Britta Knobel Gupta, is the co-founder of Studio Symbiosis Architects. She is known for her dynamic and pioneering works with a focus on creating spaces that exist in equilibrium with their surroundings. The project portfolio displays the wide repertoire of design exploration ranging from  Master plans, Hospitality, Mixed use development, Offices, Housing and Villas.

Britta studied Architecture at the university of applied sciences in Konstanz, Germany.  For her diploma thesis she was awarded the "Contractworld Newcomer Award 2002" for Emerging talent in Europe. Following this she attended the Architectural Association for her masters in Architecture and Urbanism in the Design Research Lab program with a scholarship from DAAD, Germany, and graduated in 2006. She went on to work with Zaha Hadid Architects and was associated with the practice till 2010 as a Lead Architect designing a number of highly acclaimed visionary projects. She co-founded Studio Symbiosis Architects in 2010.

Britta has taught at the University of Brighton as a Unit Tutor for the Masters Studies, along with University of Stuttgart and School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi.

Britta's focus at Studio Symbiosis lies in creating designs that are an outcome of interfacing the various elements of program, site, context, landscape and climate, thereby resulting in the amalgamation of these design considerations in one coherent design and resonating the term “symbiosis” in the design.  

Britta's portfolio of projects at Studio Symbiosis include; Double tree by Hilton (Ahmedabad, India), Double Tree by Hilton (Kathmandu, Nepal),  Hotel and Service apartments (Mundra , Gujarat), Kanpur Riverfront Development, Trans Ganga Master plan, Allahabad Master plan, Taj Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Taj Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Information Directorate Headquarters (Lucknow, U.P.) and Punjab Kesari Headquarters(Delhi NCR), to name a few.

Studio Symbiosis projects have attained international acclaim with her designs having been awarded the German Design Award (Winner, Best Urban Design Project of the Year, 2015), Iconic Design Award ( Winner, Concept, Best Master Plan of the year, 2014). In 2014 Britta was recognized as " iGen 2014Architect of Future”. Amongst other recognitions her project for Allahabad Masterplan was recognized by WAN 2014 as being long listed for best urban design project of the year along with being shortlisted by Leaf Award for best residential project of the year. 

Zaha Hadid’s Performing Arts Centre 

Zaha Hadid’s Performing Arts Centre concept, a 62 metre high building is proposing to house five theatres – a music hall, concert hall, opera house, drama theatre and a flexible theatre with a combined seating capacity for 6,300. The Centre may also house an Academy of Performing Arts.

The Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre will be one of five major cultural institutions on the new 270-hectacre cultural district of Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi - developed by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on behalf of the Tourism Development and Investment Company of Abu Dhabi (TDIC). 

Zaha Hadid described the design of the Performing Arts Centre as “a sculptural form that emerges from a linear intersection of pedestrian paths within the cultural district, gradually developing into a growing organism that sprouts a network of successive branches. As it winds through the site, the architecture increases in complexity, building up height and depth and achieving multiple summits in the bodies housing the performance spaces, which spring from the structure like fruits on a vine and face westward, toward the water.”

“The Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre is a continuation of the long-standing relationship we have with the Guggenheim Foundation and with the Emirate. We are very honoured to be a part of the project,” states Hadid. “Our first Guggenheim exhibition design, ‘The Great Utopias’, was in 1992 whilst the very successful mid-retrospective of our work closed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York less than two months ago. We’ve also been working in Abu Dhabi for many years, the Sheikh Zayed Bridge was a seminal project for the office and its construction is well underway”.

Thomas Krens, Director of the Guggenheim Foundation said, “In Abu Dhabi we have had the good fortune to discover a partner that not only shares our point of view, but expands upon it. The plans for Saadiyat Island and the cultural district, envisioned and developed by the Abu Dhabi Government, are, quite simply, extraordinary. When this comprehensive and inclusive vision is realised, it will set a standard for global culture that will resonate for decades to come.”

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