Official Sponsors

Krishnan qualified as an architect from the S.P.A, New Delhi and gained experience in major office and retail projects in the Capital region. An interest in urban design and masterplanning led him to do his post-graduation from ETH Zürich and then onto London. In London he worked on many prestigious projects including the Athletes Village for the 2012 London Olympics and schools for the BSF programme initiated by the UK government. Upon his return to India he started Meister Varma Architects focussing on site specific, design led solutions for the residential and hospitality sector. Their projects have been recognized and published in various digital and print media like Condé Nast and Archdaily. Since 2013 Krishnan is also actively engaged in adaptive reuse of heritage buildings in partnership with German architect Karl Damschen.

Pavithra Sriram is the Co-founder of Design Co: Lab, and heads the Urban Planning and Design discipline in her practice. Since 2013, she has been working on urban projects with a core focus on implementing placemaking, tactical urbanism, street design, and urban planning projects of varied scales, bringing a rich understanding of people and their behavioral patterns. An ardent lover of books and the written word, she also authors for Being Pedestrian, a blog on narratives of the city from the perspective of a pedestrian. She is a founding member of Placemaking India and works on the advocacy, research, and educational fronts of creating livable cities in India.

Architect Sudhir Reddy. B.C., founder and principal architect of Kruthica, is a 1993 graduate of the School of Planning and Architecture, JNTU, Hyderabad. Kruthica was founded in 1995 with a passion for design, art, and culture along with a deep rooted concern for shaping cohesive built environments through the integration of craft, technology and spatial design. The studio over the decades has consistently engaged with projects that are diverse in scale, context and function. The work ranges from institutional, commercial, housing, cultural, residential, furniture and building products. Informed by experience in designing diverse projects and the discipline of a construction and detail−oriented approach, an in house team of 25 designers work toward consistently delivering holistic solutions to their varied clientele. Central to Kruthica’s design engagement is the continuous collaboration with various domain experts that push the boundaries of design, engineering, artisanship and craft to evolve a comprehensive and appropriate response, to physical and social contexts. Ar. Sudhir Reddy has always believed in the ability of design to forge collaborations and enable innovative thinking across disciplines; a value that has endured through all their projects and more importantly the studio culture at Kruthica, where he strives to provide a nurturing and rigorous environment for young designers and instill the value of being focused makers.

Ar. Neelam Manjunath is an architect, planner, scientist, activist and theoretician. She is practicing since 1991. Her architecture is distinguished for sustainability with special emphasis on Bamboo. Her work has been published widely and presented in several national and international forums . She is on several technical committees on Sustainability and Bamboo. She is the CEO, CGBMT, Bangalore, doing R&D , applications and training on Bamboo since 1999. She has delivered close to 175 lectures, paper presentations ,conducted close to 75 hand on skilling national and international workshops, projects and works have been published in over 20 countries in more than 10 languages conducted and participated several exhibitions both in India and abroad including the prestigious International Architectural Venice Biennale 2016; and is running structured courses on bamboo from 2011 for various levels from Certificate to PG programs

Dr. Srinivas Daketi is presently working as Assistant Professor in School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada, India. He is an architect-planner with more than 25 years of experience in academics, research and industry in the field of Architecture and Planning. He has completed his Bachelor of Architecture from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and Master of Planning with specialization in housing from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India. He has achieved his Doctorate degree from School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada on the topic impact of occupation on rural housing. His areas of Interest is Culture, Rural Housing, Vernacular Architecture and Adaptive Reuse. During his tenure as Practicing architect, he was involved in more than 100 residential, commercial, retail and interior Projects. He was also a member of an International project, Building Inclusive Urban Communities, a project funded by Erasmus by European Union. He has received prestigious awards like Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakirishnan Best Faculty Award in 2021 and Indo Asian Distinguished Architect Award in 2020. He was a Member of India Institute of Architects (AIIA), Member of Council of Architecture, India (COA) and Associate Member, The Institute of Town Planners, India (AITP). He is co-author for two books with titles: Design of housing options for the different agro-climatic zones in the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Documentation of Traditional Housing Typology for the poor, based on building material usage in the state of Andhra Pradesh. He has published almost 50 research papers in addition to being key note speaker, chairing the conference sessions and receiving best paper awards.

Graduate of the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad in Industrial Design ( Furniture ) . Graduated in the year 1985 and moved to Bangalore which was the garden city with absolutely loveable weather . Not too many design professionals were present in Bangalore at the time .

