INDES envisages to become a platform for discussion and innovation within the design domain through various interactive mediums like seminars, webinars, exhibitions, workshops etc. and simultaneously an online database. The strength of INDES lies in two aspects- an interdisciplinary approach to design and the diverse background of the its founding and core members. While the founder members of the
organization consist of design professionals and academics with background in design, habitat making, history, urban studies, social sciences and economics. The core group consists of renowned practitioners and academicians providing continuous guidance and advice. The Mission is three-fold:
1. Design with people
Reinvigorating design skills and sensibilities to people at all levels and empowering them with design thinking and ability to design.
2. Design for education
Engage in continuous discussion on pedagogy within the design domain, resulting in innovative pedagogic methods in line with current times.
3. Design and Research
Create a corpus of ‘design knowledge’ through our engagement in various capacities in the design domain and related fields. FOUNDER MEMBERS:
Nirmal Kulkarni - President
He is a practicing architect with the ability to traverse the boundaries between education and the practice of architecture and design. His work and his teaching reflect the goal of evolving an architecture, which heightens the sensory experience of the user in space, to that of aesthetic delight. He has varied interests and talents, from designing human habitat, book covers and expressing himself through a range of mediums of art. Through interactions in studio, he constantly examines the relationship between practice and pedagogy of architecture. He believes that design can be the ‘tool’, which can help resolve big and small issues in the world, through creative thinking, innovative strategies and out of the box solutions. He says that an individual’s own way of ‘thinking-doing’ is crucial as is conversation among groups for a confluence of ideas, so that creativity can flourish. Nirmal is concerned about art and design education in schools to promote lateral thinking in the minds of the future generation. He is currently based in Gurgaon and runs his practice, AUM Architects along with his partner, Neha Kulkarni. Parul Kiri Roy - Founder Member
She is an architect, academician, and an art historian who primarily engages, with the idea of architecture as an outcome of occupied space, of people’s needs and user experience of the built environment. In her work and studio she constantly strives to clarify the relationship between the intangible qualities of space perceived and the tangible aspects of the frame delineating the space. She investigates into the realm of memory, the past-ness of the past as a precursor of the present, seeing how history carries relevance to contemporary times informing the practice of architecture. Representation of architecture is another of her interest areas, from the content and quality of drawings of the built object, analytical diagrams of a spatial complex, documentation of settlements to how architects represent the profession and themselves in society. She is currently an assistant professor in the Dept. of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and is working on her research exploring the correlation between education and all that informs the practice of architecture in our country. Anjali Mittal - Founder Member
She is a researcher and academician and is trained as an architect and urban design professional. She believes that interdisciplinary approach to design is the key to build efficient, sustainable, and humane habitats. She has been involved in master planning, urban regeneration schemes, urban design frameworks, architectural design, planning and policy research, graphic design and visualizations for a range of projects in Indian and broad. She has led and coordinated field assignments and analytical studies; formulated development briefs and strategic regeneration schemes; designed public interface activities and conducted community-consultation based development schemes for urban and rural based projects. Her range of experiences both in the urban and rural context, public and private sector, familiarity with urban development issues in developed and the developing world, ability to deal with complex issues of negotiating development and community aspiration, urban and rural transformation and rural-urban interface empowers her as a professional. She works at the Dept. of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi as an assistant professor.
