Prof Gajanan Upadhyaya, who was known as the “furniture man”, died here early Thursday due to age-related illness. He was 87.

Prof Gajanan Upadhyaya, fondly known as GU, was one of the founders of National Institute of Design (NID)’s Furniture Department and was one of the most respected furniture designers in the country and around the globe.

The NID paid homage to Prof Upadhyaya where an arrangement was made Friday at the Gautam Gira Square on the institute campus. A display of his few furniture pieces at the Old Canteen area was made for the NID community by the Furniture and Interior Design Department.

He was trained as an architect at the MS University, Vadodara and joined the first PGP in Furniture Design at NID. In 1962, he joined NID as a faculty of Furniture Design and later enrolled in the furniture design programme at the Royal Danish Academy (RDA) in Copenhagen where he trained under celebrated Danish architect and designer Poul Kjærholm.

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