Chintan 2020 - Contemplating Built Environment

Ankon is an architect and gold medalist from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. He is one of co-founders of Hexagramm and leads its Landscape portfolio. He holds a Master of Science degree in Parametric Design and Algorithmic Architecture from the Bartlett, University College London (UCL), which he completed with distinction, his final research thesis being on the Grammar of Developable Double Corrugations for which he received a commendation. As visiting faculty at the National Institute of Design (N.I.D), Ahmedabad and at other colleges and independent venues across India, he conducts workshops on the mathematical and geometric complexities in technical and modular Origami and Kirigami, for students and professionals of design, art and architecture.

B.Arch, PG Diploma in Robotic Fabrication from Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), Spain. He is the founder of Ant Studio, a research based interdisciplinary studio focused on integrating Art, architecture and dynamic built spaces based on material exploration and digital tools. His practice aims to bridge the gap between craft and machinery embracing all the spheres of art, architecture, technology and materiality fusing with nature.After years of ANT’s experience within the realm of architecture in India, in the year 2016, a futuristic human-robot interaction was setup with an intention to blend the brilliance of artistic intuition and logical thinking to aid achievement of speedy dividends.

B.Arch., M.Arch. (Design & Technology) GSD, Harvard University
A practicing architect and founder of Voxelscapes - an architecture and creative coding studio based in Bangalore. He had worked with institutes in the fields of Building Technology and Design Computation which include Harvard Visual Computing Group and MIT Building Technology.

B. Arch, M.Arch Sustainable Environmental Design (AA, London). Nitin is a Director - Projects at Morphogenesis, one of India’s leading award-winning Architecture and Urban Design practices. With 14 years of work experience behind him, Nitin focuses on bringing in unique design solutions through innovative strategies where sustainability, optimisation and energy efficiency are key. Apart from building and design experience he has also contributed to the field of Architectural education by being an active visiting faculty at SPA, Delhi and CCA, Chandigarh. He lectures extensively and has written multiple research papers on Net-Zero commercial buildings for National & International conferences. Some of his current projects include the World’s Largest Single office build Surat Diamond Bourse, the world’s largest net zero campus for Infosys in Nagpur, the world’s largest urban art project ITC Mixed Use Development Kolkata and a Campus for Wipro Hyderabad amongst others.

Partner and Lead Designer at Design Plus. Upon completion of B.Arch from Sushant School of Art and Architecture(SSAA) and his M.Arch (Architecture and Urbanism) from the Design Research Lab [DRL] at The Architectural Association(AA), London, Abhishek attempts to serve as an observer/critic/admirer of the Indian AEC industry, especially the marriage of high tech design processes and the low tech methods of execution which prevail in the country. Abhishek is a keen academic. He has taught at various Architecture Schools in several capacities, that include computational design workshops + Design Studios + Researches & Theses. Abhishek’s views on computational design, ethics of practice, Architectural Design processes are widely presented and published. In 2010, He was recognised as one of the top designers under the age of 35 for DesignXDesign. In 2018, he has won the “Excellence in Architecture and Design Award” at the Festival of Architecture and Interior Design, Delhi

Sushant Verma is a Design Entrepreneur, Architect, Computational Designer & Educator, currently leading rat[LAB] Studio (Research in Architecture and Technology) that investigates intersections of design, art & technology through architecture, interior design and art installations. He holds a Masters Degree in Emergent Technologies & Design from Architectural Association, London and is a former architect at Zaha Hadid Architects, London & a Sr. Editor at Arch2O. He is the founder of rat[LAB] EDUCATION, which is an initiative to spread the idea of computation in design through independently-organized design workshops for profession and academia. Recipient of MAK Schindler Award from Vienna / Los Angeles and a finalist for AIA Emerging Leaders Fellowship from Chicago, his work is widely published and exhibited in London, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, San Francisco, Taipei, New Delhi, Mumbai among other places. He was shortlisted for ’20 under 35’ Exhibition at Alliance Francaise de Delhi, featured as iGen 2017 Top 50 Gen-Next Designers in India, tagged as ‘Rising Star’ by Surfaces Reporter India, among other features. Sushant joined the elite list of TEDx Speakers by speaking at TEDxGurugram on ‘Smart Cities need Smarter Design Education’. His second TEDxTalk was recently given at the prestigious IIT KGP. He was recently selected to be a MentorOfChange for Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) by NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India), a policy think tank by Government of India. He also started and currently heads Smart Labs – India’s first 6 month hybrid programme on Computational Design that blends studio learning and e-learning using a technology-oriented approach.
Sushant Verma, collectively with his organization rat[LAB], has so far organized 40+ educational workshops, given 30+ public talks / lectures, received 9 accolades / awards, exhibited on 22 occasions, published 6 research papers and has had about 60+ media impressions in print and digital.

B.Arch., M.Arch. (Conservation), Ph.D. Professor & Dean, School of Planning & Architecture, Vijaywada. He has worked on diagnostic approaches in understanding and evaluating traditional Indian built environment , and uses state of art technology for his explorations.As an avid user of LIDAR, Infrared and Drone platforms for digital documentations and 3D mappings from a small relic to large cities with great level of accuracy and passion,he had concluded several research projects till date.Sushant Verma
Co-founder & Design Head at rat[LAB] | TEDx Speaker X3| Educator | Director-SmartLABS

B. Arch. SPA, New Delhi, Ph.D., SPA, New Delhi
President, Association for Building Security
Principal Partner, MSA Associates

Currently Professor of Architecture at Vellore Institute of Technology, Micheal has been working in the field of architecture in Canada, USA, Germany, Austria, Italy including with CoopHimmelb(l)au, Vienna. He has a Masters from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna where his dissertation explored the relationship between architecture and spirituality.