Divyang Purkayastha

I'm a design researcher and architect at the Laboratory of Inclusive Design, IIT Roorkee, where I'm pursuing my PhD as a Prime Minister's Research Fellow. My research investigates the inclusive design of public toilet systems in Indian cities, focusing on human-centric approaches for persons with locomotor disabilities. It sits at the intersection of architecture, urban design, disability studies, and public policy. My doctoral work grew directly out of questions I began asking during my Bachelor of Architecture at IIT Roorkee: who does the built environment actually serve, and who does it leave out? That shift, from designing spaces to studying how and why they fail the people who need them most, is one honest answer to where architecture can take you. It required learning new methods (qualitative research, participatory design, policy design), but the spatial literacy that architecture training builds has remained central. I've contributed to applied projects of national significance, including accessibility assessments of the New Parliament Building, improvements to universal access at Mumbai Suburban Railway Stations, and the drafting of the Accessible Tourism Guidelines for India (2022) for the Ministry of Tourism. I'm currently working on a project on universal accessibility in urban public spaces, funded by AMRUT under MoHUA. I also serve on the Technical Committee for the Purple Building Certification Scheme (a joint ICMR initiative) and have trained UPSC Civil Servant Probationers on universal design through NIUA. If you're a student thinking seriously about research, inclusive design, or the policy dimensions of the built environment, I'd be glad to connect.

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