He was born in Mumbai and did his schooling from Boy’s Town Boarding School, Nasik. After completing his architectural studies from the Academy of Architecture in Mumbai and New York’s Columbia University, his career began in 1968 as an apprentice with his uncle Architect T. Hafeez wanted to join the army but it was his uncle who spotted his talent and helped him enroll in an architecture course.
As a youngster Hafeez used to visit his uncle’s office and one day he spotted a mistake in a project: a faulty window design. Hafeez corrected it even before studying architecture. That day changed his life. Hafeez Contractor became an associate partner in his uncle’s firm in 1977. In 1982, he began his own practice, with dedication to design excellence, efficient delivery and sophistication in building technology as his hallmarks. Constantly eager to create structures that exemplify functional and aesthetic qualities. Hafeez Contractor has shaped and changed Urban Built Landscape of the country through his provocative unpredictable revolutionary ideas in executing wide range of architectural projects like bungalows; residential developments; hospitals; hotels; corporate offices; banking and financial institutions; commercial complexes; shopping malls; educational institutions; recreational and sports facilities; townships; airports; railway stations, urban planning and civic redevelopment and infrastructure projects. Hafeez Contractor was a member of the Bombay Heritage Committee and New Delhi Lutyens Bungalow Zone Review Committee. Hafeez Contractor is currently empanelled and working with various housing boards of different states including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Hafeez Contractor heads the largest Architectural firm in the country with 530 employees, comprising of architects, town planners, interior designers, landscape artists, civil engineers, CAD operators and graphic designers. The firm has to its credit 2500 satisfied clients, with 72 Crores Square feet of ongoing projects in 100 cities and 5 countries. Hafeez Contractor, is the winner of over 70 National and International Awards for excellence in contribution to architecture including CWAB Architect of the year 2006 to 2012, twice has been included in Most Powerful Indians List by India Today in last decade, Numerous times won the best residential, commercial, educational and hospitality projects across India amongst others. Over almost 30 years of his flourishing and famed practice. Contractor’s constant belief that he perceives has brought him to where he is today is that architecture should be honest and should respond to the spirit of time characterized by distinct ideas, disparate missions, contrasting convictions and divergent preferences. “Architecture”, he asserts, “should be based on current demand”. Hafeez Contractor designed the tallest buildings in the subcontinent, The Imperial Towers, Mumbai; one of the tallest residential buildings in the world, 23 Marina in Dubai; modernizing the two busiest airports in the country, Mumbai and New Delhi; and designing one of the best cricket stadiums of the world, DY Patil Stadium. Hafeez along with officials of the urban development department and senior authorities has worked out solutions for slums plaguing Mumbai, by introducing a slum rehabilitation scheme. His proposal of ‘the western waterfront development’ a scheme that that attempts to rejuvenate the urban environment by creating large green open spaces of Mumbai and streamline the city’s transport needs. Hafeez worked with a developer in Gurgaon and convinced government that high rise development had more advantages in terms of quality life versus intense low rise structures dotting the landscape.
