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Some careers begin with a choice. Others begin with something closer to a quiet inheritance. For Supriya Pawar, Founder and Principal Designer of Studio Rooh, the path to architecture started long before she ever set foot in a design studio. It started with her father, a draughtsman in the army who had wanted to be an architect and never got the chance. She is not entirely sure he ever fully made peace with that. But what it did was plant something in her very early, a quiet sense of responsibility that followed her all the way to IIT Kharagpur, where she chose to study architecture not lightly but with full awareness of what that choice carried.
After graduating she joined a global commercial design-build firm. It was there that something shifted. She began to see, directly and on real projects, what a space does to how people behave. How teams connect. Whether people actually want to come to work in the morning. It was not abstract. You could see it in how a floor plan either brought a culture to life or quietly suppressed it. That observation changed what she thought design was actually for.
The decision to open Studio Rooh in Dubai was deliberate. The scale and pace of commercial development here is unlike most markets, companies building regional headquarters and entire workplace cultures from the ground up. It is a strategic decision, and Supriya wanted to work at exactly that level.
A track record built across scale and sector
Before founding Studio Rooh, Supriya spent years building a body of work that spans an extraordinary range of scale and typology. As Design Lead at Spacematrix, she worked on projects ranging from 1,000 to over 200,000 square feet, including workplace interiors for a global entertainment and streaming brand and a high-net-worth investment banking client. Her work on commercial interior design was recognised with the International Property Award for Best Office Interior, alongside multiple regional design awards.
That breadth, from boutique fit-outs to large-scale corporate campuses, now informs how Studio Rooh approaches every brief it takes on, regardless of size. A client with a 2,000 square foot office receives the same depth of strategic thinking as one commissioning an entire headquarters. That consistency is not incidental. It is a deliberate expression of the practice’s values.
Strategy before aesthetics
At Studio Rooh, the approach is clear and unapologetic. The team does not jump into aesthetics. Before a single line is drawn, they dive deep into understanding the business needs, the workplace strategy and the brand culture of every client they work with. Doing a project well, in Supriya’s view, means looking beyond the surface entirely.
True success, as she defines it, lies in creating spaces that are not only highly functional and beautiful but also deeply sustainable. The knowledge that every material choice, every specification and every design decision helps the planet, even just a little, is what drives the practice. A well-designed office, for Studio Rooh, is a high-performing asset for the businesses it serves, backed by data and strategy while still carrying a distinct, soulful identity. The name of the studio, rooh, the Urdu and Hindi word for soul, says everything about the philosophy behind the work.
The shifts worth paying attention to
Supriya thinks carefully about where the industry is heading and is refreshingly measured about two of the most talked-about shifts in the design world right now.
On artificial intelligence, her position is clear: the key is to cut through the noise and focus on how to leverage it well. AI is not here to replace creators. It is here to give good designers an edge and make them more efficient. The practices that will benefit most from it are those that already understand what great design requires. The technology amplifies the thinking. It does not replace it.
Closer to home, she is genuinely excited about the push toward sustainability coming from both progressive clients and the UAE government, particularly through regulations like Estidama and the Pearl rating system. But she is also honest about where the market currently stands. The region is still early in its journey of treating sustainability as a core necessity rather than a surface-level credential. Clients often want their spaces to look sustainable on paper without always being ready to make the strategic investments required to achieve real environmental impact. Studio Rooh’s role, as Supriya sees it, is to gently bridge that gap and guide clients toward choices that are authentic rather than cosmetic.
What nobody told her early enough
If Supriya could go back and tell her younger self one thing, it would be this: brilliant design is only half the battle.
Excellent communication, business management and people skills make up the rest. To see a vision come to life, you must learn to speak the language of business and construction, not just the language of design. The gap between a great idea and a delivered space is almost always bridged by communication rather than creativity alone.
She also speaks with warmth and conviction about the role of professional relationships in this industry. In an intensely competitive market, relationships mean everything. They form the foundation of trust and confidence that prospective clients place in a practice. Her advice to young professionals is to network genuinely and help others in the industry without expecting immediate returns. The design community is smaller than it seems, and the goodwill you put out into the world always finds a way of coming back to elevate you. That observation, grounded in years of building something real, is one of the most practically generous things any founder in this space can offer to those just starting out.
A different kind of success
Early in her career, success for Supriya was tied to recognition, to building spaces that matched their renders, to the sheer volume of projects completed. Today her definition is considerably more grounded and considerably more personal.
Success now means creative autonomy. The freedom to choose projects that align with Studio Rooh’s design philosophy. The ability to work with clients who genuinely trust the vision being brought to their brief. And perhaps most importantly, it means building a sustainable practice where the process of creation is just as fulfilling as the final reveal. A studio where the work is done well, with intention, and where the people doing it find genuine meaning in what they are building every day.
The village behind the vision
Supriya closes with credits that reflect her deep understanding that great design is never a solo endeavour. She acknowledges her incredible team at Studio Rooh, the clients who trust them and the highly skilled collaborators who bring every project to life. Dedicated contractors, supportive partners, the full network of people who translate a vision from a sketch into a standing reality.
And at the centre of all of it, her husband. The person who has stood by her at every step, her enabler, her constant. Behind every founder who builds something meaningful, there is usually someone who believed in them before the world did. For Supriya, that person has been there from the very beginning.
Her father planted the seed. Her husband helped it grow. And Studio Rooh is what it became.
Supriya Pawar is the Founder and Principal Designer of Studio Rooh, Dubai. This piece is part of The Minds Behind the Build, PAGES’ ongoing series celebrating the founders and leaders shaping the built environment.
