Prof. Dr. Arunava Dasgupta

Arunava Dasgupta is an architect and urban designer currently engaged as Head of the urban design program in the Department of Urban Design at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.  As founder member and Vice President of the Institute of Urban Designers – India (IUDI), Dasgupta has been actively promoting the idea of holistic urban design while creating alternative development frameworks using community participation as a central tool for local area design. He is presently an expert member of the State Heritage Advisory Committee of Himachal Pradesh and the Heritage Conservation Committee of NCT, Delhi.

Dasgupta has been involved in multiple projects at urban scale for a range of Indian cities as adviser and consultant to various state and municipal government agencies. The projects include urban redevelopment and renewal schemes, multi-transit mobility nodes, local area planning and design, riverfront and ecosystem rejuvenation, social infrastructure and techno-spatial solutions among many others. He is presently the Project Coordinator (India) for the UTFORSK funded joint project on Smart and Sustainable City-regions in partnership with NTNU Trondheim, Norway as well as the Principal Investigator of Design Innovation Projects on Climate and Housing Form as well as on Eco-smart Infrastructure for Less-catered Communities funded by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

With the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK, Arunava conducts partnered design studios on “Mission Cities” and Liveable Urbanism and has been instrumental in hosting numerous workshops with students and faculty of a range of international and national universities and colleges. He has been the co-organizer of the ongoing seminar series on “Smart and Sustainable Cities” across 14 cities in India over the past three years in collaboration with South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University and ORF.

In terms of the academic arena, Arunava is currently involved in initiating Urban Form Labs within the Center for Urban Design Innovation (CUDi) for developing interdisciplinary, experimental, research-by-design methodologies that encourage exploration by students as citizen designers while theoretical pursuits revolve around contemporary discourses concerning urban transformation and city futures. His professional and research expertise revolves around local area, participatory co-design frameworks and design pedagogy while research themes include inquiries on ‘form and determinant’, ‘social urbanism’ and rural urbanization’. Over the last 20 years, through applied research in rural and urban Himalayan settlements, Arunava has been pursuing the larger role of architects and designers beyond the city, while providing advocacy and design consultancy services to government departments towards formulation of sustainable development guidelines for settlements under transformation.

Arunava has been invited for guest lectures widely from institutions in India and abroad. He has delivered talks and conducted classes, workshops and joint studios with the Heidelberg University, Melbourne School of Design, Cardiff University, NTNU Trondheim, Birkbeck College among others. (Add Lectures and Talks at HeiU) He has lectured and presented extensively in countries across the world like  UK, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, China, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Australia and is a member of the Board of Studies in a number of architecture and urban design programs within Indian Universities.