Ari Daman is the Founder, Creative Director of PLUS. He is an accomplished landscape architect and urban designer with a broad range of project experience throughout the world. Educated at prestigious schools in India and the U.S., Ari has blurred the lines between different disciplines in his practice to address issues like sea-level rise and resiliency, ecological urbanism, and sustainable communities. His projects range from small pocket parks to large campuses, mixed-use projects, urban corridors and regional plans. He focuses on bringing out the best sustainable and innovative ideas to maximize the social impacts of his projects.

In 2017, Ari co-founded The Narayanan Family Foundation with the goal of improving people’s lives through investments in education, culture, and environment. The foundation provides funding for public space initiatives in underserved areas, innovations in landscape architecture, and education programs for underprivileged children. Ari serves on the boards of several nonprofits.

Dhanya is currently the Director of Programs and Director of Operations at PLUS, operating from Chennai, India. She is interested in tapping into the future of the public realm in Indian cities through community based design, cross-sectoral collaborations and placemaking. In New York she was the Communications and Program Associate at the Design Trust for Public Space, a non-profit. Prior to this she worked at Gehl Institute, New York as a Research Intern, involved primarily in updating the Public Life Toolkit version 2.0. She was also involved in a research involving evaluating public private partnerships of NYC’s Plaza Program.

Dhanya also worked as an architect in Bangalore and Chennai on green buildings and large scale campus projects. In 2018 she co-founded Just Rehub, a think-tank to engage youth from different backgrounds to engage in city building in Chennai.

Amruta is a Landscape and Urban Designer at PLUS. She will be based in Bengaluru, India.

Before going to CEPT, Ahmedabad, for Masters in Landscape Architecture, Amruta worked at accomplished architectural firms on ventures ranging from schools, private residences, and commercial outlets. She was given independent charge to design and execute projects at these firms.

Her work reflects a fervent belief in blurring the lines between the built and the unbuilt, with a strong emphasis on inclusive design. She also focuses on design that offers an organic and holistic approach to amplify user experience and promote sustainability.

Amruta holds her Masters in Landscape Architecture (2021) from CEPT University, Ahmedabad.

Abinaya is a Landscape and Urban designer at PLUS, Chennai, India. She is a recent graduate from CEPT Ahmedabad in the field of Landscape Architecture.

Her interest lies in place-making, decoding socio-cultural connections, landscape planning, and ecological restoration. She was awarded the National Landscape Scholarship Programme for the academic year (2019-20). One of her academic works was displayed as a part of India pavilion content at the London design biennale in June 2021. Prior to going to CEPT, Abinaya worked as an architect in Ficus Landscape Architects, Bangalore, on large-scale residential development and landscape conservation projects.

Abinaya holds her Masters in Landscape Architecture (2021) from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and Bachelors of Architecture (2017) from Tamilnadu School of Architecture, Coimbatore.

Harshitha is an urban infrastructure professional in the making. She is an intern at PLUS, currently pursuing her masters in urban Infrastructure at CEPT University.

She is a winner of ORF – UNLEASH Hackathon focusing on air pollution in India. Her interests lie in urban infrastructure, child-friendly infrastructure, community engagement, civic awareness, Localizing sustainable development goals, Impact assessment and Social Entrepreneurship. Her prior work experience has been with a startup that is developing playful spaces for underprivileged communities.