Language.Architecture.Body (LAB) is named after our foundational design beliefs. Operating between the narrative, the built, and its habitation, we design meaningful existences. We imagine architecture not only as form, but as embodiment – of people, place and the craft of making. Our design instinct is intuitive in its beginnings and rigorous in its execution; always dialoguing with the spirit of place.
We are a laboratory for crafting architecture – inventive in design, rigorous in execution, and sensitive in space. Guided by poetic sensibility, scientific rigour, and human purpose, we create buildings that shape the ways people learn, heal, work, and live. From schools to institutions and public spaces, our projects are rooted in people and place, designed to endure with intelligence, resilience, and relevance.
We know that a straight line is not the most efficient and that flat is not the most stable.
Staying centered, we are outside the circle.
Principal Architect and Founder, Language.Architecture.Body
Based in Mumbai and Florence, her work explores the relationships between narrative, environment, and habitation, creating architecture that is inventive, rigorous, and sensitive. Since founding LAB in 2010, she has led over eighty projects across India, Africa, and the United States, spanning education, healthcare, cultural, hospitality, and residential sectors. A graduate of RISD and the Bartlett (UCL), Shonan previously worked with Eisenman Architects in New York and Le Groupe Arcop in Montreal. Alongside practice, she contributes to academia and mentoring initiatives in sustainable design.
The Architecture studio took seed in Mumbai in late 2010. It has grown into a vibrant practice of 30 bright Architects. The team works through design strategies in a collaborative process, pooling together extensive knowledge.
