DeSH Lab

Design Studies/History Lab

Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Research Scholar

Himani Kanojia

Research Scholar, DeSH Lab
Inclusive Urban and Climate Planning

Himani Kanojia is an urban designer and doctoral researcher at IIT Delhi, rethinking urban futures through children’s agency and participatory design.

Himani Kanojia has a Master's in Urban Design from School of planning and Architecture Bhopal ( M.Arch, 2012–14) and a Bachelor's in Architecture from Aayojan School of Architecture, Jaipur (B.Arch, 2007–12).

With over a decade of experience across teaching, research, and professional practice, Himani has worked on projects spanning public space design, urban planning, and community-led development, engaging participatory and socio-spatial approaches across academic and applied contexts.

Her doctoral research investigates how children’s lived experiences and visual narratives can be brought into dialogue with urban systems and environmental data to inform climate-responsive planning. Situated within the majority world context, her work explores methodological frameworks that integrate participatory design, drawing-based co-creation, and communication design to enable children’s agency in shaping urban futures. It further examines how such approaches can contribute to more inclusive, context-aware, and responsive design, planning, and policy practices for sustainable cities.

Research Area

Participatory Design, Children’s Agency, Climate and Urban Planning Advocacy, Urban Systems, Inclusive Urban Futures in Majority World Contexts

Conference Publications

Kanojia, H., & Tewari, S. (2025, December). Triadic co creation model: Redefining child participation in urban planning in the majority world. IASDR 2025 Conference, Taipei, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1191
Kanojia, H., & Tewari, S. (2025, January). Enabling climate change through communication design in sustainability discourse at school education in India. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Research into Design (ICoRD). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-7316-2_31
Kanojia, H., & Tewari, S. (2024, December). Visualising future sustainable cities for India: Adapting participatory design frameworks for children in the majority world. The 16th Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399827788
Kanojia, H., & Tewari, S. (2025, January). Integrating environment, science, and communication design in climate change education in school education in India. Paper presented at the SiDE Symposium, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
Kanojia, H., & Tewari, S. (2025, October). Shaping sustainable design thinking: Exploring the role of school environmental studies in youth designers’ climate conscious practices in India. ICDHS Conference 2025, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
Kanojia, H., & Tewari, S. (2026). Meaning before making: Embedding critical worldviews through ethical pedagogy in early industrial design education. Paper presented at the Emerge Conference, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Kanojia, H., & Tewari, S. (2024). Empowering children’s agency in urban planning: Participatory design frameworks for the majority world. Poster presented at the Participatory Design Conference, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Trehan, S., Kanojia, H., & Tewari, S. (2024). Designing for extreme contexts: Facilitating participatory design and evolving empathy in climate change advocacy. Poster presented at the Participatory Design Conference, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

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