About
Abhishek Srivastava is an Architect and Industrial Designer from the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi. He received the prestigious Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) while pursuing his PhD at the Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. Bringing together more than eight years of experience across design practice and higher education, he has contributed to leading organizations including Infosys, Think Design, and Welava Design, and has taught at SPA New Delhi, World University of Design (Sonipat), and UPID Noida. He has been awarded top honours, including the Emerging Scholar Award, Logo Design Winner, CDG Spot Awards, and was shortlisted among the Top 20 designers under 35 in DesignXDesign, an annual showcase of emerging designers, in 2017. His interdisciplinary expertise bridges industrial design, human factors, design research, and design education.
Patent
A Multi-Purpose Seating Device, Application No. 202411070952, Granted (2026)
Design Registration
Cross-legged Support Chair, Registration No. 431004-001 [2024], Granted (2024)
Journal
Srivastava, A., and Atreya, S. (2026). ‘Sitting Matters: Co-designing a digital questionnaire on musculoskeletal health and classroom seating for design students in India’, The International Journal of Design Education.
Link: https://doi.org/10.18848/2325-128X/CGP/A318
Srivastava, A., Umakanth, A., & Atreya, S. (2026). Pālathī by preference: A Thematic Inquiry on the adoption of Indian Cross-legged Posture by Design Students. Frontiers in Engineering and Built Environment, 6(2), 52-67. Link: https://doi.org/10.65955/FEBE-06-2026-01407
Srivastava, A., Paul, N., & Atreya, S. (2026). From Contextual Need to Design Solution: A Novel Chair Design for Indian Design Students. ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts, 7(2s), 81–95. Link: https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i2s.2026.7164
Srivastava, A., Nair, S.N. and Atreya, S. (2025) ‘Does the way we sit influence our cognitive thinking?’, Integrated Design Research Journal, 2(2), pp. 1–13. (Won Best Overall Paper Award at the Integrated Design Research (IDR) International Conference 2025 held in Sri Lanka) Link: https://doi.org/10.31705/IDR.v2(2).2025.1
Srivastava, A., & Atreya, S. (2024). Reshaping the future of Design Education: Takeaways from the accounts of the ancient Indian Rishis. Dev Sanskriti Interdisciplinary International Journal, 24 (2), 13–21.’ Link: https://doi.org/10.36018/dsiij.24.348
Srivastava, A., & Atreya, S. (2023). Does the ancient Indian practice of Yagya reflect some critical product design attributes? A Designer’s perspective. Interdisciplinary Journal of Yagya Research, 6(2), 12-20. Link: https://doi.org/10.36018/ijyr.v6i2.111
Book Chapter
Srivastava, A., Kumar, S., Atreya, S. (2026). Assessing the Musculoskeletal Discomfort of Students Practicing Cross-legged Sitting Postures at Gurukuls. In: Das, S., Akram, W., Khanzode, V., Iqbal, R. (eds) Human-Centered Digitalization, Volume 1. HWWE ACED BRICS 2023 2023 2023. Design Science and Innovation. Springer, Singapore.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-4186-4_37
Srivastava, A., Kumar, A., Atreya, S. (2025). Crossed Sitting, Straight Insights: Pālathī (Cross-Legged) Posture in Design Education. In: Chakrabarti, A., Singh, V., Onkar, P.S., Shahid, M. (eds) Responsible and Resilient Design for Society, Volume 7. ICoRD 2025. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-5507-6_9
Paul, N., Srivastava, A., Atreya, S. (2025). A Visual Design Investigation on a Two-Wheeler Instrument Panel Using the Golden Ratio. In: Chakrabarti, A., Singh, V., Onkar, P.S., Shahid, M. (eds) Responsible and Resilient Design for Society, Volume 1. ICoRD 2025. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-5487-1_12
Srivastava, A., Paul, N., Atreya, S. (2024). Musculoskeletal Health of (Industrial) Design Students and Their Perspectives on Seating: A Pilot Study. In: Sharma, A., Poovaiah, R. (eds) Futuring Design Education, Volume 2. FDE 2024. Design Science and Innovation. Springer, Singapore. Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-9210-8_2
Proceedings
Srivastava, A., Kumar, A., Atreya, S. (2025). A Comparative study of traditional and contemporary sitting in Gurukul learners and Design students from the perspective of Musculoskeletal health and Sustainability. Unmesh (2025). Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Defence
Srivastava, A., Atreya, S. (2024). Comparing the pedagogical setup of contemporary chair-based sitting with traditional Indian (cross-legged) way of ground-based sitting: A Narrative review. In: Salman Nazir and Lauren Reinerman-Jones (eds) Training, Education, and Learning Sciences. AHFE (2024) International Conference. AHFE Open Access, vol 155. AHFE International, USA. Link: http://doi.org/10.54941/ahfe1005407
Srivastava, A., Atreya, S., & Sharma A. (2022). “Learning through Conversations - The Rishi way.” | Proceedings of EDDE Design Education Conference Online, ISBN: 979-8-218-12545-5; Link: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/29275
Human Factors and Ergonomics: Investigating the relationship between posture, movement, and musculoskeletal health in educational environments.
Design Education: Exploring how learning spaces, studio culture, and classroom practices influence student well-being, creativity, and engagement.
Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS): Studying embodied learning practices in Indian Gurukuls and interpreting their relevance for contemporary design education.
Furniture and Product Design: Developing evidence-based seating solutions that promote comfort, movement, and healthy sitting behaviours across diverse learning contexts.
User-Centred Design Research: Integrating qualitative, quantitative, and machine learning approaches to understand user behaviour and support informed design decision-making.
Design for Well-being: Creating products and environments that enhance physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being through human-centred design.
Design Innovation and Intellectual Property: Translating research into practice through novel product concepts, including a patented modular seating system supporting multiple sitting postures.
Research Interests
Creativity, Design Education, Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), Human Factors
Conferred with the Emerging Scholar Award at the 20th International Conference on Design Principles & Practices, hosted at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, during 25–27 February 2026.
Awarded Best Overall Paper for the study titled “Does the way we sit influence our cognitive thinking?” in the IDR 2025 conference during Nov 13-15, 2025, organized by Department of Integrated Design, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
Awarded the Best paper in the session in the Unmesh Conference, to commemorate International Hindi Divas, during January 10-11, 2025 organized by DRDO HQ, Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
First Prize Winner in the Logo Design Contest organized by the Diversity and Inclusion Committee (DInC) at IIT Roorkee, 2023.
Awarded Prime Minister's Research Fellowship (PMRF) in the Lateral entry scheme, Cycle 9, 2022.

Associate Professor
School of Design and Innovation
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Bengaluru