Commonsia is where architecturestudents find the answers theircolleges can't give them.
We connect architecture students with mentors for portfolio reviews, career conversations, design crits, and honest guidance.
The Story Behind Commonsia
From a thesis room to a movement that's reshaping architectural education
The Beginning
Started in a thesis room at Faculty of Architecture and Ekistics, Jamia Millia Islamia. Shuja Rehman's unconventional seaplane-based airport thesis revealed the scattered nature of architectural knowledge.
First Sessions
Open sessions for juniors on thesis fundamentals. Students who'd been quietly stuck started showing up.
Community Growth
A WhatsApp group sharing architectural opportunities grew from a handful to nearly 400 students, colleagues, and practitioners.
The Limits
WhatsApp groups don't scale. Mentors burn out. Students with the right contacts find answers; students without them don't.
Commonsia Today
Verified mentors, structured sessions, fair compensation, honest feedback. The same generosity — now with infrastructure to reach every architecture student.
What We Believe
Access over luck
A career shouldn't be decided by who you happen to know. The right senior at the right moment shouldn't be a matter of luck.
Beyond the studio
The most important conversations in architecture happen outside the studio. A jury teaches you to defend a project. A mentor teaches you to build a life around one.
Structure sustains generosity
Generosity needs structure to last. Mentors give their time, their experience, their honesty. Our job is to make that worth their while — every single time.
Our team
Meet the Team
Architects, technologists and builders — committed to creating a mentorship platform that empowers the next generation of architects.
Shuja Rehman
Founder & CEO
Leads vision, community, and the direction of the platform.
Vision • Community • Strategy
Ritik Raj
Co-Founder & CTO
Leads engineering and platform infrastructure.
Engineering • Platform • Systems
Arnav Singh
Co-Founder & CPO
Leads the development and experience of students and mentors.
Product • Experience • Growth
Backed by a circle of architecture-industry advisors, practising principals, design educators, and researchers.
Where We're Going
Today
B.Arch students. Verified mentors. A model that works, proven in India.
Tomorrow
The full design ecosystem. Interior design. Urban planning. Landscape. Product design. The same scattered goodwill, waiting to be organised.
The Vision
To become the place where an architecture career actually happens. Where guidance flows freely, where talent is nurtured, and where a century-old profession finally has the network it deserves.
A network the profession has been waiting a century for
Where a sixteen-year-old curious about the field finds her first mentor
Where a third-year lands the right internship
Where a graduate chooses between a master's abroad and a practice in Mumbai through a real conversation, not a Reddit thread
Where a working architect, ten years in, gives back to the profession — and is valued for it
We're building it.
Join us in reshaping architectural education — with real mentors, real conversations, and the structure to make guidance accessible.