I’m an architect, urbanist, and artist. My work begins with a simple question: how can the places we build live in better relationship with the water, land, and communities around them?
Through Pramada Jagtap Design Studio, I design homes, institutions, landscapes, and masterplans. I move between these scales deliberately, so what I learn from one shapes the others. The work is grounded in natural materials, light, proportion, and in careful attention to context.
That thinking extends beyond the studio. I founded the Urban Resilience Foundation, a Section 8 non-profit that works to restore and reimagine India’s urbanscapes through research, education, storytelling, and on-ground ecological action. I also teach and research on urban waters, and the studio and the foundation inform each other. One shapes places, the other cares for the landscapes they depend on.
I trained at KRVIA, Mumbai (B.Arch) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S. in Architecture and Urbanism). I also paint, often capturing natural elements and architecturural forms. The slow work of looking at a canvas shapes how I see a place and how I think about composition, flow, and material.
Awards & Recognitions
Julian Beinart Research Award, MIT
For research exploring cultural, ecological, and spatial relationships with water.
For research exploring cultural, ecological, and spatial relationships with water.
Priscilla King Gray IDEAS Social Innovation Award, MIT
For filmmaking on water systems in Pune, India.
For filmmaking on water systems in Pune, India.
Graduate Merit Scholarship, MIT
Sandbox Fellowship, MIT
K.C. Mahindra Scholarship for Higher Education
RICS – Square Foot House Design Competition
First position for affordable home design.
First position for affordable home design.
NSDC, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
First position for informal housing redevelopment.
First position for informal housing redevelopment.
International Association for Humane Habitat (IAHH)
Second position for informal housing redevelopment.
Second position for informal housing redevelopment.
INTACH – Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
Commendation award for heritage documentation.
Commendation award for heritage documentation.
Publications & Media
Jagtap, Ahuja & Lal (2025). Jalandhar’s Water Bodies: Restoration & Stewardship.
World Resources Institute India.
Read here →
World Resources Institute India.
Read here →
Jagtap, P. (2023). Humanizing Urban Waters: Civilian-led Water Corps to Strengthen Decentralized Water Systems in Western India.
Master’s Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
View →
Master’s Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
View →
Jagtap, P. (2021). Urban Theatre – Architecture of Future Collectives.
Published in Unbuilt 2.0, featuring emerging design practitioners in India.
Published in Unbuilt 2.0, featuring emerging design practitioners in India.
Jagtap & Thole, P. (2020). Epidemiology and Urbanism: Mumbai.
City Observer, Volume 6, Issue 2.
City Observer, Volume 6, Issue 2.
Jagtap, P. (2018). Confronting Informality Symposium and Ideas Competition.
Published by TU Delft, Netherlands.
Published by TU Delft, Netherlands.
Jagtap, P. (2017). People Called Ahmedabad.
Random House India. Co-authored collection of stories on Ahmedabad.
Random House India. Co-authored collection of stories on Ahmedabad.