SDI, what’s it all about?

Net-zero buildings, that’s what it’s about!

SDI is a challenge for postgraduate and undergraduate student teams from Indian institutions to join forces and combat Climate Change. Student teams design net-zero-energy-water buildings, contributing to real projects, while partnering with leaders in real estate development.

SDI enables students to explore innovative and affordable market-ready solutions. This is the resilient and carbon-neutral way forward for our sustainable buildings and communities.

Registrations for the 2026-27 Challenge are now open! 

Register early. Pay less.

Super Early Bird — First 50 teams — INR 2,500 (Closed)
Early Bird — Next 100 teams — INR 5,000 (Open on 09 September)
Standard Registration — Final 100 teams — INR 7,500

Registrations close on 13 November 2026 or until slots fill up!

Click here to know register.

National Award for Transformative Education in Architecture for Climate Change 

NTEACH recognises faculty members, teaching teams and institutions, who are meaningfully integrating climate literacy, climate justice, and climate action     into B.Arch education. It highlights courses and studios that help students move beyond awareness towards design competence, evidence-based thinking, and responsible architectural practice.

Click here to know more.

The Grand Winner! 

The Division Winners competed for the grand prize by pitching to the Grand Jury, composed of experts from the real estate and media professionals. The Grand Winner was Team Agniya, led by Manipal School of Architecture & Planning, with Haji Public School, Breswana as its partner institution. The team won for its solution for educational building.

Summarising the 2025-26 Challenge 

After 7 months, we have wrapped up another successful year. This year, 2490 students and 345 faculty mentors from over 180 institutions across India participated and developed innovative and resilient solutions for India’s building sector. At the Finals, they presented their work to the jury and the jury appreciated their hard work. The finalists also got access to the career fair to secure placement opportunities with companies working on climate action.

Watch their presentations on our YouTube Channel.

Dumb Ways to Build!

At the SDI Finals 2024 we released Dumb Ways to Build to highlight poor building practices and their negative impact on the environment, society, and economy.

Climate Currents 

Stories of a changing world.

This is a series of our recommendations of things to read and watch focussed on climate change. We cover a broader context, beyond buildings and cities. Our goal is to help you understand climate change and its challenges, opportunities, and solutions. We curate these to be a source of information, insights, and inspiration, so you can stay informed and engaged.

Read more here.

Finalist teams from the Product Challenge get scholarship grants!  

They are getting the second part of their scholarship grant to help them develop their prototypes.

Prototypes are working models that closely resemble the final product, enabling in-depth testing and user experience evaluation.

These finalist teams will bring their prototypes to the #SDIfinals2026 at @infosys Mysore for their final presentation!

30 teams from the Building Challenge qualify for scholarship grants!  

The Component Model Scholarship Grants are to help them build component models.

Component models are full scale models of specific parts of a building, created with actual materials as far as possible, to demonstrate how that component works or is constructed.

These finalist teams will bring their models to the #SDIfinals2026 at Infosys Mysore for their final presentation!

Testing and prototyping

SDI provides an opportunity to develop interesting and innovative ideas. Students can develop them, test them and build models. The workability of their ideas can be tested by building working prototypes. Team Ecolution in the 2020-21 Challenge developed a working prototype of their shading device and analysed wind patterns in their building.

See the work done by the finalists in the 2021-22 Challenge here, the 2022-23 Challenge here, the 2023-24 Challenge here, and the 2024-25 Challenge here.

Crash course on Building Science 

Participating teams have the opportunity to become experts in Building Science. The teams will get access to online Self-Learning Modules on building science, energy efficiency, water sufficiency, cost estimation, resilience, and much more. Completing the modules according to the schedule, will help participants make best use of the learning, and apply it in their real building design projects. Read more about these modules here.

Become a Project Partner

Each team participating in one of the building divisions of SDI partners with a building owner or developer whose project they will work on. These project partners can take up a leadership role to change the future of our buildings and communities by joining the SDI effort. In the 2023-24 Challenge, over 100 real Project Partners collaborated with students to make their buildings net-zero energy-water and climate resilient.

If you want to become a Project Partner, register your interest here.

Green job opportunities 

Finalist teams have access to internships and early career opportunities with companies leading the charge on sustainability and climate action. In the 2024-25 Challenge, over 50 organisations offered internship and job opportunities to finalists in a Career Fair during the SDI Finals 2025. Check out the list of companies that were part of the fair.

Testimonials from our ecosystem

“The passion, innovation, and fresh perspectives showcased by the students were absolutely remarkable. Their dedication to addressing climate change through sustainable building solutions reminded me of my own university days, filled with the same excitement and dreams for a brighter future. Seeing the students’ dedication and ingenuity gives me immense hope for the future. Their work not only supports India’s commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement but also contributes to a global movement towards sustainable living.”

Himansha Singh, Co-Founder, Craste

We tackled a real-world challenge: designing sustainable housing for construction workers. This interdisciplinary approach pushed us to explore innovative solutions for a sustainable future. It’s surreal to be invested in building a community that will shape the future of our nation’s construction industry!

Chandan KS, Participant, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli

“Our Lodha net-zero Urban Accelerator shows that growth decoupled from emissions is possible. We feel we can foster success through collaborations like SDI where the generation of future designers are encouraged to join us in Building a Better Life and leaving a better planet for the generations to come.”

Sonal Bhide, Head of Architecture for township projects, Lodha Group

SDI, a student competition for net-zero buildings, is one of its kind globally and truly inspires, builds, and transforms the mindsets of young talents to look at the built environment sensitively, scientifically, and sensibly. We encourage all to participate in this revolutionising challenge determined to combat climate change by designing net-zero-energy-water buildings and contributing to real projects while partnering with leaders in real estate development.

Sandeep Shikre & Associates (SSA Architects)

We are learning different approaches to sustainability. Our project partner Navira has the Saptha Patha concept of sustainability including land, people and food, whereas our industry partner, Passive House Institute based in Germany, have a different approach to how they deal with resilience.

Ramya Kannan, Participant, School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada

“If this project (Team V°) is implemented, I’m sure it is going to have a profound social impact, on the way people look at public buildings.”

Harleen Oberoi, Head – Project Management, Tata Realty & Infrastructure Limited & Sr. VP, Tata Housing Development Company Ltd.

“SDI is not a competition; it is a movement. With AI coming into designs, I would participate again and would like to work with a real time project that would bring in sustainability, talk about parametric forms, building skin that would acts a filter to combat air quality index, etc.”

Shreya Mirpagar, Faculty, SMEF's Brick School of Architecture

I am very impressed by the team and I will take it away and implement their work. They have helped us reduce the cost by 30% and this makes it even more attractive as a design

Manu Gupta, Co-Founder, SEEDS India

Honestly speaking, I like the design that they have presented more than what we have for the building right now. The direction which the team is taking is very much in line with what the industry is taking.

Guruprakash Sastry, Associate Vice President and Head - Climate Action, Infosys

This competition differentiates itself from any other competition that I have been in, because through this we have an opportunity to make real-world impact. I never thought I would approach people and companies outside in the first few years of my professional life, let alone as a college student.

Vikram Srikanth, Participant, Manipal Institute of Technology

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