Neetha Joseph Kalappurakkal is an architect, visual designer, illustrator, and researcher based between Hyderabad and Kerala, India. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Design at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad.

 

Trained in architecture and working at the intersection of spatial practice and visual inquiry, her work explores how built environments communicate through form, ornament, inscription, and surface—often situated within Kerala’s layered socio-cultural landscape. Her research engages visual culture, architectural ornamentation, typography, and material heritage, examining how visual systems shape identity, memory, and collective belonging.

 

Working across photography, archival documentation, typological mapping, and design-led interpretation, she approaches architecture not only as structure but as a cultural text embedded in history, craft, and circulation. Her projects reflect a sustained engagement with Kerala’s visual and material traditions while remaining attentive to broader questions of visual rhetoric and design research.

 

Her research and visual work have been presented through academic conferences and curated exhibitions, including the Kochi Muziris Biennale as a part of Students’ Biennale (2025–26) and Visualizing Knowledge 2025, and have been featured in OpenSea, Malayala Manorama, The New Indian Express and Outlook India.

 

Beyond her academic practice, she maintains an enduring engagement with cinema, literature, music, and critical theory, drawing from these disciplines to inform her interdisciplinary approach to design research and pedagogy.

 

Her areas of research interest include: Visual Culture, Architectural Ornamentation and Visual Semiotics, Architectural Theory and Classification, Typography and Script, Visual Design and Rhetoric, Design Research, Identity and Narrative Building, Storytelling, Art, Cinema, Literature, Music, History, Design Pedagogy, Social Philosophy.