After graduating in architecture from Virginia Tech in 2007, Robert Stephens left his hometown of Summerville, South Carolina, to move to Mumbai, India. At the age of 22, he joined RMA Architects as an apprentice and is now a principal at the same firm.  

In 2016, he founded Urbs Indis, a studio that tells lesser-known urban stories through combining archival material with contemporary aerial photographs of metropolitan India. His work has been exhibited in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai and Edinburgh and has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, DOMUS India and Scroll.in. 

His first book was conceived in 2013 and matured through various lockdowns during the global coronavirus pandemic. Beginning in 1670, ‘Bombay Imagined: An Illustrated History of the Unbuilt City’ tells the story of 200 unrealised urban visions – aspirations of an evolved metropolis that could boast everything from human-scale housing and large parks to sanitation and more. Ideas that never saw the light of day are richly illustrated with archival drawings, contemporary speculations and artistic additions, illuminating the lost futures of the city’s past.

His next book, “Ahmedabad Walls, A Circumambulation with Patrick Geddes”, will be released in late 2023.