WDCD Live Delhi 2025 Delhi 25 – Timetable

An environmentalist and architect, Sandeep Virmani has spent over three decades working with indigenous communities across India to revive traditional building crafts and ecological practices. He co-founded Hunnarshala Foundation, pioneering sustainable architecture with natural materials, and Sahjeevan, which supports pastoralists, water conservation, and ecological restoration. Through initiatives like the Centre for Pastoralism and Living Lightly – Journeys with Pastoralists, he champions the resilience of marginalized communities. His work has influenced post-disaster reconstruction in India and beyond, shaping policies and training future generations in ethical, sustainable design.

Monish Siripurapu is the visionary founder of Ant Studio, an innovative architectural practice dwelling in the intersection of art, nature and technology. With a focus on sustainability and innovation, Ant Studio reimagines traditional techniques to address modern challenges, merging aesthetics with functionality to create solutions that are as beautiful as they are impactful.

Monish is also the driving force behind CoolAnt, a pioneering solution that introduces an energy-efficient air conditioning solution to tackle today’s problems of global warming, heat, and air pollution. Its celebrated cooling systems, inspired by ancient practices and engineered with cutting-edge design, have become a symbol of climate-responsive architecture.

María Conejo is a visual artist and designer with a degree from the Fine Arts School of Design. Her versatile creative practice spans drawing, painting, illustration, design, large-scale murals, ceramics, and tattooing. Central to her work is the exploration of her relationship with her own body, enriched by continuous historiographical research on the human body and sexuality. A two-time recipient of Mexico’s national Jóvenes Creadores grant, she co-founded with the American writer and researcher Zoe Mendelson, the sexual education platform Pussypedia.net, serving as its art director and illustrator.

Thomas Rau is an architect, entrepreneur, innovator and acclaimed thought leader on sustainability and circular economy. His office RAU has been recognized for being at the forefront of producing innovative carbon neutral, energy positive and circular buildings as a norm.

Thomas was elected as Dutch Architect of the Year 2013 and awarded with the ARC13 Oeuvre Award for his widespread contribution in both promoting and realizing sustainable architecture and bringing awareness of the circular economy. He received the Circular Hero Award 2021 for his vigorous and groundbreaking work to establish a circular economy. The ULI Germany Leadership Award for Urban Innovation was awarded to him in 2022.

As Head of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Asia Regional Office, Deepali drives efforts to amplify the Foundation’s impact and initiatives to make opportunities universal and sustainable. She leads efforts to build and maintain networks with diverse institutions, leverage financing and partnerships, manage innovative grants, and provide thought leadership on trends shaping development across Asia.

Deepali previously led engagement with India’s G20 presidency to advance global economic equity, public health, clean energy, and sustainable food systems.

As cities grapple with worsening air quality, Abhimanyu Singhal and Depanshu Gola tackle the challenge head-on with their design project Breathe Easy, one of the winning projects from the Redesign Everything Challenge. As designers and architects, they co-lead Architecture for Dialogue (@afd.city), an experimental spatial practice focused on improving urban living conditions by addressing indoor air pollution in cities like New Delhi.

After years of researching and mapping pollution sources within homes, they are ready to share their findings and solutions on stage at WDCD Live Delhi 2025. By integrating traditional knowledge and vernacular building techniques, their work exemplifies the theme of how to rethink technology in the Indian context.

Shashank Mani is a Member of Parliament from Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, and the visionary founder of Jagriti Yatra, the world’s largest entrepreneurial train journey to inspire youth to become entrepreneurs.

His work has energised 7,500 young leaders and spearheaded efforts to foster responsible entrepreneurship and systemic change.

Pedro Reyes (Mexico City, 1972) lives and works in Mexico City. He has established himself internationally with his large-scale projects that address social and political issues through different media such as sculpture, performance, video, and activism. Reyes explores, often in collaboration with associations and institutions, the ways in which change can be encouraged through communication, creativity, happiness, and humor. In recent years Reyes has dedicated himself to sculpture, with works in volcanic stone, marble, bronze and steel, that look at modernism and ancient South American cultures in a variety ranging from the intimate to the monumental, from the ancient to the modern, from the sacred to functional.

Somnath Ray is a recognized by MIT TechReview as a top innovator and a serial entrepreneur with over two decades of experience building consumer-focused software and hardware products. Trained as an architect in New Delhi and New York, Som transitioned to urban mobility while working with the Smart Cities group at MIT Media Lab. In 2009, he founded an EV startup in India, developing electric auto rickshaws ahead of the country’s EV revolution. He later established an award-winning design consultancy, earning the TR35 award for creating an ultra-low-cost wheelchair.

Kailash Nadh is the founder of Rainmatter Foundation and CTO of Zerodha, India’s largest stockbroking app and one of our largest fintech companies. At Rainmatter Foundation, which was established in 2020, he helps lead initiatives focused on climate change mitigation and environmental conservation in India. The foundation provides funding and support to organizations working on issues like reforestation, sustainable agriculture, and climate education.

Namita Bhatnagar is a multidisciplinary designer based in London and works at the intersection of biology, art and design.

Bridging design thinking with scientific exploration, she is fascinated by the potential of material innovation. Her background in UX/UI design and user research makes me a collaborative, adaptable problem-solver. She loves to talk about inclusivity in design, unconventional materials, architectural wonders, and, above all, the role of design in addressing the ecological crisis.

Namita is the founder of Co-culturing Rituals—Biosoothe and one of the 11 winners of the Redesign Everything Challenge. Her project focuses on the potential of photosynthetic materials, with applications that go far beyond traditional skincare. Through her experiments, she collaborates with microorganisms to explore how photosynthesis can benefit human health and well-being, with the goal of revolutionising our healing processes.

“Another fashion system is possible,” says Mexican fashion designer Carla Fernández. She creates haute couture designs throughout Mexico. Fernández’s work preserves and celebrates centuries-old textile techniques belonging to Indigenous communities and other popular and urban collectives in Mexico. After studying art history and fashion design, Fernández turned her attention to traditional techniques of clothing construction in Mexico. Maintaining these techniques and imbuing them with innovation became the root of her practice. As she says: “To be original is to go back to the origin.”The Fashion House which she heads together with her partner Cristina Rangel, collaborates in the design and production processes with artisans across Mexico, by celebrating their living cultures, and by using the house’s global platform to promote social justice and fair trade.