Swastik is an urban development and capacity building expert with more than 22 years of experience, with expertise in land and housing for the urban poor, design and the development sector, public healthcare systems and climate change. He has worked closely with the public, private, non-profit and academic sectors on practice, pedagogical and research projects. His portfolio includes research and research methods, evidence-based practice and policy-making, and pedagogy for practitioners.
Please click on the menu or the following links to see a selection of Swastik’s work: capacity development on urbanization, research and housing policy support, architecture and design practice, and his publications and media productions.
Swastik is trained as an architect from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. He started his career co-founding Anagram Architects, an architecture design consultancy based in Delhi, and led and served as faculty for architecture design studios in several architecture colleges. He worked independently between 2004 and 2010, providing architectural and design services to a variety of clients including art professionals, multinational manufacturing firms, and individuals, on projects that included apartments, houses, factories and several art installations.
From 2010 to 2020, Swastik worked with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), where for 4 years he led the Urban Practitioners’ Programme (UPP), IIHS’s capacity building and training function, the Design Lab, which focuses on architecture in the development sector, and co-led the urban housing research and practice team.
Swastik’s research has been published in leading international and national journals. His consultancy reports and policy analyses are referred by clients from various sectors. He is also a keen technologist, with expertise in open source operating systems, several analytical and production-oriented software as well as geo-spatial platforms. He has made several short films on development sector practices and has also been a theater professional with over a decade’s experience. He is an avid reader of ancient and modern history, and science fiction, and has motorcycled solo across large swathes of India.
You can download a brief CV from the link below.