Abhay Panchasara
Founder, Principal Architect
Abhay is a practising architect and founder at Fifth Column. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the School of Architecture, CEPT University, Ahmedabad and a Masterclass certification from the Dessau Institute of Architecture (DIA), Bauhaus, Germany. Abhay’s keen interest in travelling and the knowledge and hands-on processes of making led him to pursue Architecture as a profession.
In 2009, he was awarded the Ermanno Piano Scholarship for interning at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) in Paris. His time at the RPBW played a pivotal role in shaping his approach to design and developing an acute sense of architectural detailing. In 2010, he was awarded the Kshitij Jain Jury’s Award by CEPT University for his academic design project of an ‘Ecohotel’.
With an experience of over a decade in the field, Abhay has worked on a diverse scale of projects spanning multiple geographical, climatic, socio-economic and cultural contexts. He has also led studio-based courses and design workshops as a Visting Faculty at the School of Environmental Design and Architecture (SEDA), Navrachana University from 2013-2017.
Ashna Patel
Co-founder, Principal Architect
Ashna is a practising architect, academic and co-founder at Fifth Column. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the School of Architecture, CEPT University, Ahmedabad and an MA in International Architectural Regeneration and Development from Oxford Brookes University, UK. In 2016, Ashna was awarded the Santander Student Project Grant for curating an exhibition of regeneration proposals from her Postgraduate program at the World Heritage City of Évora, Portugal. In 2018, she was awarded the Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellowship for research in Intangible Cultural Heritage. Along with practice, she has a keen interest in academic research, particularly, tourism-led urban regeneration in historic cities and interpretation of traditional architecture for contemporary design.
Ashna is currently pursuing her PhD in Architecture at CEPT University. She is also involved in managing the CEPT Conservation Site Schools Program at the Center for Heritage Conservation (CHC), CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). She has taught in the Masters in Conservation and Regeneration (MCR) program, Faculty of Architecture at CEPT University, Ahmedabad and the School of Environmental Design and Architecture (SEDA) at Navrachana University, Vadodara.