MEET THE SPEAKER
When Architecture Begins to Respond to How We Learn
A learning environment is more than the space around education. It can influence how people connect, collaborate, concentrate and experience learning.
So, beyond designing classrooms and campuses, an important question emerges:
How can architecture respond to the people, pedagogy and culture that shape learning?
At PULSE 2026, this conversation comes into focus with Akshara Verma, Partner & Architect at ACE Group Architects, whose practice brings together architecture, education and a multidisciplinary approach to design.
Akshara Verma
An alumnus of RV School of Architecture, Bangalore, and the Berlage Centre for Advanced Architecture & Urban Design, TU Delft, The Netherlands, Akshara Verma has developed a practice shaped across architecture, interiors, graphic design and design research.
Her professional journey spans Colombo, Mumbai, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with experience at Sumanagala Jayatillake, Samira Rathod Design Associates, Studio Spomenik and Ooze Architects, before establishing her base in Bengaluru.
Since 2017, she has been a Partner at ACE Group Architects, working predominantly across education-sector projects.
Designing for the Experience of Learning
Educational architecture brings together many layers: pedagogy, movement, interaction, identity, community and place.
Akshara’s work sits within this intersection, with experience across education projects including VIT University, Chennai; REVA University, Bengaluru; Greenwood High; and The International School Bangalore (TISB).
Her work reflects an engagement with the environments in which learning takes place—where architectural decisions become part of the everyday experience of students, educators and institutions.
A Multidisciplinary Perspective
Akshara’s design practice extends beyond architecture.
Her experience across interiors, graphic design and design research, along with her engagement with academia at CMR University School of Architecture, Bengaluru, brings multiple perspectives into her understanding of design and learning environments.
She is also an active collaborator with the Office of Cognitive Design (OCD), connecting architectural practice with broader conversations around human experience and design.
This breadth adds an important dimension to conversations about learning spaces—where the question is not only how a space is built, but how it is experienced and what it enables.
A Recognition of Emerging Design Leadership
In February 2023, Forbes India featured Akshara among its Top 30 architects under 45 creating an impact in India’s design landscape.
Her journey represents a generation of architects engaging with new questions around the built environment, while bringing particular attention to the evolving spaces of education.
From Space to Experience
The future of learning spaces cannot be defined by aesthetics or infrastructure alone.
It calls for environments that understand how learners engage with space, how educators use it, how communities connect through it, and how institutional culture finds expression within it.
This is where architecture becomes part of a larger educational conversation.
At PULSE 2026, Akshara brings her experience across practice, education and design into a gathering centred on the relationship between culture and learning.
Her perspective invites us to look beyond the physical form of a school and consider the experiences, relationships and possibilities that its spaces can create.
The Question That Matters
Perhaps the conversation is not simply about:
What should a learning space look like?
But:
What should it make possible?
More connection.
More participation.
More meaningful interaction.
More ways to learn.
And perhaps, ultimately, a stronger relationship between people, place and learning.
PULSE 2026 | WHERE CULTURE MEETS LEARNING
5–7 October 2026 | Sheraton Grand Palace, Indore
We are delighted to welcome Akshara Verma, Partner & Architect at ACE Group Architects, to PULSE 2026.
Join us for a conversation that looks at learning environments not simply as built spaces, but as places where culture, pedagogy, people and place come together.