Apoorva Lekha

Co-Founder and Principal Architect, AD Studio 9

Apoorva Lekha is Co-Founder and Principal Architect at AD Studio 9, a Bangalore-based architecture and interior design practice. She leads the studio’s design thinking, a process rooted in listening. Every project begins with a genuine understanding of the site, the material context, and the lived experience of the people the space is for. The result is architecture that feels inevitable rather than imposed. Her work spans climate-responsive residences, biophilic studio environments, and hospitality spaces, and has been featured in Architectural Digest India, Elle Decor, and Good Homes Magazine, with an IDAC 2026 Southern Finalist recognition.

Gandharv Krishna

Principal Architect, AD Studio 9

Gandharv came to architecture by living it first. Long before his degree from NRV School of Architecture, he was on site with his father, learning from masons and understanding buildings from the ground up rather than the drawing board down. That grounding still shapes how he practises. At NRV he was Apoorva’s senior, and the foundation they shared there led to AD Studio 9 in 2019. As Principal Architect, he brings a builder’s sensibility to the studio’s tropical modernism, moving fluently between the ambition of a design and the realities of how it actually comes together on site.

Sandesh Dhanraj

Co-Founder and Technical Director, AD Studio 9

Sandesh Dhanaraj is Co-Founder and Technical Director at AD Studio 9, a Bangalore-based architecture and interior design practice. He leads the studio’s execution, the discipline of ensuring that what is designed is what gets built. With over a decade of site experience across residential, hospitality, and commercial projects, he protects design intent at every stage of construction, from the concrete pour to the final finish transition. His approach rests on one principle: a drawing is a hypothesis, and execution makes it a fact. He is also founder of Ekatva Grid, an execution practice for architects and designers.