Ankita Satpathy is an architect, interior designer, educator, and researcher whose work explores the nuanced relationships between space, climate, materiality, culture, and human experience. With a multidisciplinary foundation spanning architecture, interior design, research, and pedagogy, she brings a thoughtful, inquiry-driven, and environmentally conscious approach to both design practice and design education. Ankita completed her Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the Odisha University of Technology and Research (OUTR), Bhubaneswar—formerly known as the College of Engineering and Technology (CET)—and subsequently earned her Master’s degree in Interior Architectural Design from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Building Product Systems, where her research investigates the integration of vernacular and water-based passive cooling systems into contemporary interior environments to enhance thermal comfort, spatial well-being, and environmental sustainability.
As an educator, Ankita has been actively engaged in Interior Design, Spatial Design, Furniture and Lighting Design, Colour-Material-Finish (CMF) Studies, Service Design, Portfolio Development, and Computational Design education. Her teaching philosophy is rooted in the belief that design education should nurture curiosity, critical thinking, material sensitivity, and contextual awareness. Through studio-based learning, project mentoring, curriculum development, and interdisciplinary collaborations, she encourages students to approach design as a tool for innovation, cultural engagement, and environmental responsibility. Beyond teaching, she has contributed significantly to academic administration and institutional development through syllabus design, course planning, graduation project coordination, academic evaluations, jury processes, industry collaborations, workshops, educational tours, and experiential learning initiatives. Her engagement across both spatial and product design disciplines enables her to foster holistic and systems-oriented approaches to design education.
Her professional experience encompasses residential interiors, landscape interventions, experiential environments, and research-led design explorations. Across her work, she demonstrates a sustained interest in climate-responsive design, material storytelling, environmental comfort, and the creation of spaces that are both functionally efficient and emotionally enriching. She is particularly interested in understanding how vernacular intelligence and indigenous knowledge systems can inform future-ready design solutions for contemporary living.
Ankita actively contributes to academic discourse through research presentations, publications, conferences, and interdisciplinary design forums. She has presented her research at prominent academic platforms, including the International Conference on Research into Design (ICORD) hosted at IIT Hyderabad and IDEAS 2024 at IIT Roorkee. Her scholarly work focuses on themes of spatial well-being, sustainable interior environments, passive environmental systems, and design-led approaches to human comfort. Through these engagements, she continues to contribute to the evolving discourse on sustainable and climate-responsive design practices. Her broader research interests extend to computational design methodologies, material innovation, environmental psychology, vernacular architecture, and the integration of traditional ecological wisdom with emerging design technologies. Through research, teaching, and practice, she seeks to bridge heritage and innovation, creating design frameworks that are environmentally responsible, culturally grounded, and deeply human-centred .