The Design Village
PROJECTS 2025
AFTERBURN
finalist project
AFTERBURN tackles North India’s annual challenge of clearing parali (paddy straw), which is typically burned, causing pollution and soil damage. The project reimagines this burning process through anaerobic combustion, converting parali into biochar and biogas using shared, village-scale units. This approach supports circular farming by improving soil health and generating clean energy. Rooted in community collaboration, AFTERBURN offers a regenerative infrastructure that transforms agricultural waste from a harmful byproduct into valuable resources, fostering resilience, sustainability, and renewal for local farming communities.
Hyac
Nonfinalist project
Aryaman Bhargava
Hyac is a bio-based material developed from invasive water hyacinth, transforming an ecological threat into a regenerative opportunity. Excessive growth of water hyacinth disrupts swamp ecosystems and creates environmental and economic challenges. Through extensive experimentation—11 material iterations using 9 techniques—the project explored accessible, low-tech methods to repurpose the plant into a usable material. The result is a sustainable production process adaptable across different scales and communities. Hyac not only mitigates the negative impacts of invasive species but also curates new landscapes, fostering a regenerative cycle of biomaterials that supports ecological balance, human use, and a deeper ethic of environmental care.
Nir Vayu
Nonfinalist project
Devanshi, Vedant, Aakarsh, Khushiyan
Nir Vayu is an affordable, sustainable air purifier designed to serve India’s underserved communities by targeting harmful PM 2.5 particles with MERV 13-level filtration. Crafted from accessible, low-cost materials such as old T-shirts, alum, and turmeric, the purifier blends effective air cleaning with cultural relevance. Drawing on traditional Indian practices and natural remedies, Nir Vayu offers a locally rooted solution to the growing air pollution crisis. Its simple, DIY-friendly design empowers communities to create their own purifiers, promoting environmental justice, health equity, and sustainability through culturally resonant and ecologically mindful innovation.
Instructors 2025
Gaurav Wali is an award-winning Industrial Designer and Material Researcher, driven to investigate the intersection of our current environmental and socio-economic issues. By combining indigenous knowledge systems with a global perspective, he designs holistic solutions that mutually benefit humans and nature. His work explores the dormant potential of unwanted and often overlooked materials to build new narratives for designed objects, sustainable systems and crafts - diving deeper into the understanding of materials, their ecological impact, and their geographical and cultural significance.