With nearly two decades spent shaping some of India’s most complex aviation infrastructure, Architect Neha Bagrecha, Head of Design at Adani Ahmedabad International Airport Ltd., has built her career at the intersection of architectural vision and real-world delivery. From Mumbai’s Terminal 2 and Bengaluru’s LEED Platinum T2 to leading a design standardisation initiative recognised as a first of its kind in airports worldwide, her work reflects a mind that thinks at scale without losing sight of the passenger at the centre of it all. In this conversation with SSMB, she reflects on curiosity, leadership, the evolving role of technology in design, and what she would tell the young architect she once was.
When you look back at the young architect who began this journey, what do you recognise in her today, and what has changed completely?
I recognise the curiosity in her, and that is probably what has changed the least. Even during my architectural education, I was fascinated by airports. My dissertation and thesis were both centred around airport design. Airports were already part of my architectural imagination long before they became my profession. What has changed completely is the scale and breadth of responsibility. As a young architect, my primary question was, “How do I design this space better?” Today, the question is much broader: “How do we create the right outcome for the airport, the passenger, the operator, the city and the business, and then successfully deliver it?”
Today, I look at an airport as a much larger ecosystem. I think about passenger experience, operations, technology, security, engineering, constructability, commercial objectives, sustainability, cost, programme and, increasingly, digital integration. The airport of the future is not simply a physical building. It is a physical and digital ecosystem where the passenger journey becomes increasingly seamless, with automation, biometrics and digital interfaces designed to reduce friction. So the young architect in me is still fascinated by the building, and equally fascinated by the ecosystem behind it.
Your career has taken you through some of India’s most complex airport projects. Was there a particular moment that made you realise, “This is the kind of architect I want to become”?
My fascination with airports began well before my professional career. During architectural school, airports repeatedly found their way into my work. One of my strongest early inspirations was Eero Saarinen’s TWA Flight Center at JFK. What stayed with me was that Saarinen did not treat an airport merely as infrastructure. He created architecture around the experience of travel. The building had identity, emotion and movement. It made me realise very early that an airport could be both an extremely complex machine and a powerful piece of architecture. Mumbai T2 taught me what monumental airport delivery means at scale.
Bengaluru expanded my understanding of sustainability, infrastructure integration and complex stakeholder management. Ahmedabad has taken that journey further, with responsibility across terminals, ATC, multimodal transportation, landside and airside infrastructure and ancillary facilities. My fascination has evolved alongside it. Initially, I was fascinated by airport architecture. Today, I am fascinated by how architecture, technology, operations and human experience can come together to create the airport of the future.
“I discovered that leadership is less about being the person with the best answer and more about creating the environment in which the best answer can emerge.”
Moving from designing individual projects to leading an entire design team is a very different transition. What did you have to discover about yourself along the way?
I discovered that leadership is less about being the person with the best answer and more about creating the environment in which the best answer can emerge. As an individual architect, you are very close to the design. At a senior level, you have to step back and create the ecosystem for design to succeed. Today I lead a multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, QS and BIM professionals working across terminals, ATC, ancillary, landside and airside projects. BIM, for example, is no longer simply a modelling tool. The progression from 3D towards 4D, 5D, 6D and 7D is changing the entire project lifecycle, linking geometry with programme, cost, sustainability and asset information. The transition for me has been from managing design to orchestrating people, information, technology and decisions around design.
What helped you find the confidence to trust your judgement, especially when the decision in front of you had no easy answer?
Experience, but particularly experience across the entire project lifecycle. If you only see architecture from the design side, your decisions can naturally be design-centric. When you have worked through briefing, concept, detailed design, tendering, procurement, value engineering, construction and handover, you begin to understand the consequences of every decision. With increasingly integrated BIM and digital project environments, we can understand those consequences much earlier, whether in terms of constructability, programme, quantities, cost or energy performance. I still believe judgement cannot be replaced by technology. But technology can give judgement better information. That is where I see the real opportunity.
Were there experiences that changed the way you saw yourself, not just as a woman in the profession, but as an architect whose voice deserved to be heard?
Yes, but that change happened progressively. Early in your career, you are conscious of whether your voice is being heard. As your experience grows, you become much more focused on whether what you are saying is useful. Working on major airport projects means working with architects, engineers, operators, security specialists, technology teams, contractors and senior management. You learn very quickly that credibility comes from preparation, clarity and consistency. My identity today is first as an architect and design leader who understands the journey from design intent to construction and delivery. Being a woman in the profession is an important part of my story, one who brings experience, decision-making, multi-tasking and a different perspective to the table.
You led a design standardisation initiative recognised as a first of its kind in airports worldwide. What fascinated you about creating a common design framework, and where must an architect still leave room for individuality?
