Lush lawns with water lilies blooming in ponds, delicate decorations dangling from walls, suspended lights that glow like the moon. They say weddings are made in heaven, and this probably comes close.
It’s the wedding season in Ahmedabad, and Aakash Aman are two of the most sought-after venues. Conceptualised and executed by landscape architect Aniket Bhagwat of the firm M/S Prabhakar B Bhagwat, the venues marry practicality with fantasy. While Aman comprises softscapes like gorgeous lawns, Aakash has more water features, planters and vegetation and bridal rooms. Its 9,000 sqm lawn can host 7,000 people at a time.
“The system enables lux level (derived SI unit of illumination) to be controlled to a precision of 7 lux to 60 lux for every square metre of lawn. Each light is 6 feet in diametre and allows limitless variation. The lawns can be lit without floodlighting,” explains Aniket.
“This lighting system is a rarity. We took up the challenge to not only cover functional aspects, but to create an ambience appropriate for Indian weddings. Aakash, which won an international award, is an example of the detail our firm goes into regardless of scale,” says Aniket.
The firm founded in the 1970s by Aniket’s father Prabhakar Bhagwat, whose father worked on gardens for the princely states. Prabhakar pursued his passion at a time when such a profession was unheard of in India. After completing his B.Sc (Agriculture) from University of Poona in 1952, he went to the International Agriculture Centre in University of Wageningen for a diploma. He then went to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, and completed his diploma in landscape design. A practicing landscape architect for a while, he was superintendent of Empress Botanical Gardens in Pune. He then became faculty member of Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT, Kharagpur in 1955. He did his M.Tech in town planning in 1965.
“My father was encouraged to move here by the Sarabhais and joined NID as faculty and board member in 1965,” says Aniket. He was a key figure behind the Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, and was head of department. Prabhakar made many friends in Ahmedabad and some, like the Choksi and Doshi families, became his mentors and encouraged him to start independent practice as a landscape architect. “The firm was thus born,’’ says Aniket.
Aniket joined his father in 1986, after gaining a degree in landscape architecture from Delhi. “There is so much detail that goes into each project–artistic composition, aesthetics and finesse go hand in hand with expertise in horticultural management, water harvesting, drainage, electrical design, irrigation, and usage requirements,” he says.
In the 70s, the firm worked on reclaiming a quarry. The basalt quarry at Timba in east Gujarat is now a vegetated valley rich in flora and fauna and even has a fish-filled lake.
“We have done landscapes like an industrial estate in Daman that weaves the industrial with agrarian, with orchards and installations,” says Aniket. He was involved with the transformation of Shirpur—a town that now sustains its own electricity and water supply, recycles waste and has taken up forestry. “A place where I can add radical artistic features would be fun to design,’’ he signs off.