- Special sessions
- For children
- Go with the Flow is a performative show of song, dance and humour where Devina, a sharp, street-smart young girl, and her band of ‘water pirates’ steal and resell water for survival. An adventure about courage, community, and the universal right to water, the production by NCPA invites audiences to imagine a future shaped not just by crisis, but by resilience and the choices we make today.
- Immersive experiences for children include Bomanime, an anime film experience by Obataimu, clay moulding, a cycling and biodiversity trail, and a dyeing workshop.
- Conversations
- Listen to a conversation between architects Diana Kellogg and Sameep Padora on ‘Reclaiming shade: heat resilient design and the built environment’. Award-winning French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani will speak on ‘Parametrics in the age of heat’. From building with bamboo to building with local and indigenous materials and techniques are a core part of the programmes.
- Pick from several curated workshops or cycle in the mangroves. Make with Waste, Knots and Shade with Mamou-Mani. Or simply, bond over brick with Studio KPA.
- Events to check out
- From jeans to green: crafting eco-friendly planters
- Make your own organic potpourri
- How to cook Bombay duck in various ways by Parag Tandel x Tarq
- Living with the land / reweaving the ecosystem
- Mini charpai weaving by Sirohi
Walk into the historical industrial space of Godrej Enterprise Group’s Vikhroli campus and touch heat sensitive walls to make the visuals start shifting magically: the warmth of your hands makes the pixels move and Mumbai’s coastline becomes the built landscape. Design, art and architecture come together at the Conscious Collective this time to focus on how to design to stay cool with increased warming of cities. Great arches of bamboo by IBUKU and Bamboo Village Trust emphasise how this regenerative material can create cooler, human-centred futures, rethinking how we build. ‘Tides of Change: Kolis of Mumbai’ invites us to examine Mumbai’s oldest fishing communities and their role in cultural and ecological restoration.
Henry Skupniewicz
| Photo Credit:
Bhushan Gavas
We speak to the head of Godrej Design Lab (GDL), Henry Skupniewicz, about the role of design in sustainable living, the revival of indigenous solutions. Skupniewicz, now 35, who did his architectural programme at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, USA) first visited India as a young international student. He returned in his mid-20s and helped start up the FabLab at CEPT, Ahmedabad in 2013 — “to enable everyone to build almost anything”. He then went to Mumbai to head Godrej Design Lab in 2014. Here, he tells us about the programming which concludes on December 14.
How do you see creative ‘labs’ as grounds for design development and sustainable action?
Godrej Design Lab started as a showcase lab in 2014 for products and furniture. In 2019, when I got involved with the programme, we started looking at how to engage with the system on a broader level, to create products and infrastructure that help society. In 2023 post-pandemic, we wanted to expand our portfolio by creating forums and spaces for discussions to get people excited about design and engage with students, with a focus on sustainability — how do we bring industry and laypersons together, in the same place, to think about sustainable solutions about the built environment?
Bonding over Brick Installation at Conscious Collective 2025.
How does GDL’s fellowship support creative entrepreneurs? What are you showing at Conscious Collective 2025?
Our yearly grants through our fellowship provides financial aid and mentorship. Our mission is to catalyse designers towards meaningful directions by engaging broader conversations that elevate the power of design — how is design shaping lives? We will be showcasing six of our fellows at this edition. Murubi from Vadodara has transformed an invasive aquatic species, water hyacinth, for use in furniture. Bengaluru firm Taro has reimagined their collection Kadham in aluminium as Kadalum — lightweight, durable folding furniture with custom metal sections. The Vernacular Modern from Bengaluru has revived the age-old pakha, devising motorable solutions for this once human-operated rope-pulled gigantic fan.
Installation by Morii Design Studio at Conscious Collective 2025.
What can we expect around the theme ‘Reclaiming Cool’ at Conscious Collective this year?
Conscious Collective 2025’s theme ‘Reclaiming Cool’ is a timely response to the escalating challenge of heat resilience and climatic comfort in urban environments. As cities worldwide grapple with rising temperatures, this edition explores how thoughtful design, innovative materials, and inclusive planning can foster cooler, healthier, and more liveable futures. Expect a compelling mix of global voices and local practitioners sharing insights on design-led climate adaptation. Ayaz Basrai will lead a dialogue on dignified cooling, examining equitable solutions for dense urban neighbourhoods. Bamboo Village Trust and IBUKU will showcase regenerative bamboo construction as a natural, climate-conscious alternative, while experts like Kunal Maniar, Samira Rathod, and CEEW will unpack strategies for balanced urban infrastructure that prioritises thermal comfort in a rapidly warming world.
Beyond discussions, Conscious Collective offers immersive experiences that make these ideas tangible. Visitors can step into code.drift, a walk-through of shifting microclimates that reveals how heat is trapped and released in urban pockets. Workshops such as ‘Crafting Comfort’ invite participants to prototype cooling strategies using sustainable materials, while Speculative Fiction encourages collaborative storytelling to imagine resilient futures.
Taro Collective Installation at Conscious Collective 2025.
What should we know about immersive installations?
At the heart lies an immersive zone designed to make the realities of a warming world visceral and unforgettable. Among its most compelling experiences is The Living Shore by [American new media artist] Lake Heckaman and photographer Sarang — a striking installation that imagines a future coastline transformed by rising temperatures and shifting waterlines. Visitors step into a speculative landscape where ecological boundaries blur, confronting the fragility of our relationship with nature and the urgent need for adaptive design. Through layered visuals and spatial storytelling, The Living Shore transforms climate data into an emotional, sensory experience, reminding us that the fight for thermal comfort is not abstract — it’s deeply human and ecological.
The Force Within Installation at Conscious Collective 2025.
Special sessions
For children
Go with the Flow is a performative show of song, dance and humour where Devina, a sharp, street-smart young girl, and her band of ‘water pirates’ steal and resell water for survival. An adventure about courage, community, and the universal right to water, the production by NCPA invites audiences to imagine a future shaped not just by crisis, but by resilience and the choices we make today.
Immersive experiences for children include Bomanime, an anime film experience by Obataimu, clay moulding, a cycling and biodiversity trail, and a dyeing workshop.
Conversations
Listen to a conversation between architects Diana Kellogg and Sameep Padora on ‘Reclaiming shade: heat resilient design and the built environment’. Award-winning French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani will speak on ‘Parametrics in the age of heat’. From building with bamboo to building with local and indigenous materials and techniques are a core part of the programmes.
Pick from several curated workshops or cycle in the mangroves. Make with Waste, Knots and Shade with Mamou-Mani. Or simply, bond over brick with Studio KPA.
The Vernacular Modern Installation at Conscious Collective 2025.
Events to check out
From jeans to green: crafting eco-friendly planters
Make your own organic potpourri
How to cook Bombay duck in various ways by Parag Tandel x Tarq
Living with the land / reweaving the ecosystem
Mini charpai weaving by Sirohi
For more details, check out: @godrejdesignlab
The writer is a brand strategist with a background in design from SAIC and NID.
Published – December 12, 2025 09:58 pm IST
