Sunita Kohli
| Sunita Kohli | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 28th, 1946 Lahore, British India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | Lady Shriram College, New Delhi and Lucknow University |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | Padma Shri |
| Practice | President, K2India (Architecture, Interior Design, Furniture, Restoration, Landscape, Construction) |
| Projects | Interior Projects: Rashtrapati Bhavan, Hyderabad House, Prime Minister's Office, Prime Minister's Residence, Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum, British Council Building in New Delhi; National Assembly Building, Thimpu, Bhutan; Hotel & Casino Mena House Oberoi in Cairo, Hotel Aswan Oberoi, Hotel EL-Arish Oberoi and luxury hotel boats on the Nile, notably the Oberoi Philae Cruiser in Egypt; residences in Sri Lanka; restoration hotel project in Lahore; Naila Fort in Jaipur. |
| Design | Known to be original, research-based and culture specific in response to different locations across India and other countries. |
Sunita Kohli is an Indian interior designer, architectural restorer and furniture manufacturer. She had restored and decorated Rashtrapati Bhavan (the President's House), Parliament House Colonnade (1985–1989), the Prime Minister's Office and Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1992.
Born in Lakshmi Mansions, a noted Victorian building in Lahore, to Indar Prakash and Chand Sur, Sunita Kohli grew up in a liberal household in Lucknow as her father was an Arya Samaji and who had migrated to Lucknow after the partition. She studied at a Roman Catholic convent in Lucknow. Growing up her father would take her along to auctions and sales, looking for old lamps and furniture. Later she graduated in English Literature from Lady Shri Ram College (Delhi University) in New Delhi, followed by an M.A. in English from Lucknow University.
She taught at Loreto Convent College, Lucknow, before the "accidental" start of her career in interior design. After her marriage, she and her husband started frequenting kabadi shops in their free time, looking for 19th century English furniture and lamps in Lucknow, Rajasthan and the hill resorts of Dehradun and Mussoorie. Soon Kohli converted her interest into an antiquarian business through which she sold Davenport desks and Regency wine tables. She learnt restoration of furniture from local master-craftsmen, which led to the start of her restoration business.
She established Sunita Kohli Interior Designs, an interior design firm in New Delhi, in 1971. In the following year was established Sunita Kohli & Company, which manufactures contemporary classic furniture and fine reproductions of Art Deco, Biedermeier and Anglo-Indian colonial furniture.Most recently, her company K2india whose CEO is her architect daughter Kohelika Kohli launched a fine collection of Mid-Century Furniture. Her career, added another dimension, when in the mid-1970s she established in partnership, another design firm which was commissioned to design a small hotel for the Oberoi Group, near the Khajuraho temples, The Oberoi in Bhubaneshwar and the Hotel Babylon in Baghdad. This firm closed but other hotel design projects followed in Cairo, Aswan and El-Arish in Egypt- The Oberoi Mena House Hotel and Casino, overlooking the Pyramids of Giza; two luxury hotel cruise boats on the Nile for the Oberoi Group; The Oberoi Aswan in Upper Egypt and The Oberoi in El-Arish, on the north coast of the Sinai Peninsula on the Mediterranean Sea. In the mid-90's, she designed The Oberoi Philae Cruiser, another luxury hotel boat. For Mr. PRS Oberoi, she restored and decorated, for his personal use, the 250-year-old Naila Fort, near Jaipur.
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