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Raghav Kohli: making invisible urban systems visible, legible, and participatory

(selected work)

making invisible urban systems visible, legible, and participatory.

(energy & systems)
01
(plans & policy)
06
(participatory)
04
(computational & spatial)
04
(early work)
03
(filter)
(role)research · systems design · python
(period)2026, ongoing
(context)rooftop solar · urban indian prosumers · india energy stack
(status)live research · module built, not yet piloted
Sama
one feeder, and the two prices on it
(research question)

what would it take for a household to see, price and trade the energy it makes?

(view project →)
01

Sama

p2p rooftop solar · india energy stack (live research · module built, not yet piloted)
(role)co-author · gis analysis · ghg inventory · sector diagrams · book design
(period)2023–2024
(context)iclei south asia · imt-gt jbc malaysia · four local governments
(status)published · 2024
Malaysia GCAP
fig.11 · langkawi · land use 2022
(research question)

can four cities on two coasts be measured the same way, and what does the measurement change?

(view project →)
02

Malaysia GCAP

iclei · imt-gt · four green city action plans
(role)co-author · sector strategies · book design
(period)2022–2023
(context)ahmedabad · capacities · iclei south asia
(status)published · july 2023
Ahmedabad Climate Action Plan
fig.17 · feel-like temperature, may 2021
(research question)

what does a city have to see about itself before it can promise net zero?

(view project →)
03

Ahmedabad Climate Action Plan

capacities · iclei · crcap
(role)co-author · data · design
(period)2023
(context)niua · c-cube · fifteen indian cities
(status)published
State of Cities
fig.01 · cities at crossroads, drawn · niua
(research question)

can fifteen cities be read on one instrument, and what does the instrument miss?

(view project →)
04

State of Cities

niua · fifteen cities · one template
(role)book design · illustration · maps and infographics, studio commons
(period)2024–2025
(context)amdavad municipal corporation · iclei south asia · studio commons
(status)policy document · 2025
Urban Greening Policy
fig.16 · heritage trees
(research question)

how do you make a city policy that people will actually pick up?

(view project →)
05

Urban Greening Policy

amc · iclei · policy book
(role)co-author · sector strategies · book design
(period)2023–2024
(context)vadodara · capacities · iclei south asia
(status)published · august 2024
Vadodara Climate Action Plan
fig.35 · the sector goals, drawn
(research question)

what does a city have to see about itself before it can promise net zero?

(view project →)
06

Vadodara Climate Action Plan

capacities · iclei · crcap
(role)co-author · sector strategies · book design
(period)2024–2025
(context)surat · c40 cities · iclei south asia
(status)published · june 2025
Surat Climate Action Plan
fig.26 · every hazard against every fragile system
(research question)

what does a city have to see about itself before it can promise net zero?

(view project →)
07

Surat Climate Action Plan

c40 · iclei · net-zero crcap
(role)directed research · fieldwork · cartography · strategy
(period)2022 · spring semester
(context)worli koliwada · mumbai · cept undergraduate thesis
(status)thesis
Koliwadas
fig.15 · worli tip, the commons drawn
(research question)

what can a city learn from the community it keeps trying to remove?

(view project →)
08

Koliwadas

worli · open source urbanism
(role)embedded fieldwork · participatory systems mapping
(period)2019–2020
(context)ambli · ahmedabad · 14 communities
(status)excellence award
Living Heritage
fig.01 · the village, whole · ambli
(research question)

what are the invisible boundaries inside a village, and where do they overlap?

(view project →)
09

Living Heritage

ambli · participatory systems mapping
(role)narrative cartography · performance · design
(period)2018 · 14 weeks
(context)bhadra fort precinct · ahmedabad · cept L2 studio
(status)studio
Rebel Bodies Rebel Cities
fig.01 · life in boxes
(research question)

who does a redesigned plaza belong to, once the designers leave?

(view project →)
10

Rebel Bodies Rebel Cities

bhadra · narrative cartography
(role)performance · set-up · documentation
(period)2018 · one evening
(context)amritvarshini vav · khadia · ahmedabad
(status)performance
Urban Performances
fig.08 · the screen
(research question)

what does a heritage monument become if you use it for an evening?

(view project →)
11

Urban Performances

khadia · stepwell theatre · performance
(role)computational urban design · grasshopper · evolutionary search
(period)2020 · one semester
(context)sabarmati · north ahmedabad · cept L2 studio
(status)studio
Generative Techniques
fig.01 · density as a rule
(research question)

can a neighbourhood be designed as rules rather than a plan?

(view project →)
12

Generative Techniques

ahmedabad · evolutionary computation
(role)student builder · drawing and site
(period)2018
(context)cept campus · ahmedabad · five materials
(status)built
One is to One
fig.01 · the tower, drawn
(research question)

what does a drawing not know until it has to stand up?

