ABOUT
Kaushambi Mate
Spatial planner, brand designer, researcher, author, and educator. Working between India and Germany.
BACKGROUND
The Synthesis
Kaushambi Mate is a design strategist and researcher with a foundation in architecture, working between India and Germany.
Her work explores the relationship between built environments, visual culture, and brand identity, with a particular interest in how spaces, images, and design shape cultural identity.
She completed her Bachelor of Architecture in Mumbai before earning her Master’s degree at the Städelschule Architecture Class in Frankfurt am Main. Her master’s thesis was awarded the AIV Best Master’s Thesis Prize in 2016.
She works in English and German, and is a native speaker of Hindi and Marathi — practising across European and Indian contexts.
RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Strange Contextualism
An important starting point for her work is the research project Strange Contextualism.
The project explores how images, spaces, and cultural contexts interact, and how meaning is shaped through visibility and perception. This perspective informs her approach to brand design — identity approached with the same attention to structure, materiality, and context that characterises architectural thinking. It's the thinking behind Kaush's own Brand System →.
RESEARCH & PUBLICATION
Vernacular Branding
Together with her father, she is the co-author of Vernacular Branding:
Reading Identity through Design and Visibility (2024–25). The publication examines how design contributes to the formation of cultural identity and connects anthropological perspectives with design practice.
From research to resources: The frameworks in Vernacular Branding inform the Brand Identity Courses. → kaushambimate.com/courses
Academic foundation
Credentials
AIV Best Master Thesis Prize 2016
Nominated for the Charles Correa Gold Medal
License No. CA/2013/60031
Selected exhibitions & publications
Exhibitions & publications.
- 2018The Weekend – SAC Journal 4: Culinary Lessons · Frankfurt am Main Published master thesis project
- 2017ER:RE – Estranged Realities · Casa da Xiclet · São Paulo Publication & symposium
- 2016The Feast – Culinary Performance · Städelschule Rundgang · Frankfurt
- 2015Vernacular Branding: Reading Identity through Design and Visibility · Nagpur Book publication, co-authored with Prof. Bhuleshwar Mate
- 2015Active Borders – Architecture Summer Rhine-Main · Frankfurt
- 2011Mumbai Profiles – 200 Eyes 2000 Views · UDRI & AOA · Mumbai
↓ Lebenslauf (DE)
TEACHING & EDUCATION
Practitioner as Educator.
Kaushambi teaches live online courses in English for professionals in Germany.
She teaches what she practises — she believes sharing her knowledge helps her community grow.
