About - Sunita Kohli

Sunita Kohli has a Masters and a BA (Hons.) Degree in English Literature and was conferred a D.Litt. `{`Hon`}` in 2023. She has a Visharad in Hindustani Classical Music. She is an autodidact, with no formal training in design. However, she has had unique distinctions: the first interior designer to be conferred the Padma Shri in 1992; the first Indian architect or designer to be invited to give an illustrated talk at the prestigious National Building Museum in Washington DC in 2003; and the first woman to be appointed in 2014 as Chairperson of a National Institute of Excellence, the School of Planning and Architecture in Bhopal.

WORK

Sunita Kohli is the President of K2India. Since 1972 she has worked as a manufacturer of fine classical and contemporary furniture and as a research-based interior designer; since 1981 she has been a reputed leader in historical interior architectural conservation. Her professional portfolio - across India, Egypt, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the UK - includes several significant public and heritage buildings, hotels and hotel boats, forts, palaces, libraries, museums, corporate offices and select residences. Sunita Kohli’s fine furniture is present in all five continents.

In New Delhi, Sunita Kohli has restored, furnished and decorated many British period buildings, notable among these are Rashtrapati Bhavan (in 1982, 1985 to 1989, 2010 and 2012); the Prime Minister’s Office and Secretariat (in 1985 and 1986) which remains unchanged through the tenures of nine Prime Ministers; the P.M.’s Office in Parliament House (1985); Hyderabad House (1982 and 1988 to 1989); the bungalows of the Official Residence of the Prime Minister, No. 3 and No. 5 Racecourse Road (1984 and 2004); and the bungalows of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum. She has interior designed the British Council Building & Library (1992), the largest of their eighty institutions worldwide which was inaugurated then by HH the Prince of Wales; and done the interior architecture and design of the DLF Corporate Office (9th Floor), on Parliament Street, New Delhi.

In 1989, Sunita Kohli designed the National Assembly Building in Thimpu, Bhutan. Again in April 2010, for the SAARC Summit held in Thimpu, she and Kohelika Kohli worked extensively on this Parliament Building and the adjacent Banqueting Hall.

LECTURES & PAPERS

Amongst many institutions in the USA and the UK, Sunita Kohli has lectured at Harvard at Emory University in the University of Edinburgh and the Glasgow School of Art in the UK. She has presented several papers on Design, Architecture, Historical Conservation, Literature, Mughal Jewellery as a Statement of Empire, World Heritage Cultural Sites in India and Social Entrepreneurship.

SOCIAL WORK

Sunita Kohli firmly believes that women like herself who are privileged because they are educated, must serve others. She is a Founder Director of Satyagyan, which was an affiliate of World Literacy Canada; Chairperson of the Governing Council of Save-A-Mother; and has been Chairperson and a Founder Trustee of UMANG: all non-government organizations that work with women’s literacy, women’s empowerment, women’s health and the education of street children.

BOOKS

For ‘The Millennium Book on New Delhi’, published by Oxford University Press, Sunita Kohli wrote the chapter on New Delhi and Lutyens, titled ‘The Creation of a Planned City’ and is considered an expert on Lutyens’ works in New Delhi.

She has co-authored ‘The Lucknow Cookbook’ with her mother, Chand Sur. It is a best seller, declared a classic and is now in its tenth print run: “This is a cookbook as a cultural testament by one of India’s most accomplished aesthetes. Every recipe in this book tells a story that is more than culinary….” (S.Prasannarajan, Editor of Open Magazine). TLC has been launched in every major Indian city and in New York and Singapore.

Sunita Kohli produced, edited and contributed to ‘KALA - Essays on Contemporary Design Aesthetics’. It was launched in Dubai in October 2019 by HE Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan. In October 2022, KALA was launched in Milan and London by Artize of the Jaquar Group. In November '22, Kala was launched in New York at the IAAC Lit. Fest. In December '22, its first launch in India was at the Welham Boys’ School Dehradun, as part of their 85th Founders Day Celebrations. This will be followed in 2024 by launches in several metropolitan cities across India.

‘The India Cookbook – From the Tables of My Friends’, the second book of her Cuisine Trilogy, was launched nationwide in December 2023. Five books on Architecture, Design, Art and Heritage are under preparation for publication in 2024 and 2025.