Architects, educators and policymakers explore curriculum reforms, industry collaboration and experiential learning to prepare future architects
AHMEDABAD, India, March 25, 2026 -- Anant National University 's School of Architecture (SoA) and the Centre for Public Policy Research and Design (CPRD) hosted a symposium titled 'Integrating Sustainability into Architecture Education to Transform Professional Practice' at the Magnolia Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The event brought together educators, policymakers, industry leaders and students to examine how sustainability can be meaningfully embedded within architectural education and practice in India.
The symposium highlighted how contemporary challenges facing our country, such as urban expansion, changing climate, urban flooding and ongoing shortages of key resources like freshwater and quality housing, make the idea of sustainability central to how we imagine, teach and practice architecture. It served as a platform for dialogue on strengthening sustainability within the curriculum and culture of architecture schools. Through focused discussions and expert insights, participants explored ways to translate sustainability from academic frameworks into real-world professional practice.
The symposium featured three thematic panel discussions that addressed critical dimensions of sustainability in architectural education. These included wide-ranging topics, such as campuses serving as living laboratories for sustainability, strengthening industry-academia collaborations to effectively apply sustainability principles in the built environment and innovative teaching approaches and curriculum reforms to equip future architects with the knowledge and skills required to address environmental challenges.
The discussions brought together a distinguished group of practitioners, educators and policy experts. These included Manisha Agarwal, Founding Partner, MO-OF Architects/Mobile Offices; Anurag Tamhankar, Director, Biome Environmental Solutions; Dr Benny Kuriakose, Principal Architect, Benny Kuriakose and Architects; Gurneet Singh, Director, Environmental Design Solutions; Prasad Vaidya, Director, Solar Decathlon India; Dr Vishal Garg, Director, Indorama Ventures Centre for Clean Energy, Plaksha University; Rahul Pachori, Director, Ministry of Education; Apporv Vij, Senior Director, Technical Development, Green Building Council India; Habeeb Khan, Former President, Council of Architecture, Ministry of Education; Jabeen Zacharias, Principal Architect, Jabeen Zacharias Architects; Dr Sanjeev Vidyarthi, Provost, Anant National University; and Zeenat Niazi, Chief Advisor, Development Alternatives.
Across the sessions, speakers reflected on the urgent need to integrate sustainability as a core component of architectural education rather than treating it as a supplementary subject. Conversations highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary learning, experiential pedagogy and stronger engagement among academia, industry and policymakers to prepare architects capable of addressing complex environmental and urban challenges.
By convening voices from diverse domains, the symposium fostered a collaborative dialogue on shaping the future of architectural education in India. It reinforced the importance of designing curricula that respond to ecological realities while equipping students with the skills to translate sustainability into tangible outcomes in professional practice.
Through initiatives like these, Anant National University continues to advance conversations at the intersection of design, policy and sustainability, creating platforms where academic inquiry, professional practice and public policy converge to address pressing challenges of the built environment.
About Anant National University
Anant National University, India's premier design university, is dedicated to training students to devise solutions for global problems. Anant follows the DesignX pedagogy, where 'X' is the symbol drawn from mathematics, representing enhancement. This new learning approach multiplies traditional design pedagogy with liberal arts disciplines, emerging technologies and knowledge drawn from hands-on community experiences to help understand our world better and to devise impactful solutions.
Our multidisciplinary undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes in design, architecture, climate action and visual arts harness knowledge from various disciplines and traditional practices to integrate it with cutting-edge technology to address diverse challenges. We train our designers to become solutionaries — revolutionary thinkers with a solution-oriented mindset.
Anant National University has been recognised as the Centre of Excellence by the Government of Gujarat, highlighting our efforts to provide our students with world-class education, innovative pedagogy, high employability and enhanced entrepreneurial and research opportunities. Anant has also received the prestigious '5-Star Rating' in the category of Architecture and a '4-Star Rating' in the University category in the Gujarat State Institutional Rating Framework (GSIRF) 2023-24. These recognitions reinforce our commitment to creating a world-class institution of great eminence and excellence.
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