Kapil Gupta
Co-founder, Serie Architects
Kapil Gupta is the co-founder of Serie Architects and Principal of Serie Mumbai. He graduated with honours from Sir JJ School of Architecture in 1996, Mumbai followed by postgraduate studies at the Architectural Association, London. He was a Director at the Urban Design Research Institute, Mumbai between 2003 and 2008, where he led India’s first entry to the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006. He has served as a visiting critic at numerous schools in India and been on several jury panels for competitions and design awards including Archiprix in 2010. He was the Charles Correa Design Chair at the Goa School of Architecture for 2020 and a design reviewer for the 2022 cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Rohan Shivkumar
Architect, Urban Designer, Film-maker
Rohan Shivkumar is an architect, urban designer and filmmaker practising in Mumbai. He is the Dean of the Architecture course at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies. His work ranges from architecture, urban research and consultancy projects to works in film and visual art. He is interested in issues concerning housing, public space and in exploring the many ways of reading and representing the city.
Rohan is the co-editor of the publication on an interdisciplinary research and art collaboration – ‘Project Cinema City’. He curates film programmes and writes on cinema, architecture and urban issues. He has also made films on art, architecture and urbanism including ’Nostalgia for the future’, ‘Lovely Villa’, and ‘Squeeze Lime in Your Eye’.
Meghal Arya
Co-founder, Arya Architects
Dr. Meghal Arya is an educator and practicing architect, teaching design and history at the Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University. She has been guest professor at leading international institutions like ETSAM, Madrid, TU, Vienna, UCT, Johannesburg, POLIMI, Milan, and the Charles Correa Chair at GCA, Goa. Key to her work is seeking knowledge embedded in traditional Indian architecture, unfolding its essentials and translating its value into present context. Her doctoral research ‘Embedded Knowledge in Architecture’ furthered this interest, focusing on the relation between water and human built environment, published as a book titled ‘Spatial Ecology of Water’. She curates faculty development programs for teachers in architecture and has several publications to her credit. Her professional experience includes public projects related to transport infrastructure, educational institutions and special buildings like zoo. Her firm, Arya Architects, is a niche award winning practice with partner Vijay Arya engaged with the design of public spaces in India as inclusive dignified realms.
Suhasini Ayer
Co-founder, Auroville CSR Trust
Suhasini Ayer is an Architect ,Urban Planner and co-founder of the Auroville Centre for Scientific Research (CSR) Trust. She heads Auroville Design Consultants – a planning and architectural design studio, primarily focused on planning, designing and implementing the applied research development projects within Auroville to field test the innovations and research carried by CSR and other organisations within Auroville.
The studio is also active in providing planning and design consultancy integrating the experiential learning of the applied research projects into the design vision while responding to the natural and human geography, local climate and culture to evolve minimal and elegant built forms. The underlying theme in all the projects is the creating integrative systems, including water, energy, waste, building materials and technology to create passive sustainable networks between the people to the built and unbuilt spaces, to empower them to take responsibility for their environment.
Arthur Duff
Mentor + Partner, Studio Praxis
Arthur Duff has over 30 years’ experience in architecture, interior design, and furniture design and manufacturing. After completing his studies at CEPT University, he spent 9 years in India, working with Anant Raje and Kiran Pandya before returning to Ireland and co-founding the Duff-Tisdall Design Studio. He has also worked as a lecturer with a number of Irish Design Institutions. In 2015 he joined the faculty at CEPT University and established the Master Programme in Furniture Design as well as heading Library Services at the Lilavati Library on campus.
Duff joined Maneesh Kumar at Studio Praxis in Ahmedabad as mentor and partner. The firm focuses on using natural and appropriate materials and construction methods, to create climate-responsive designs that are sustainable and comfortable to live in and use. The practice sits at the intersection of architecture, interiors and furniture design.