(view project →)
13

One is to One

cept · construction technology
(role)urban design studio · gis analysis · masterplan
(period)2021 · one semester
(context)rajgir · nalanda · bihar · cept L3 studio
(status)studio
Water Urbanism
fig.01 · rajgir across the centuries
(research question)

can a centuries-old irrigation system plan a city better than its masterplan?

(view project →)
14

Water Urbanism

rajgir · aahar-pyne · wetland urbanism
(role)research · systems design · urban design
(period)2020 · one semester
(context)eastern waterfront · mumbai · cept L3 studio
(status)studio
Eco-Machine
fig.01 · the eco-machine
(research question)

can a post-industrial waterfront treat the city's waste and its floods with the same landscape?

(view project →)
15

Eco-Machine

mumbai · eastern waterfront · living infrastructure
(role)urban design studio · housing · model
(period)2019 · one semester
(context)maan darwaza · surat · cept L2 studio
(status)studio
Utopias to Heterotopias
fig.01 · the clusters, in model
(research question)

can mass housing be planned so that its residents finish it?

(view project →)
16

Utopias to Heterotopias

surat · migrant housing · linking and stacking
(role)winter school · fieldwork · measured drawing
(period)december 2017 · two weeks
(context)garmur · majuli island · assam · cept winter school
(status)documentation
Exploring Majuli
fig.01 · a homestead, in axonometric
(research question)

what does a house know about its river?

(view project →)
17

Exploring Majuli

majuli · assam · measured drawing
(role)intern · station drawings · massing study · presentation
(period)january–july 2021 · internship
(context)pune metro line 3 · ccba designs · christopher benninger
(status)office work
Pune Metro
fig.01 · a typical station, in section
(research question)

what does a metro station owe the street it lands on?

(view project →)
18

Pune Metro

ccba · line 3 stations

(about) · (now)

what would a city’s climate ledger look like if the people inside it could read it, argue with it, and change it?

I work from inside the systems I study, energy, carbon, the street, and build the tools that let the people already living there read and reshape their own flows. Most of the work on this page asks one question at a different scale each time: what does a place need to see about itself before it can change? The methods are fieldwork, participatory mapping, climate inventories and design that stays close to the ground.

(experience)
Co-founder · Perspectives2025
  • Built a community platform to 1,000+ members, entirely word of mouth. Designed every touchpoint: onboarding, session frameworks, facilitation methodology.
  • 5,000+ stories taught me: a billion humans, a handful of emotions. The most consistent need was finding someone going through the same thing, and the product was built around that.
  • Used frontier language models throughout, moving from raw qualitative data to testable product decisions in hours.
Project Officer, Climate & Energy · ICLEI South Asia2024
  • Built climate resilience action plans for 10+ South Asian cities; wrote Loss & Damage policy briefs for international climate negotiations.
  • Led the Urban95 Child-Friendly Cities assessment in Udaipur: ethnographic fieldwork with children and caregivers, translated into spatial design recommendations.
Climate Fellow · NIUA / MoHUA India2023
  • Co-authored State of Cities, a national policy report across 15+ Indian cities, published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
  • Built a Nature-based Solutions Toolkit of community micro-interventions, adopted by urban local bodies across India.
Urban Design Consultant · CCBA Designs2021
  • Drew station layouts and a station-area massing study for Pune Metro Line 3, working on how the structure meets the street.
(education)
Bachelor of Urban Design · CEPT University2017–2022
  • Student Excellence Award for Living Heritage, a community co-design process with residents who had never been asked what they wanted.
  • Reverse Effect, an undergraduate thesis on Mumbai's koliwadas: a semester of fieldwork in Worli Koliwada, reading the fishing village's commons as a model for the city.
(skills)
researchethnographic fieldwork · cultural probing · in-depth interviews · participatory design · contextual inquiry · survey design
synthesisqualitative insight → action · insight frameworks · policy brief writing · stakeholder storytelling
computationparametric & generative design · ArcGIS · Python · R · Tableau · Rhino · Grasshopper · spatial analysis · ML fundamentals
ai & toolsdaily hands-on frontier AI models · built AI products from scratch · Figma · IBM Data Science certified
humanStanford GSB interpersonal dynamics intensive · facilitation design · deep listening · behaviour change
(additional)
certificationsIBM Data Science · ESRI GIS for Climate Action · Computational Design Workshop, UPenn
recognitionUrban design competition wins: Blankspace, Project Platypus, Gaudi · Big O’s installation, International Literature Festival Ahmedabad
leadershipFounded Urban Informal Talk Series · G20 Urban-20 Forum contributor