Founder partner - Tessaract Design 1985 - 1995 . Tessaract Design was a design firm involved in the area of product design and Retail design in the days when neither of the two professions were even known . Worked on a plethora of products and retail spaces with a modern and flexible approach . Worked with Enfield motorcycles , Elgi products for the first table top model of the idli mix grinder , which has now been copied everywhere by almost manufacturers

Brought modularity and ease of set up with a scientific approach to designing retail spaces . Most other designers at this time were working on retail as interior design. Tessaract was the first design firm to change the way retail design and environment was perceived in India . Managing director - Ecospace Furniture 1994-1995 Founded Ecospace within the scope of Tessaract to focus on the aspect of furniture . However due to lack of own manufacturing the venture did not do well . India at that time did not have facilities where one could outsource furniture manufacturing, in volume and in good quality Left Tessaract Design in 1995 to focus on the first passion - To design furniture

Kiri Design - 1995 - 1999 Founded Kiri Design , a Design consultancy in the area of Graphic design and Retail spaces . As a pure consultancy Kiri Design did a lot of work in the area of Retail Graphics and spaces . Corporate identities , and other areas of graphic Design . Kiri Design continues purely as a graphic design firm providing design solutions to clients across the globe . Quetzel Design 1999 - 2018 The first love of Furniture always beckoned and Quetzel Design was set up with the intent of design and manufacture of contemporary furniture . The company set up a state of the art manufacturing unit in 2000 , using hight tech german and Italian machines using CNC technology that was used to manufacture furniture focussing on design for the Indian consumer . Worked largely with wood from all parts of the world . Quetzel has been known for great furniture that grows with you and your home . Quetzel was one of the first design / furniture companies to be selected for Venture funding by one of the first Venture funding companies in the U.S Draper International Bill Draper the father of Venture funding concept was personally involved in the arrangement. Planning of the factory layout for efficiency and buying the right machines was critical in Quetzel delivering large projects . With an initial turnover of sixty five lakhs in the first year we grew the business to a turnover of fifty crores . Present

Starting with a strong academic background in civil engineering and architecture, he has worked in integrating the symbiotic relationship between alternative building technology and design into the urban context. As an Archipreneur, he developed many new age architectural business ventures, and trained several budding architects. He was nurtured under NSRCEL –IIM Bangalore in the project S.

He is the founder and principal architect at Mud Hands, earth architecture, Bangalore. His firm does a plethora of work ranging from residential to institutional to mixed-use projects. His work aims at building awareness through a research-based practice of climate-responsive architecture. His practice works with the core values of creating experiential spaces and not just catering to functional requirements. It explores different materials, and construction techniques and upcycles junk into building materials.

He specializes in performative and material- sensitive architecture and employs technological interventions to improve the efficiency of building systems. He has mentored students as a faculty of design at many prestigious institutions. He up-skilled students through internships at his firm, giving them knowledge and exposure inside and outside the fraternity. He also conducts various capacity building workshops across the country, creating a spark in architectural enthusiasts, exploring new techniques in alternative architecture and helping to improvise the engineering behind them.

Working beyond brick and mortar, he has developed various ideas blending with the current technology contributing to the benefit of society, solving problems through lateral approaches in urban spaces, such as the way to the toilet, Podus co-farming, symbiotic shelter, smart box and others. Podus co-farming is a social venture building bridge between the tribal and urban communities. Symbiotic shelters aim at developing socio-economic urban shelters working towards sustainability.

Elisabeth Belpaire is an engineer architect, an urban and spatial planner and brings over 25 years of experience: architecture, urban planning, design and governance in Belgium, France, Switzerland; sustainable development and disaster risk reduction with UN-Habitat in Vietnam, management of post-conflict programmes and creation of a new strategic integrated planning system in Kosovo; development of a regional capacity building instrument addressing housing & informal settlements with South-East Europe governments and partners; regeneration of West Bank historical centres; design of a Foundation’s strategy for cities to support healthy childhood development; inputs to the public space department of Bogota and to 15-min neighbourhood concept; contributing to Global State of National Urban Policy Programme and the Mentor Student Research Lab on the public spaces of tomorrow; co-initiator of ISOCARP ‘Community of Practice on Urban Health’. Her talks in Chicago, London, New-Zealand and at TEDx Geneva, bring attention to the health and wellbeing of our young, and how cities can enable them to thrive, especially since too often they fall through the cracks of city planning and management.

Farid Esmaeil is an architect, researcher, and entrepreneur; graduated from the American University of Sharjah with a degree in Architecture and founded the award-winning design firm, X Architects, in 2003. His design work addresses issues of contemporary society, urban identity, and architecture.

Farid’s work has been widely recognized internationally through various awards, exhibitions, publications, and venues. He has lectured and addressed sustainable design and various other topics specific to the climate and environment at worldwide universities and institutions.

