LEAVING LUXURY FOR LEGACY

From Manhattan to the middle of the desert, the radical career pivot of Diana Kellogg stands as a shining exemplar of purpose-driven design

- By RIDHI KALE

Can the modern architect move past mirror-finish interiors and build spaces that actually hold communities together when the heat rises, budgets shrink and life gets real? Diana Kellogg has already answered that question and she did it by changing the game.

After a career shaped by high-end Manhattan residences and celebrity homes, she moved towards community-first work with a simple, stubborn belief: women supporting women is not a slogan, it is an architectural brief.

Kellogg founded Diana Kellogg Architects in 1992, and since then her projects have travelled with purpose. Whether it is the elliptical geometry of the award-winning Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls' School in Rajasthan or the work expanding through her nonprofit, TARA for Change, she keeps proving that luxury and utility are secondary to the soul of a building. We caught up with her at the third edition of Conscious Collective from the Godrej Enterprises Group.