Ayaz Basrai is Co-founder of The Busride Design Studio, a leading Architecture and Interior design firm in India. Ayaz graduated in Industrial Design, specialising in Product Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 2003. In 2006, he set up The Busride Design Studio, as an independent design studio specialising in the design and creation of built environments. With wide ranging interests in Illustration, Immersive media, Design and Research. More recently, Ayaz heads the studio's research arm, The Busride Lab based in Goa, which works on research and design projects in the domain of Heritage Conservation and Futures Research, at the intersection of Architecture, Technology, Design and Art.

The Busride Design Studio works on built environment projects ranging from hospitality and entertainment, immersive media to film and production environments, Retail and exhibitions, installations, institutional and architectural environments.

Graduating from TVB School of Habitat Studies, New Delhi in 2008, Abhigyan stamped his belonging in the fraternity with a name like Morphogenesis. With a distinctive experience in various arches of architecture, interiors & design, there was a humble beginning to his firm Chromed Design Studio in 2010 with a large scale F&B project “Hive” in Gurgaon and a Farmhouse in Delhi. Since then there has been no looking back for Chromed Design Studio and it has successfully completed many popular projects under the able leadership of Abhigyan. Some of which include Fio Cookhouse& Bar-Nehru Place, La Bodega-Khan Market, Impromptu- Gurgaon, office space for names like Housing.com & Uber etc. The firm offers contemporary, innovative and functional solutions that can be widely characterized into architecture & interiors of residential, commercial & F&B projects with in-house innovative product designs for every project.

Dr. Anuradha Chatterjee is an Indian-born Australian feminist academic practitioner in architecture and design based in Australia and India. She has Dip. Arch from TVB School of Habitat Studies (1998), Master of Architecture (History and Theory of Architecture, 2000), and PhD in Built Environment (2008) from the University of New South Wales. Dr Chatterjee is Professor and Dean at Faculty of Design, Manipal University in Jaipur, and erstwhile Dean Academics at Avani Institute of Design.

Dr Chatterjee is Regional Editor (Asia Pacific), Textile: Cloth and Culture; Companion to The Guild of St George; Member of Editorial Board for Architecture, Cambridge Scholars Publishing; Senior Research Fellow (Honorary), Centre for Architecture Theory Criticism History at the University of Queensland; and Member of Board of Review for CEPT University’s M Arch / MA in Architectural History and Theory Programme since 2019.

Mookesh Patel is Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University, Tempe, USA, former Dean at Indian School of Design and Innovation — ISDI, Mumbai, India and principal at Chanchal — a design consultancy firm.

He received his MFA in graphic design from Rhode Island School of Design. He holds a diploma in visual communication from the National Institute of Design, and a BS from Ahmedabad Science College, Gujarat University, India.

As principal director at Chánchal, Scottsdale, he practices information and experience design. His list of clients includes Arizona State Land Development, Phoenix Art Museum, and Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority for Malcolm Grear Designers, and Government of India for a major traveling exhibition, My Land, My People.

Professor Patel’s research focuses on design education, online learning, information design, semiotics, visual interpretation, data visualization, exhibition/experience design, and typography.

Professor Nidhip Mehta is the former Dean of the School of Design at Pearl Academy, and a practicing architect for over twenty years. A Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Architecture and Architecture Theory, both from New Jersey Institute of Technology, United States and has primarily been a design educator for the past fourteen years. He is currently working as a freelance academic consultant and visiting faculty at several design colleges throughout India. He believes in progressive, adaptive, and value-based design education that focuses on the constantly changing student mindset preparing for uncertain futures.

He is a full-time design educator while remotely running a small architecture practice in the United States called DIALOG Design and Architecture.

He often writes about architecture, design and design education, and his professional interests include speculative design, design theory, urbanism, and trans-disciplinary value-based design education.