In August 2019, Farid received the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture for his design of the Wasit Wetland Centre.

Henri is a minimalist architect and urban designer who enjoys working through complex problems to arrive at simple and logical solutions that hold wide appeal. This skill has been demonstrated in a series of awarded and internationally published projects that range from modest individual houses to city precincts.

He was listed in Taschen’s 40 architects under 40 and Wallpaper Magazine’s design directory, both representing reputable and independently vetted international shortlists of recognisable design talent.

He was born in Mérida, Yucatán on April 4, 1968. The pre-eminence of the person, who learned in his native Yucatán, gives his architectural proposal a very special, clean and respectful seal.

His projects win National Biennials and become works that leave a mark in different regions of his country and now abroad. In his portfolio there are also award-winning projects converted into temples, buildings planned for official public service or macro markets. There are also houses for neighborhoods, urban and coastal residences and even monuments.

Among his main works are the Municipal Market of Mérida "San Benito", the Attorney General's Office of the State of Yucatán, the Marist University of Mérida, the Cemex Corporate Building in Monterrey, the Bicentennial Theater in León, Guanajuato, the as well as several apartment complexes in Cancun, Quintana Roo. Making special mention of the new headquarters of the Senate of the Republic in Mexico City.

Peter Rich is a Johannesburg based architect who attributes his learning to African space making as being central to his career. In 2009 he was awarded the World Building of the Year 2009 by the World Architecture Festival Barcelona for the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in Limpopo, South Africa.

For his extensive African and global portfolio of built work, Peter has received numerous awards and prices. To name a few, he is the recipient of The UK Earth Award, the International Sustainable Architecture Award and the Wienerberger Brick Award. In 2013, he was shortlisted for the Aga Kahn Award. Peter further received the Gold Medal of Architecture from the South African Institute of Architecture for his contribution to African space making, and is an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture. To add just one selected exhibition to the list, Peter’s work was displayed at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018 as part of the Arsenale Curators Choice Exhibition.

In all of this, Peter finds time to teach and develop new curricula in Africa, India, Europe and the US. In his own words, “as an architect that specialises in community-based projects,” Peter would like to “share with students that architecture should have an inclusive approach, drawing on a community’s needs, aspirations and cultural heritage through social interaction in the design process, and working towards a ‘new urbanism’ that embraces both diversity and a sense of identity.”

Richard believes in the iterative design strength of architecture to inspire responsible urbanization in evolving global cities.

Especially drawn to mixed-use, high-rise and creative workplace projects, Richard leads teams that use creative design to drive the commercial objectives of our clients and consistently achieve recognition for design excellence.

Richard is actively engaged in the development and design industry, currently acting as the Chair of the Canadian chapter of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and a past member of the Advisory Board of the Urban Land Institute Toronto. As a design advocate, he is currently a member of the Markham Design Review Panel and former Vice-Chair of the City of Vaughan Design Review Panel. He is a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and has previously held the role of Co-Chair of the Toronto Society of Architects.

There is never a boundary between the architecture and its surrounding nature in Waro Kishi’s architecture.

His exquisitely designed architecture using steel and glass Kyoto-based architect Waro Kishi has embraced the dynamic interplay of the ancient capital’s historic culture and contemporary Modernism through four decades of practice and teaching both in Japan and around the world.

Since he became independent, he has been winning numerous awards, starting with “Commercial Space Design Award in Excellence” (Japanese Society of Commercial Space Designers) in 1983, “SD Review Award” for Kyoto Historical City Expo event space (Kajima Institute Publishing) in 1987 and “Award for Townscape of Kumamoto Prefecture” for Yunoka Bridge in 1991. Then he reached the “gateway to success” in 1993 by winning “Japan Institute of Architects Award for the Best Young Architect of the Year”. Moreover in 1996, he won the most prestigious architectural award in Japan, “The Prize of Architectural Institute of Japan” for House in Nipponbashi, fully establishing himself as Architect.

Along with his activities as an architect, he began his career as an educator in the same year as he established his own office. Through his whole career, he has been trying to make a contemporary interpretation of those two cultures through his architectural works and also, through his academic position in several Japanese universities and some foreign universities, he had been teaching his principle in his design studio. He continues as Professor at Kyoto University of the Arts from 2016 and is still active as Architect/Educator to this day.

Biography
Born in Yokohama, Japan, 1950/　completed post-graduate course of Architecture, Kyoto University, 1978/ established Waro Kishi + K.Associates/Architects in 1981/ The Prize of AIJ for Design in 1996/ Commendation of the Jury, Dedalo Minosse International Prize in 2006/ Gold Award, 16th Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards in 2008/ Professor, Kyoto University of the Arts