead of preparing at a crammer for his Final Certificate in accountancy, he enrolled at St. Martin’s School of Art on the suggestion of both Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew  in whose house  he was rooming at the time. Although Jane Drew was The President of The Architectural Association then, she declined to endorse Khosla’s application for admission, stating that the portfolio of art prepared at St Martin’s would need to stand on its merits. Khosla was admitted to the Architectural Association in 1966 where his first year Tutor was Elia Zenghelis. He completed five years at the Architectural Association School completing the last two years of his studies under the tutorship of Peter Cook working on his thesis ‘Ultimate City’ which was published by Dennis Sharp in the Architectural Association Quarterly AAQ of Autumn 1972. The same year he married Kalpana Sahni, the daughter of the well known writer Bhisham Sahni.

Architectural Training and Work
On his return to Delhi in 1972, he joined the Firm of Kanvinde & Rai. He was however fired from his job for representing against the terms of work of the lower establishment employees. Two other employees, Narendra Dengle and Vasant Kamath also resigned in protest and the three got together to establish the partnership firm of ‘The Group for Rural and Urban Planning (The GRUP) focusing on rural buildings in Bihar, Bengal and Maharashtra. In 1984 he expanded the scope of architectural work and included Construction Management Service in a renamed practice GRUP-ISM. Some of his significant architectural work was done during the period 1976 and 1990 and included the Chakravarty House, Manali House and Semi Conductor Complex in Chandigarh.

In 1998 he left the practice of architecture to pursue his ideas on Development Planning with the United Nations Development Programme and UNESCO. During this time he worked in Palestine, Bulgaria, Romania, Kosovo, Cyprus, Tibet, Mainland China, Central Asia and Egypt. He has also undertaken pioneering work in the field of conservation for the Vice Regal Lodge Simla in consultation with Sir Bernard Fielden and Nako Temples on the Tibetan Border with World Monuments Fund and University of Vienna. In 2000 he was appointed as the evaluator for China’s application for World Heritage Property by ICOMOS and evaluated over 12 projects in China and Tibet. In 1998 he was invited to serve on the Aga Khan Award Jury with others including Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki and Fredrick Jameson.

In 2002, he returned to India and founded a new design practice in partnership with Martand Khosla known as Romi Khosla Design Studios. His design studio has won a number of International awards including Twist and Shout project currently under construction in Rotterdam. He was invited in 1999 to the ANYTIME conference in Istanbul for a presentation on his work. In 2001, he was invited to the ANYTHING conference in New York to present his proposals for a united Cannan a country with two states, Israel and Palestine.

He is a Trustee of India Foundation of the Arts, advisor to the Governing Council of the National Film and Television Institute and advisor to the Delhi Urban Arts Commission. Khosla is a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Architects.

Completed Projects
• 	Dental College Jamia Milia University, New Delhi –

• 	Volvo Eicher Headquarters, Gurgaon –

• 	United Breweries Corporate Headquarters, Bangalore –

• 	Polyclinic for Destitute patients, Delhi –

• 	M.F. Hussain Gallery of Art -

• 	School For Spastic Children. New Delhi. Book - A Concise History of Modern Architecture by Jon T. Lang

• 	Springdales School. New Delhi.

• 	Assam Valley School. Tezpur. Assam -

• 	Pathak Farms Delhi.Books.google.co.in/books. The Bungalow in Twentieth- Century India. Cultural Expression

Conceptual Projects
• 	Ultimate City AAQ AI 1974

• 	Kosovo House

• 	Tomohiro Museum

• 	Stratford Kiosk -

• 	Rotating House

• 	Peace Park Israel

• 	Rajiv Gandhi Memorial

• 	Silk Route reinterpreted

• 	The New Canaanites. Books.The Next Jerusalem Michael Sorkin.

• 	Natural Cities. Natural Cities