ABOUT
INTERDICSIPINARY DESIGNER | Climate + Material+ Objects + SPATIAL
Disha is an interdisciplinary designer working across industrial design, architecture, exhibitions, and speculative research. She is driven by a simple question: What new worlds can design help us imagine?
Trained as an architect and industrial designer, she explores how objects, spaces, and material systems shape relationships between people, culture, and the living world. She brings a rare ability to move fluidly between business, design management, and complex systems thinking — grounding her creative practice in strategic and structural clarity. Her work sits at the intersection of anthropology, ecology, material exploration, and emerging technologies — using speculative research and making to challenge assumptions, reveal overlooked relationships, and imagine more reciprocal futures between humans and the more-than-human world.
Her talent for design emerged early — at just 20, she won and represented her work at an Asian architecture contest for young architects in Taipei, an experience that shaped her early confidence in design as a tool for bigger ideas. With over five years of architectural and research experience since, Disha has designed and managed projects ranging from museums and institutional buildings to residences and interiors. Working with earth-based materials, local artisans, and craft communities, she has developed a deep appreciation for place-based knowledge, material intelligence, and collaborative making. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she founded Aralu, a multidisciplinary design consultancy focused on architecture, interiors, and creative development.
She holds a Master's in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and studied entrepreneurship and project management at Brown University. At RISD, she expanded her practice through exhibition design at the RISD Museum and research on circular material systems at the RISD Loop Lab..
EDUCATION
-Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), 2024-2026 | Providence, RI
Masters in Industrial Design (STEAM program)
Electives: Generative systems, Immersive space in Digital Media, Biomaterials, Computational
thinking, Design for interaction.
-Brown University, 2025 | Providence, RI
Electives: The Entrepreneurial Process, Engineering Management and Decision-Making course.
-R.V College of Architecture (RVCA), 2015-2020 | Bengaluru city, India
Bachelor of Architecture
Design Research Thesis: Jenu Goodu- reimagining ‘dwellings’ for Indigenous communities.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
-Exhibition Design Assistant, RISD Museum, Providence (USA) | July 2025- June 2026
-Material Circularity Research Assistant, RISD Nature Lab, Providence (USA) | July 2025- Sept 2025
-Project Architect, mayaPraxis Studio, Bengaluru (India) | June 2022-2024.
-Architect, Praxis. Inc, Bengaluru (India) | Nov 2021- June 2022.
-Site Supervisor, Loha Fabricators | 2021- 2021
-Design consultant, Pranaav Mantra Design firm | 2021- 2021
-Design consultant, Uravu Ecolinks (NGO) | 2021- 2021
-Founder, Aralu | 2020- 2021
-Design Intern, Hunnarshaala Foundation (Community empowerment Unit) | 2019- 2020
Accolades
-Awarded, Graduate Visionary Insight Award (Department of Industrial Design), 2026
-Awarded, RISD ID, Marc Harrison Fund, 2026
-Awarded, M. Fred Roddy Scholarship, AY 2025-26
-Awarded, RISD ID, Health Fund, 2025
-Awarded, RISD Graduate Fellowship, AY 2024-26
-Represented India & was awarded Domestic Gold Winner, (ACARA) Asian Contest for Architectural Rookie Awards 2018 in Taipei.
-Finalist, AIA Dallas Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition 2020.
-Best Undergrad Thesis, DSGN Archive Best UG Architectural Design Thesis 2020.
-Speaker, Design United ‘Small Measures, Great Impact’ Conference 2020.
-Top 10 Honorable Mentions, A Call for Nonurban Ideas 2021.
-Showcased Mycelium based prototypes, What’s the smell? RISD 2024
GRADUATE ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE @RISD
-Graduate Assistant for Exhibition Design @RISD MUSEUM | 2025- 26
-Summer Graduate Research Assistant (Material Circularity), at the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab | July 2025- August 2025.
-Co Curator, M. Industrial Design bi-annual exhibition | Jan 2025-March 2025.
-Research Experience
Emerging Disruptive Technologies, under Prof. Tom Wies | Sept 2025- present.
The Green book for Providence, under Prof. Jessica Brown | Sept 2024- May 2025.
-Teaching Experience
Design Histories, for Prof. Iilona Gaynor | Feb 2026- May 2026.
NASA Rover, for Prof. Micheal Lye | Sept 2025- Dec 2026.
Intro to Grad Industrial Design, for Prof. Nicholas Khipra | Jan 2025- Feb 2025.
Design Histories, for Prof. Paolo Cardini | Sept 2024- Dec 2024.
-Student advisor, for RISD Intercultural Student Engagement |Feb 2025-Sept 2025.
-LiaIson, Woodshop | Feb 2025- Dec 2025
-Monitor, Laser cutting machine | Sept 2025- present
VOLUNTEERING and WORKSHOPS
-The Bio design Challenge 2025, New York, USA.
-AS220 summer event, Providence, USA.
-Building material, structure and finishes: Rammed Earth, CSEB (Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks, Cob wall, Wattle and Daub, Mud Plaster, Kodi Marble Lime Plaster, Shallow Dome Construction.
