playball studio is an Indo-Spanish Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape design studio, led by Celia Fernández Duque and Ronak Gangdev.
Our name is emblematic of our design philosophy; we literally ‘play ball’ with our projects! We always ask our clients / patrons to give us as many requirements / parameters as they can, after which we try to tweak the brief in a way that it does due justice to the site, climate, time, and budget. For all our projects, we undertake an in depth study of the immediate context, seeking necessary clues to shape a rational built environment.
It is our constant endeavour to let our projects honestly express their mass, material, fenestrations, and pauses.
Celia Fernández Duque
Principal Architect
Celia pursued her studies of Architecture at ETSA Valladolid (Spain) and ENSA Versailles (France), where she had the chance to learn from Jean Philippe Vassal (Pritzker Prize Laureate). Thereafter, she completed her Master in Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism from the ETSA Sevilla (Spain).
She was also selected to attend the Baikal Winter University at Irkutsk (Russia).
Celia worked in the urban planning field in Spain for some time before moving to India twelve years ago, where she has worked pan India for renowned firms like Flying Elephant Studio, Studio MADe, LKS India and Blocher Partners India.
Her professional experience includes a wide portfolio of projects, from educational institutes in rural and urban areas, as well as large scale public projects such as Goa High Court and Solapur smart city masterplan. She has also worked on high-end residential and commercial interior design projects, for private clients as well as large companies like Plasser India, Phoenix Palladium and Bsafal Group.
Ronak Gangdev
Principal Architect
Ronak has interned at Flying Elephant Studio and in 2014 he was selected for the Dwell: Design for Density workshop at the Charles Correa Foundation. After graduation, he worked with Stéphane Paumier on the design and planning of large scale universities and schools for reputed organizations like Jindal Global University and Aakriti International School.
Ronak was selected for the prestigious Glenn Murcutt International Architecture Master Class at Australia, where he got the opportunity to learn from and work with stalwart Architects Glenn Murcutt (Pritzker Prize Laureate) , Richard Leplastrier, Brit Andersen, Peter Stutchbury and Lindsay Johnston.
In 2017, he unintentionally founded playball studio with the foolish belief that every project is an opportunity to discover a relevant solution.