VMPL
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 2: The ballroom at Taj West End was still filling up when the first names were read out, and by the time the Architecture & Interior Design Excellence Awards & Conference reached its final category, the room had settled into the particular hush that comes before a result nobody in the audience can fully predict. When Zest Creative Co. and Shade Design Studio were called up -- twice -- it wasn't for a single house, restaurant or hospitality fit-out. It was for something harder to put a name to: a working relationship.
The two studios, led respectively by Principal Designer Maulik Shah and architect Ar. Darshan B. Gala, walked away from the Global Edition ceremony on August 13 with two separate citations -- Trusted & Creative Architecture & Interior Design Firm of the Year 2026 for Maharashtra, and the Golden Door Award for Excellent Consultancy. Both were presented by Beginup Ventures India, in partnership with Architecture Herald and IDPBE Rating.
A Partnership, Not a Portfolio Piece
What makes the double win notable isn't the volume of hardware so much as what the citations were actually for. Awards in this category typically single out one project -- a residence, a restaurant, a hospitality flagship. These two didn't. The Firm of the Year citation spans the studios' residential and commercial work, and the Golden Door Award goes further still, recognising the consultancy relationship itself rather than any completed space -- the same relationship that has carried the two studios from private homes through to hospitality interiors and restaurant fit-outs over the past year.
That distinction is the story the studios themselves are most keen to tell. A young, fast-growing practice like Zest Creative Co. picks up plenty of compliments about individual rooms and finishes over a given year -- homes, offices, restaurant floors, hospitality spaces -- but what it doesn't get every year is an outside, independent body confirming that the process behind those rooms holds up to scrutiny too. "Neither honour was built on a single project," a spokesperson for the two studios said in the days after the ceremony. "They were built on attentive consultancy, patient detailing, and a standard the two studios hold in common. When two practices work as closely as we do, recognition like this reflects the partnership as much as it reflects any individual address."
How Two Studios Ended Up Sharing a Stage

Zest Creative Co. and Shade Design Studio operate as two independent practices rather than a single merged firm, but on shared projects -- residential, commercial, hospitality and restaurant alike -- the two work under what both studios describe as a single consultancy relationship with the client, from the earliest planning conversations through to the final walkthrough. Maulik Shah is typically the one in the room first, shaping the concept, the spatial narrative, the brief a project is ultimately measured against; Ar. Darshan B. Gala is the one who carries that concept into built reality, resolving it into drawings, structure and the countless technical decisions a finished space actually depends on. It's a structure that avoids the usual hand-off between architect and interior designer, where one team's work ends and the other's begins with a formal transfer of drawings. Here, both principals stay involved for the full length of a project, whatever the typology.
That continuity, more than any single finished interior, appears to be what the awarding body responded to. It's also, notably, the part of the win that Zest Creative Co. is choosing to spotlight -- less "we built something beautiful" and more "we built a way of working that keeps producing something beautiful, on demand, across homes, workplaces, restaurants and hospitality spaces alike."
What Comes Next
For now, neither studio is treating the win as a finish line. Internally, both are framing it as a checkpoint -- confirmation that the collaborative model they've built over the past year, from residential and commercial work through to hospitality and restaurant projects, holds up under outside scrutiny, and a reason to hold the same standard across whatever comes next.
ABOUT ZEST CREATIVE CO. & SHADE DESIGN STUDIO
Zest Creative Co., led by Principal Designer Maulik Shah, and Shade Design Studio, led by Ar. Darshan B. Gala, work in collaboration across residential, commercial, hospitality and restaurant architecture and interior design projects. Shah leads on concept and design direction; Gala leads on architectural execution -- the two working under a single consultancy relationship with clients from early planning through to completed spaces. Learn more at www.zestcreativecomapany.com.
ABOUT THE AWARDS
The Architecture & Interior Design Excellence Awards & Conference is an annual, multi-category program organised by Beginup Ventures India, recognising architecture and interior design practices, consultancies, and individual practitioners across residential, commercial, and allied categories. The 2026 Global Edition ceremony was held on Thursday, August 13, at Taj West End, Bengaluru, Karnataka, in partnership with Architecture Herald and IDPBE Rating (The India Design & Architecture Brand Equity Rating).
MEDIA CONTACT
Zest Creative Co. x Shade Design Studio
www.zestcreativecomapany.com
(ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same.)