Riyaz Tayyibji

Riyaz Tayyibji is the principal architect and partner at anthill design, Ahmedabad. Anthill Design is an architectural design firm from Ahmedabad. It has built across India in a large variety of places with different character, culture and landscape. It is deeply involved in the design of buildings that belong to the place where they are built, and emerge from the specific patterns of how they are to be used. Equally important to the design development is a keen understanding of material and structure. The firm has won national competitions and design awards for its work. Riyaz has been instrumental in rooting the firms practice in the documentation and research of architecture and urbanity. Under his direction the firm has documented, compiled and curated exhibitions on the architecture and history, of the city of Ahmedabad that have opened both abroad and in India. The most recent study and exhibition, ‘The Stepwells of Ahmedabad: A Conversation Between Water and Heritage’, documents 16 step wells in and around the city of Ahmedabad, framing the architecture of these structures within a narrative of urbanity, gender, inhabitation and heritage. In continuation of his interest in architectural documentation, Riyaz has been the co-odinator for the Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission, a project to document 34 buildings built by, or related to the life of M.K. Gandhi. He also recently restored Mr. Gandhi’s Bicycle. A former lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture, Cept University Ahmedabad. his academic experience has extended to being a visiting instructor at the Ecole Speciale, Paris. He has actively been writing on a variety of architectural subjects. The architecture of the city of Ahmedabad is a subject that he often returns to. Recently he has published an architectural guide to the city.