Exhibition & More

Opening of FOAID Delhi with dignitaries and partners; delegate check-in and formal launch.

Every great project begins with a brief — but the most exceptional ones go far beyond it. This session explores how creative minds approach high-end projects not as assignments to complete, but as experiences to craft. Designers and innovators will share how they interpret briefs as springboards for imagination — questioning, expanding, and reimagining what’s possible within the constraints of luxury, craft, and client vision. Through their stories, they’ll reveal how deep thinking, material sensitivity, and emotional intelligence drive their design choices. The session will delve into how top designers solve differently — blending intuition with precision, artistry with purpose — to deliver projects that don’t just meet expectations, but redefine them.

Behind every iconic project lies a quiet tension — between the boldness of vision and the discipline of detail. Detail vs. Vision is a presentation series where leading architects take audiences behind the scenes of one landmark project, revealing how big ideas evolve into built form. Each presentation explores how creativity meets reality — how design intent is preserved through drawings, materials, engineering, and collaboration. From concept sketches to on-site decisions, speakers will share the strategies, challenges, and lessons that shaped their journey. This session offers architects a rare inside look into how vision becomes execution — proving that every great building is as much a triumph of imagination as it is of precision.

What does it really mean to become an architect or designer — not just by degree, but by conviction? Beyond portfolios and deadlines lies the deeper struggle of finding one’s voice and purpose in a demanding profession. This session brings together practitioners to share their unspoken realities — the failures, doubts, and turning points that shaped their journeys — reminding young architects that they are not alone. Through candid reflections that move from vulnerability to growth, it reveals how resilience and self-awareness form the true foundation of a meaningful practice.

Branded residences are redefining the way we perceive luxury living — where architecture meets aspiration, and lifestyle becomes a statement. Rooted in collaborations between designers, developers, and global brands, these projects go beyond aesthetics to embody a distinct identity and promise of quality, service, and experience. This session explores the rise of branded residences as a transformative force in contemporary urban living — where architecture, brand identity, and luxury intersect to create aspirational spaces. It delves into how these collaborations between design and branding are shaping new narratives of exclusivity, trust, and value in real estate. Beyond aesthetics, the discussion highlights how branded residences play a vital role in placemaking — influencing how cities project prestige, attract investment, and craft distinctive urban identities in an increasingly globalized world.

As India’s growth shifts from metros to small towns, the next phase of urbanization must prioritize inclusivity and resilience. Antodaya to Sarvodaya explores how emerging towns can be designed to serve everyone — from the most marginalized to the wider community — through equitable, climate-adaptive, and human-centered infrastructure. The session examines how small towns can become engines of opportunity while preserving accessibility, dignity, and local identity.

Design Theme: "Stories from the Unseen" Note: Imagine an installation that draws inspiration from places beyond our reach—whether deep oceans, distant galaxies, or microscopic realms—while subtly revealing a layered narrative. Could you create a space where stories emerge as people move through it? Perhaps kinetic elements, abstract forms, or hidden cues invite discovery, emotion, and wonder. Let your concept blur the line between the real and the surreal, where architecture becomes both storyteller and explorer. How might you bring the unseen to life, not just as a design, but as an unfolding experience?

Asking questions is such an important part of architectural education, to develop interest and critical thinking skills, to review learning and stimulate students to pursue knowledge on their own. With this in mind, ‘Uncensored: Straight from the heart’ was developed exclusively for the student audience. Select senior and young entrepreneurs have been rounded to form a panel, to answer any questions the students might have, uncensored. This panel is an emboldening initiative to bridge the verbal gap in communication between the learning and the established; the old and new generation of designers.

Students entering the profession today face a very different landscape — one where freelancing, self-initiated work, collaborations, and micro-practices coexist with traditional employment. But most of them are unsure how to begin, what is considered “professional,” and at what point initiative becomes practice. This session invites experienced architects and designers to decode the early entrepreneurship journey — the first small steps that eventually shape a studio’s voice, culture, and identity. It is not about starting a firm immediately, but about understanding how entrepreneurial thinking grows from decisions, risks, relationships, and authorship over time.

Built Architecture & Interior Design projects in the healthcare industry including clinics, hospitals, wellness centers, or specialized care centers.

