15/09/2026
BDes Furniture and Interior Design, NID Ahmedabad students display their work at London Design Festival 2026
Date : 12th to 16th September 2026
Venue : Tower Tavern, University of Westminster, Regent Street, 21 Clipstone St, London W1W 6BA, United Kingdom
Student Designers : Bhavvika Sharrma , Abhishek Rajguru & Sri Abirami B Baskar K , Ishna Savadatti,Nayana Bhadran,Rizwana Shuja,Sharon Madhu Sekhar and Yuvraj Thakare
Faculty Guide and Mentor: Prof. Neha Nandkumar Mandlik
University : National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad,India
In collaboration with Cindrebay School of Design and OSA studio. Curated by Daksh Goel, Academic team: Kaustav Kalyan Deb Burman and Abubokkar Siddiki for student mentoring and leading international collaboration. Media Partner : IFJ Plus, Venue sponsor, University of Westminster, London
Students from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, are showcasing their work at the London Design Festival as part of an exhibition presented by OSA Studio. Developed during a studio course Design workshop-3 under the guidance of Prof. Neha Nandkumar Mandlik and Bamboo workshop staff Subroto Sarkar & Ranjith Debarma.The installations represent the students' material-led explorations, earning them a place on the international stage.
The London Design Festival is an annual event that brings together designers from across the globe and demonstrates the capital’s position as a powerhouse for the creative industries. As one of the world’s leading design events, the Festival has also served as the blueprint for design weeks and festivals globally and continues to be a key moment on the cultural calendar.
The theme for our exhibition as a part of OSA studio in the LDF is “In-Between Thresholds” Which begins with the understanding that some of the most meaningful experiences emerge within moments of transition. Not within fixed destinations, but within spaces that resist definition, existing somewhere between stillness and movement, memory and immediacy, presence and absence. One of the students Bhavika is also attending the Design Safari, an eight-day educational and cultural exposure programme organised by Cindrebay School of Design during this time.
The works presented here emerged from a four-week intensive bamboo lighting course at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India guided and mentored by Prof.Neha Nandkumar Mandlik. The installations are personal interpretations of the brief, developed as modular and knock-down systems through a rigorous process of observation, material exploration, making and experimenting with the bamboo itself.
Bamboo became both a constraint and a collaborator. Its behaviour changes with weather, machinery and environment, requiring an approach that works with the material rather than against it. Students explored the possibilities and limitations of bamboo through hand tools, machinery and locally available processes, developing more efficient methods of production while discovering alternative techniques of making, joining and finishing.
Though widely available, bamboo remains relatively underexplored as a material for contemporary lighting. The course became an opportunity to question its familiar applications and investigate how radically its character can change through processing. Strips, dowels, curves and other transformed forms were developed and studied for the way they interact with light, shadow and one another. These experiments were catalogued, reflected upon and translated into functional spatial installations.
Each work occupies its own threshold between material, memory, movement and light.layers strips of bamboo to evoke the organic rhythm of blooming jasmine and theBhavvika Sharrma’s intimate glow of a diya. The overlapping strips soften and diffuse the light, creating shifting shadows and a sensory experience that moves between delicacy and radiance.
Sri Abirami and Abhishek Rajguru’s TARANG draws from the lively energy of a courtyard fountain. The installation explores movement through the upward surge of water, translating its rhythm into bamboo forms and a dynamic interplay of light and shadow. TARANG becomes an exploration of energy suspended
Ishna Savadatti in space investigates modularity through a system of similar bamboo components, each retaining its own subtle character. As the elements respond to air and movement, they sway gently, recalling the organic flicker of traditional oil lamps and creating a constantly changing relationship between stillness and motion.
Nayana Bhadran combines natural bamboo with red manjadi seeds to evoke the long journey of a pilgrim. The warm glow becomes a quiet marker along this imagined journey, drawing attention to small and often overlooked moments and suggesting that meaning can be found not only in arrival, but in the act of moving through.
Rizwana Shuja takes inspiration from medieval Indo-Islamic jali patterns, translating their intricate geometry into an interactive lighting environment. The installation transforms ordinary transit corridors into spaces of engagement, interrupting habitual, autopilot movement and creating a responsive dialogue between the body, light and architecture.
Sharon Madhu Sekhar draws from a childhood memory of a power cut - a moment when the familiar rhythm of everyday life was interrupted. Sitting with family on the porch in darkness, time seemed to slow and ordinary sensory awareness became heightened. When the electricity returned, the moment disappeared, leaving only memory behind. The lamp recreates this pause, exploring the threshold between routine and presence and inviting moments of connection in everyday life.
Yuvraj Thakare revisits memories of Diwali light, colour, movement and celebration and transforms them into a contemporary spatial experience. The project abstracts the visual language of fireworks and radiating forms into a modular bamboo lighting installation, creating a threshold between cultural memory and the present.
Together, these installations show what happens when designers work with a natural material rather than forcing it into a rigid shape. By letting bamboo bend, react, and set its own limits, the students created forms that work with its properties rather than limiting it. Bamboo is not simply shaped into objects; it is observed, negotiated with and allowed to reveal its own behaviour. Light further transforms these explorations, making visible what lies between solid and void, structure and shadow, object and atmosphere.
This showcase takes student projects out of NID's studios and puts them on a major global stage. Through OSA Studio's platform, the students get a direct line to international curators and design professionals.
National Institute of Design, India
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
Piyush Goyal , Jitin Prasada
