
Director, UNAI Hub, BNCA

Founder Secretary – General of the United Nations


Associate Prof., BNCA

Assistant Prof., BNCA


Associate Prof., BNCA

Associate Prof.,BNCA.
The United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) is an initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations in supporting and contributing to the realization of United Nations goals and mandates, including the promotion and protection of human rights, access to education, sustainability and conflict resolution. Since 2010, UNAI has created a vibrant and diverse network of students, academics, scientists, researchers, think tanks, institutions of higher education, continuing education and educational associations.
The work of these institutions is vital to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals as they serve as incubators of new ideas, inventions and solutions to the many global challenges we face. Every subject and discipline can have a UN imprint.
BNCA is a member of UNAI since 2012 and a UNAI hubsince 2014.The UNAI is built around ten principles, and there are ten institutions across the world that serves asUNAI’s global hub on each of the ten principles. Dr. B. N. College of Architecture serves as UNAI’s global hub on “Addressing poverty” . The central idea of the hub is to serve as a platform where students and educators from the parent institute and from other UNAI member institutes come togetherto share ideas and discuss action plans which aims at addressing poverty.It has been enabling various programs addressing poverty through education. As architects and planners the material outcomes of any development can be realized and the process itself becomes a catalyst for bringing together communities and patrons. BNCA took forward this idea and looked upon how concrete actions and projects can inspire its students.
BNCA aims to bring together educators in higher education across the globe to identify a common core of strategies to be shared among countries which will help mitigate crucial issues related to poverty. Its objectives are;
The institute thus invites various partnerships among actors and educators to join hands and build further towards its aligned goals.
“At UNAI hub we provide a platform to work towards international associations with universities and global networks as partners for knowledge exchange. We follow Ban Ki Moon’s vision and importance given for the need for ideas and breakthroughs which essentially brings life at United Nations.
We at BNCA as an architectural fraternity use this platform to generate action oriented projects with multidisciplinary approach sharing ideas across borders to find solutions for interconnected or common problems. We aspire to build a better world inspiring students with dynamism, energy and commitment with an enhanced learning experience with live projects. We hope these various aspects continue to evolve and become valuable contributions, may it be studying new theories, perspectives or developing new modules and designs thus creating an impact.”
Ketaki Randive, Tanvi Bhagwat, and Prof. Asmita Divekar travelled to Shinyanga Tanzania.
Aim:
Anisha Patel, Aditi Lawate, Meenaxhi Dravid, Karishma Mishra, Surabhi Bhavsar, Tanvi Yengul, Aboli Pradhan
Aim:
Students enrolled for the project were Renuka Patil, Ruchi Pahuja, Kalpita Deshmukh, Minna Bansal, Roshni Ghatge, Karishma Kalbhor, Ishani Nawale, Suruhuda Karekar.
Studying at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI_Arc) with specific interest in digital, analog and robotics), Received the Thom Mayne Scholarship for 2016-17
“To be part of an academic program under the umbrella of the UN itself was a very great opportunity. Building alongside with the communities of Kapila andKatuba along with my peers, was an experience I will treasure for long. The Impact program helped me to bridge the gap between the academic intent of sustainable architecture and building and put it into practice.”
“I lead a team of students that researched on and designed a multi Utility center along with dry toilets for the town of Kapila near Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. We had the opportunity of collaborating with Green Contributors Canada andEcosan Services Foundation on designing and understanding the technology involved. The experience of working on site for three weeks on this project helped me understand the importance of stakeholder involvement in the project, which is in line with the Sustainable Development goals. This experience has expanded my understanding of vernacular and encouraged me to enroll for the World heritage Studies program at the Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany.”
Pursuing M. Arch in Landscape Architecture, BNCA
“In June 2014, I participated in the UNAI program at Motego Bay where we used shipping containers and submitted a design proposal of school classrooms and library to the Chamber of Commerce. We studied the Eco-tourism aspects of Jamaica and also presented a management plan for the same. It was a very good learning experience and a platform where we were able to showcase our ideas and views about important issues which needed attention. The program really helped us get that confidence to speak up and express our ideas on an international platform among delegates of United Nations at its headquarters in New York.”
Achievements & Awards Special Mention for Landscape Design Proposal for an Industrial Project, Atlas Copco, 2013; Best Outgoing Student, M.arch, L.A, (2012-2014)
“Building a Sustainable Housing Unit at Shinyanga, Tanzania for a family of 7 people has been a wonderful experience at fieldwork; as working with new people, in a complete new environment & culture and having a language barrier had not been an obstacle anywhere in the entire project and has resulted in successful completion of the house in mere two weeks. As the project was a prototype it will serve many in long run.”
“One of the biggest highlights of my architectural education was visiting Jamaica and working on a live site for a community development program. It happened to be my first international visit so I was really excited. We met and interacted with local authorities, teachers, students and many people from different cultural backgrounds. We incorporated this knowledge with our research and analysis and came up with best possible solutions to create sustainable spaces using ship containers. It was a great learning experience to use our academic knowledge and research skills in addressing genuine community needs.”
Graduated – June 2016
Attended the UNAI program in Jamaica
“UNAI is a platform that allowed students willing to contribute really explore and manifest their ideas into something useful and probably life changing; at a scale only a few can imagine. The amount of exposure that I received in the 1 month that we worked on the project, including the 10 days of presenting, discussing and and deriving the final product contributed to how I approached any
project thereafter. It was because, there was no one else involved in the design process but us the designers along with our guides and the client, the students of barrack roads primary school, that is the freedom this program gave us.
Visiting the students at Barrack Road primary school and interacting with them was almost liberating, because it made us more aware of the change we can bring about as architects and affect peoples lives. It was that opportunity that we as students could not miss, to provide children with a study space, to help them attain education.”
“In the year 2015 I got an opportunity to attend a workshop in Maribor, Slovenia under the UNAI program. We worked together with students of University of Maribor under Demola, which gave an idea of their working techniques and design abilities and by combining brains of all of us as a part of the workshop we could come up with basic yet creative solutions for redevelopment of Botanical garden of Maribor as well as for encouraging green architecture.”
Attended UNAI program in Slovenia
“Our project consisted of finding design solutions for sustainable roof top gardens for families in Peru . The roof top garden would help sustain a family of 6 people along with reducing their expenses on vegetables , fruits , etc. To understand this, we visited the botanical garden of Maribore with students from Maribore University. The first assignment was to express and sketch our findings regarding the botanical garden. In the next sessions we worked on solutions understanding the needs of the families in Peru and accordingly each group presented atleast 3 proposals.”
“My experience at UNAI program in Budapest was truly mesmerising. I was introduced to a new design concept in the emergency shelter design workshop. We worked continuously for days and came up with a design of shell structure which can be used as a shelter in earthquake or flood prone areas. The faculty and organisers at Demola were also helful and led us to explore new ideas.”
“It was a very good experience under UNAI where we worked with engineers and understood the architect and engineer relationship. We also learnt about emergency shelter design, how with use of cost effective and minimal materials strong disaster sustaining designs could be created. This helped me get introduced to various new materials available and exploring arrangements to get least bending and max bending moment. Thanks to UNAI and giving us this opportunity where we learnt many things and had good experience to cherish for lifetime.”
“UNAI demola was a very creative platform for budding students like us to build hands on experience as to
designing with materials. We learnt to work with the local students and faced practical difficulties and found
alternative solutions to the same.”
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