URBAN AGE AWARD DELHI 2014
2014, Delhi, India, for Alfred Herrhausen Society & LSE Cities


The Urban Age Award is a traveling prize designed to recognize and empower grassroots initiatives and movements addressing urban challenges. Established in 2008 in Mumbai, the award has since traveled to cities such as Cape Town, Mexico City, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Istanbul. In 2014, the award was hosted in Delhi, where I served as the directing curator. My responsibilities included identifying and mapping various grassroots initiatives across the city, developing design content, and organizing talks and events focused on social issues affecting Delhi. Out of 135 initiatives that applied for the award, GOONJ and CHINTAN emerged as winners.
You can read more about the award and its grantees here.

Mapping grassroots initiatives in Delhi provided a unique opportunity to merge my design and research interests. This experience set me on a path of design activism, enabling me to collaborate with communities and organizations to envision and contribute to a more equitable and empathetic city. I remain deeply grateful for the mentorship of Ute E. Weiland, Priya Shankar, and Linda Radau, whose guidance during the award process inspired me to pursue this trajectory.

The Urban Age Award also served as a precursor to the Urban Exchange project, which facilitated cross-learning between cities and grassroots initiatives in Delhi, Mexico City, São Paulo, Cape Town, and Berlin.