Built Interior Design projects including shops, showrooms, stores, retail spaces like boutiques, departmental stores, salon

Built Architecture projects including workplaces, offices, studios, banks, co-working spaces, the architecture of retail spaces

Built Interior Design projects including workplaces, offices, studios, banks, co-working spaces, gyms

Built Architecture & Interior Design projects in the hospitality industry including hotels, motels, lodging facilities, wellness retreats, resorts, amusement parks, the architecture of restaurants, spas, clubhouses, banquets, lounges as part of hotels

Built Architecture & Interior Design projects including research labs, libraries, schools, college training centres, recreational spaces, theatres, cultural & community centres, religious institutions, galleries, museums, malls

Architecture is as much about people as it is about buildings. Healthy client relationships define project success, yet misunderstandings, mismatched expectations, and lack of communication often derail them. This session reframes clients as partners in the creative journey and explores how trust, clarity, and shared vision can lead to better design outcomes.

Every project begins as an idea — but what shapes it into reality is everything that happens in between. The Anatomy of a Project explores this evolution through the lens of five architects, each presenting one defining project from a different typology: residential, hospitality, commercial, institutional, and cultural. Unlike a traditional panel, this is an intimate, sit-down playback session — a reflective conversation supported by on-screen visuals. As each project unfolds, the moderator guides the discussion through the anatomy of design: from the first spark of concept to the final built form. The session reveals how context, scale, and emotion influence every journey — yet the core remains constant: intent, integrity, and intuition.

In a world constantly pushing boundaries — taller, denser, faster — this FOAID presentation series pauses to ask: What if the most radical act of design today is restraint? Curated as part of FOAID 2025, this series will feature 6-8 meaningful presentations where leading architects and designers reflect on projects that tread lightly, honor their context, and blur the boundaries between structure and soil, culture and commerce, legacy and ambition. Because drawing the line isn’t about limitation — it’s about intention. And at FOAID, it’s time to draw it again.

India’s foremost platform celebrating excellence in architectural, interior and experiential lighting by Indian-origin designers.

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has emerged as a critical framework for creating sustainable, livable, and efficient urban environments. By integrating transportation planning with land-use development, TOD aims to reduce congestion, improve accessibility, and promote economic growth while minimizing environmental impact. As Indian cities face rapid urbanization and growing transportation demands, there is an urgent need to align infrastructure, transit, and urban planning to create future-ready cities, while ensuring that strategic material choices make transit infrastructure durable, safe, and long-lasting.

By the year 2050, India will need to build several billion sq.ft. of infrastructure to accommodate its growing population. The construction of these buildings, roads, etc. will happen on the entire spectrum of scale, ability and geography. Simultaneously, India needs to protect its environmental resources from permanent degradation while this process unfolds across cities, towns and villages. The construction industry in the country has rapidly matured, but several challenges remain and will be the subject of today’s discussion. For construction in India to be sustainable in the long term, we need to address the following issues. Emissions standards during the production of major raw materials - steel, cement, aluminium, plywood. These large companies produce a majority of the emissions we attribute to the industry. Almost everything we do is custom. This is not only because the manufacturing side does not dictate how the product is used, it is also because there are very few end-to-end product manufacturers, so there is a lot of wastage. The industry does not have a trained workforce and so there is no process for repeatable, dependable work production. A lot of trial and error. It is not a professional centric industry. Work is produced by hundreds of thousands of small players, none of whom can leverage the advantages of scale in production.

Asking questions is such an important part of architectural education, to develop interest and critical thinking skills, to review learning and stimulate students to pursue knowledge on their own. With this in mind, ‘Uncensored: Straight from the heart’ was developed exclusively for the student audience. Select senior and young entrepreneurs have been rounded to form a panel, to answer any questions the students might have, uncensored. This panel is an emboldening initiative to bridge the verbal gap in communication between the learning and the established; the old and new generation of designers.

Students today often feel the pressure to “brand” themselves before they have discovered who they are as designers, resulting in online presence without real authorship. This session reframes personal brand not as marketing or aesthetics, but as narrative — the belief system, lived experiences, and design lens that give a practice its recognisable identity. Through this session established architects and designers will help students understand how story precedes visibility, how philosophy becomes recall, and why the most enduring design reputation comes not from what you post, but from what you stand for.

Built Interior Design projects in the FnB service industry including cafes, restaurants, lounges, bars, bakeries

Built Interior Design projects of an individual dwelling apartment of 1000 sq. ft. and more than 1000 sq. ft.

Built Interior Design projects of an individual dwelling apartment less than 1000 sq. ft.

Built Interior Design projects of an individual dwelling house/ villa/ bungalow

Built Architecture projects of an individual dwelling house/ villa/ bungalow