Cohort 2026

Akshay Sunil Mhamunkar​

 

Akshay is an architect and designer whose practice is grounded in functional design and a belief in creating objects that are timeless. His experience across architecture, urban design, and sustainable construction has shaped an interest in how materials, processes, and details influence the spaces and objects we use. His current furniture research, titled ‘The Junction’, examines the connection as a starting point for furniture, developing an adaptable system through assembly and reconfiguration.

As co-founder of designbyfolk, he extends this approach through material experimentation and product development, bringing together craft, technology, and sustainable thinking to create useful, adaptable objects for everyday life.

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RABT+

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The project explores the junction as the starting point of furniture: the point where separate elements meet to create structure and form. Rather than designing a fixed object, it develops a simple system in which one repeatable junction can generate multiple furniture typologies. Drawing from traditional making, where a limited vocabulary of components can produce diverse forms, the project brings this principle into a contemporary furniture language.

The junction is intentionally exposed, making the logic of construction an integral part of the design. Solid timber elements come together through the junction to form a framework that can be assembled, extended, and reconfigured. As the structure grows, it can become a shelf, table, storage unit, partition, or something yet undefined. The system remains open rather than prescribing a single outcome. Components can be added, removed, or rearranged, allowing the furniture to respond to changing needs while retaining a consistent structural language.

 

Materials: Solid Beech Wood, Polycarbonate, Plywood, Stainless Steel

Dimensions: L165 x W105 x H199 cm

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