Sudhindra. V is a recognized Thought Leader in Design Thinking, Service Design, and Human Centered Design. He brings with him vast experience having led large high performing teams in complex organizations.

His expertise in Design Thinking and Human Centered Design sets him apart to be a true champion of using innovative ways of engaging individuals and teams to achieve breakthrough outcomes.

His credentials include being a member of the CII National Committee of Design, advisor and coach to several startups and guest faculty in several established institutions, including Srishti Academy of Design, Bangalore and Monash University, Australia.

He has been recognized for his work through more than 14 international awards including ‘Most Innovative Product’ by National Infocomm Awards in Singapore, a ‘Blue Elephant’ at Kyoorius, category best in Interactive Media Awards and Internet Advertising Awards.

Born in Dasarajpur, He is a “Padma Shri” awardee 2016 (one of the highest civilian honour in India). He was conferred with D.Litt. Honoris Causa by Utkal Culture University. His recent anthology of short films “Interdependence”, with 11 directors 11 countries produced by ART for the World in association with the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI), premiered in Rome International Film Festival.

He attained cult status with his debut feature film, ‘I am Kalam’ 2010. Winning 34 international awards along with a national award. His second feature film ‘Jalpari’ (Desert Mermaid), received the MIP Junior Award at Cannes. He later directed ‘Babloo Happy Hai’ (Babloo is Happy), ‘Kaun Kitney Paani Mein’ (In Troubled Water) and ‘Kadvi Hawa’ (Dark Wind). His last release Halkaa (Relief), has travelled to 32 international film festivals and won two Grand Prix awards.

Born in Kerala, in 1973, Suresh graduated from the prestigious National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad specializing in communication design in 1997. Since then, he has been relentlessly working in the field of animation and film design.

He founded Studio Eeksaurus, in 2009, that creates films in a media agnostic manner in all formats and platforms. With a respected resume, which goes beyond 400 films to his name for which he received over 200 awards, including the prestigious Annecy festival Cristal in 2015, a first for India. He advocates for Animation to be respected as a means to tell stories and not as a technique as commonly misunderstood. His stories come to life from the socio-cultural political environment where people, habits and culture are ingredients. Indigenous Visual Design is inherent in his ingenious craft of film making.

At the onset of Gaurav Jai Gupta's career , a commission for the Design Lab , Central Saint Martin's school of Design London as a trend forecaster for the year 2006-2007 was soon followed by successful collaborations with Jimmy Choo, Duro Owlu London and Heimstone Paris. He became the first Indian designer to be commissioned by The Woolmark Company to launch the Cool wool Menswear collection for Raymonds in India in 2014.

A trained fashion and textile designer from Chelsea College of Art and Design London and National Institute of Fashion Technology New Delhi along with being on an exchange programme at ANAT Paris; his passion for clothing gave birth to AKAARO in 2010, with a noteworthy debut at Wills Lifestyle Debut where he was dubbed as find of the week.

Akila is a graphic designer whose best work has come out of being able to find expression both as a communicator and as an artist. She studied Graphic Design at the National Institute of Design, from 1982-88 and wears two hats: as the founder of Designosis, a graphic design studio, and the Chief Designer of Toile Indienne, an award winning home textile company she set up in partnership with Pankaj Kehr in 2017.

She discovered her love of typography
as a student of the National Institute of Design and founded Designosis, recognized for its work in editorial design and corporate communications for some of India’s best-known companies. Nurtured over three decades, her body of typographic work, especially for the journal Seminar, as well as book covers, have been widely admired and featured in the book India: Contemporary Design: Fashion, Graphics, Interiors.

Chandrashekhar Bheda-prolific textiles and handicrafts product designer and artist has in the last 33 years been discovering new possibilities for the textiles and handcraft industry. Alumnus of India's premier design and art schools, the National Institute of Design (AEP 1988), Ahmedabad, the Sir J.J. School of Arts, Bombay (1982), and a stint at NIFT Delhi 1989; Chandrashekhar currently leads several design projects with key commercial and developmental organizations for the creation of marketable textiles and handicraft products both for the domestic and overseas markets.