For us, standardisation is never about making airports look the same. It is about asking: what should we solve once, properly, so that we don’t have to solve it repeatedly on every project? Airports contain enormous repetition across interfaces, technical details, materials, passenger-processing elements and operational requirements. If those are standardised intelligently, you can improve quality, reduce uncertainty, accelerate design and procurement and improve maintainability. I see digitalisation as the next logical layer. A design standard is far more powerful when it becomes a digital design library, with components, specifications, parameters and performance criteria embedded into BIM. But standardisation must stop where architectural identity begins. The framework should provide the discipline. The architect should provide the character.
Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad each present very different contexts. What has each project continued to teach you?
Each airport has given me a different dimension of understanding. Mumbai taught me scale, precision and execution. Bengaluru taught me integration: architecture, sustainability, infrastructure and multiple stakeholders coming together across a 45 MPPA terminal. Ahmedabad has given me an even broader lens, with responsibilities extending across terminals, ATC, multimodal transportation, landside and airside infrastructure, ancillary buildings and utilities. But the next generation of airports is teaching us another lesson. So when I approach an airport today, I don’t just ask, “What should this building look like?” I ask, “What experience should the passenger have, what should the operator experience, and what digital and physical infrastructure will make that possible?”
“Architecture becomes real only when it survives contact with reality.”
Was there ever a moment on site when seeing something become real, or seeing it change from what you imagined, made you look at your own design differently?
Definitely. Construction has taught me that architecture becomes real only when it survives contact with reality. A drawing is controlled. A construction site is not. Once you are dealing with structure, services, materials, procurement, tolerances, contractors, programme pressures, budgets and thousands of interfaces, the design has to prove itself. With a mature BIM environment, we can identify clashes, constructability issues and sequencing much earlier. When 4D and 5D are integrated, design decisions can be understood not only spatially but in relation to time and cost. Technology is not replacing the architect’s creativity. It is helping us spend less time resolving avoidable problems and more time creating better architecture.
Beyond ratings and measurable outcomes, what kind of responsibility do you believe an architect carries towards the future?
I believe sustainability is strongest when it is embedded in design thinking rather than treated as a certification exercise. My experience includes Gold LEED and IGBC certification for Mumbai T2 and Platinum LEED and USGBC certification for Bengaluru T2. At Bengaluru, we also brought the ABC Water concept for rainwater harvesting, approaching water as something that could be actively managed while also becoming part of the environmental experience. The future of sustainable design is increasingly connected with digital information. A BIM model can carry information about materials, quantities, energy performance, maintenance requirements and asset lifecycle. Instead of asking only, “Is this building sustainable?”, we can increasingly ask, “How will this asset perform throughout its life?” For airports, that is critical. The responsibility of the architect is no longer only to design the building. It is to think about the life of the asset.
Is there a belief about architecture or about yourself that you hold today much more strongly than you did at the beginning?
I believe much more strongly today that great architecture is created at the intersection of vision, technology and execution. Experience has taught me that the strongest projects emerge when architecture brings together passenger experience, operations, engineering, technology, sustainability, commercial viability, constructability and cost. The airport of the future should not simply be a more beautiful building. It should be a more intelligent building, one where the physical environment, digital infrastructure and human experience work together seamlessly. I still care deeply about architecture. But I now see it as part of a much larger ecosystem of experience, technology and performance.
What would you tell the young architect you once were, to worry less about, and what would you tell her to hold on to?
I would tell her to worry less about having the entire career mapped out. Careers are built through opportunities, challenges and unexpected turns. I would tell her to hold on fiercely to her curiosity. The young architect who chose airports for her studies did not know she would eventually work on some of the country’s most complex airport programmes. Don’t be afraid of difficult assignments. Take responsibility before you feel completely ready. Work with people who are better than you in their own disciplines. Learn how projects are actually built. Understand procurement, cost, contracts, programme and operations, not just design. Because architecture will keep changing. The tools will change. The processes will change. Technology will change. But the architect’s responsibility remains the same: to imagine a better experience and then bring together the people, knowledge and technology required to make it real.
“Hold on to two things: the courage to imagine, and the curiosity to reinvent.”
WHY IT MATTERS:
Neha Bagrecha’s career is a masterclass in what it means to grow with a profession. From the first airport that captured her architectural imagination to leading design across some of India’s most ambitious aviation infrastructure, she has never stopped asking the next question. Her work bridges the gap between design intent and constructed reality, between architectural vision and digital precision, and between individual creativity and systemic thinking. In an industry where the airport of the future is being reimagined as a seamless physical and digital ecosystem, her voice is one of the clearest and most considered guiding it there.
