After being trained as an architect from J.J School of Architecture, I worked in the field for 4 years with Architect Kamu Iyer, before switching over to Industrial Design in 1970. As a UNESCO scholar, I studied Industrial Design at Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Over 45 years,I has been dividing my time between Industrial Design teaching, Design research and Design related consulting for companies. As Industrial Design Faculty I have taught various courses that include Game design, Product design, User studies, Communication theory, Drawing and sketching, Marketing and product planning and Qualitative research techniques at PhD level. I continues to advice doctoral students in design.I have been design consultant to many industries and start-ups on product innovation. Also working on range of institutional and consumer products for global companies like NCR, Unilever, Nokia and Samsung entering market in India and Asia pacific region with new products. I’m currently consulting on Design Tools based on pattern language for Tata Consultancy Service, (TCS). As a design researcher I’m on the advisory board of several international research journals. My research focuses on exploring relationship between cognitive science and design.
Experiments in Designing Games for Children
I was always keen on using games as learning tools. This culminated in inter-disciplinary elective ‘Designing games for children’. Details of the games designed in this electives are available on the game design website. Some of the student-designed games have been introduced in the market by Funskool India. Recently, one of the game ‘Zero Sum’ was introduced in Japanese market by Gakken, a prominent Japanese company in education. I’m also involved with gamification of primary school syllabus for government schools in India. Know more about it.
Zero cost games
Recent work includes designing educational games with zero cost for the underprivileged children and these are displayed on You Tube for free download. Some of them are
Experiments in Affordable Housing
Returning to architecture indirectly, I have been experimenting with industrial design approach to housing for the past five years. This was displayed recently in exhibition called ‘4D Living’. The project tried to answer out-of-the box questions like ‘What if we decide the sell buildings, not on square feet but on cubic feet basis?’ Lots of ideas came from slums in Mumbai on how to use 3D space. This project experiments with how family of six can leave in minimal space (10x10x12.5 feet) with very few compromises.
Honoured by the President of India for his design of India specific low cost ATM for NCR
Honorary membership of Association of Designers (ADI) in Pune
Recognition by Kich as ‘Architects beyond Architecture’ for his work beyond architecture