Sandhya Naidu Janardhan: Voices of Resilience | Justice by Design Lecture
The 2024 Rupp Lecture “Voices of Resilience: Shaping Community Futures Through Collective Design,” is given by Sandhya Naidu Janardhan, founder and managing director of Community Design Agency (CDA). Situated in Mumbai, India, Naidu Janardhan’s practice is at the intersection of social and environmental factors, linking spatial equity to broader systemic issues of climate vulnerability, and social, economic and cultural inequities.
Centering architecture and design within informality, she works alongside marginalized communities across India, leveraging the power of collective action that values local knowledge and skills. Her body of work illustrates the transformative potential of design as a tool for positive change.
Joining Naidu Janardhan is her colleague, Parveen Shaikh, lead community organizer, and resident of a community where CDA has been working since 2016. Shaikh is a social worker and community organizer with over 20 years of experience in advocacy work for the rights of slum and pavement dwellers. She has championed the cause of safe formal housing for vulnerable communities at multiple national and international forums.
Together they share stories and experiences of working together — strategizing with communities over endless cups of chai — what it takes to collectivize large neighborhoods, and co-designing and co-creating equitable spaces for marginalized communities in India.
2024 Rupp Prize Lecture
Sponsored by the College of Environmental Design
About the Speaker
Sandhya Naidu Janardhan is an architect and advocate of community-led social impact design and sustainable architecture. She is the founder and managing director of Mumbai-based Community Design Agency, an interdisciplinary organization that brings together researchers, architects, engineers, business professionals, planners, and artists to work directly with disenfranchised communities. The organization’s work includes the Sanjaynagar Slum Redevelopment project, the Govandi Arts Festival, and Niramay Place. She is the recipient of CED’s 2024–2025 Berkeley Rupp Prize, which recognizes and supports the special values that women bring to the built environment. Naidu Janardhan’s work focuses on cultivating processes that provide marginalized communities with the agency to choose where and how they live, work, and play. This fall, she is teaching a seminar on community-based practices, exposing our students to alternative forms of professional practice.
About the Series
Justice by Design is a college-wide lecture series that brings together speakers from across disciplines to address the intersection of social justice and the built environment.
Free + open to the public.
If you require accommodations to fully participate in this event, please contact ceddean@berkeley.edu or 510.642.0831 at least 10 days prior to the lecture.