His familiarity with the traditional as well as high technology textiles and craft techniques has allowed him to realize path-breaking concepts and scintillating creative expressions in his work.

He founded Spider Design in 1998; this Delhi-NCR based studio produces contextual textile arts and handcraft Installations for residential interiors, commercial environments and institutional spaces through collaborations.

Mr. Rahul Kadri is Principal Architect & Partner at I.M.Kadri Architects. Mr. Rahul Kadri spent his formative years amidst lush landscapes exploring the forests of the Kumaon Himalayas while studying at Sherwood College, Nainital. This early relationship with nature infused within him with a deep passion to create buildings & spaces, which are in harmony with its natural context. He completed his diploma in architecture from the Academy Of Architecture, Mumbai and went on pursue his master’s degree in Urban Planning from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1988).

He assumed directorship of Kadri Consultants Pvt. Ltd in 1995 and since then has designed & executed several architecture & town planning projects under his leadership. He has designed townships for Tata’s, Jindal’s & Reliance, Hotels & Resorts for Taj & Club Mahindra, College Campuses for Symbiosis & The Supreme Court Of India and more. Over the years he has honed his skill & passion to create places where people and nature thrive. Apart from his engagement with architecture Mr. Rahul Kadri has been actively involved in proposals for the effective development of open spaces in Mumbai.

Mr. Kadri is a Trustee of Save The Children India – an organization committed to the cause of the education of the least privileged children in India

MARIANA CABUGUEIRA is an Architect and Urban designer from Portugal, recently working as a Senior Architectural Designer at Zaha Hadid Architects; teaching at the Architectural Association in London and doing Live workshops and webinars with students from all around the World.

Graduated from the School of Architecture in Lisbon and the Politecnico di Milano, she moved to London to explore design and technology through the Postgraduate course: Design Research Laboratory (DRL) at the Architectural Association School (AA). Her research interests gravitate around Parametric Design; Generative Design; Digital Design and the evolution of Architecture using technological means, such as Robotic Fabrication.

Mariana joined Zaha Hadid Architects after graduating from the AA School in 2017. She is part of the Competition cluster ever since, responsible for the High-End Design Projects of the Office.

Takbir Fatima is an architect, educator, and entrepreneur. She is the Director of the inter-disciplinary experimental design and architecture studio, DesignAware. Takbir created the Fractals Workshop and BuildAware. She has and MArch in Architecture + Urbanism from the Design Research Lab at the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture, London, and a BArch from CSIIT School of Architecture & Planning, Secunderabad. Takbir is a TEDx speaker and has exhibited and presented her work and methods at various design events, including the Dezeen Virtual Design Festival 2020.

DesignAware was born of a desire to create awareness through accessible and responsible design a studio practices process-oriented design, and their portfolio cuts across scale, method, location, and typology, with focus on socially relevant projects.

Takbir has been invited as an external juror and thesis guide and has been associated with various programs.

Given a broad spectrum of involvement with the Indian and international design for the last 25 years Mridula Sharma is the Founder and former Editor-in-Charge of Livingetc India Edition. Starting her formal design journey with INSIDE OUTSIDE magazine in1997, Mridula, has been exposed to and reviewed interior and product design from India and abroad ever since. Besides INSIDE OUTSIDE, she has worked on launching design magazines for several leading publishing houses such as DESIGN TODAY India Today (2006), BETTER HOMES & GARDENS Media TransAsia now Burda International (2007), LIVINGETC Images Group (2009) and LIVINGETC Malayala Manorama (2017).

It was inevitable for Mridula to move into interior styling and interior design. With a varying level of interior design consulting for resorts, homes, and offices, Mridula specialises in creating interiors that reflect and epitomise the individual owners’ lifestyle and comfort levels.