Jasmine Ahluwalia Is Taking Design Training Global with ASDAV

For Jasmine Ahluwalia, the problem with design education was never a shortage of talent. It was distance. Students were graduating with theory, while the studios and firms hiring them needed people who could produce working drawings, build accurate models and handle real project documentation from their first week on the job. In 2024, she decided to close that distance herself, founding the Asian School of Design & Applied Vastu, known as ASDAV.

What began as a Delhi classroom idea did not stay local for long. Students from across the globe started joining its cohorts, and the ASDAV team decided to build for that demand rather than treat it as a side effect.

The school now teaches learners in eight countries, including the UAE and the UK, and it runs a support centre in Dubai for its students in the region. In August 2026, ASDAV formally launched its global operations, with a new director appointed to lead the expansion alongside its founder.

An Architect Who Works Across Two Disciplines

Ahluwalia is a licensed architect and a global Vastu consultant, a combination that explains the school’s unusual shape. She is a graduate of the Scuola Master F.lli Pesenti at Politecnico di Milano, and her professional life has run across modern architectural practice and applied Vastu consultancy.

ASDAV simply teaches what she does, bringing both disciplines under one roof. As founder, she leads the school’s academic direction, its curriculum and its faculty, and she still teaches herself, including the school’s live masterclass sessions.

That dual grounding is rare in design education, where most schools treat Vastu as a weekend add-on and most Vastu courses never touch software-driven practice. At ASDAV, a student can learn Revit and BIM coordination in one programme and directional analysis and Vastu remediation in another, with the same insistence on real project work. She describes the founding idea in plain terms.

ASDAV was built to close the distance between what design education teaches and what the profession actually requires. We have proved that in India.

A School Built Around Real Project Work

ASDAV’s teaching model is built on a few deliberate choices. Batches stay small on purpose, every programme is taught live by practising professionals, and the work is built around working drawings, real budget constraints and site-based case studies rather than recorded lectures.

Students develop portfolios as they learn, and workshops put learners on real projects so their skills are tested against actual client briefs. The school operates as a skill-based institution rather than a degree-granting one, which keeps its focus on employability instead of examinations.

We keep our batches small on purpose so every student gets personal guidance, real feedback, and enough time with their trainers.

The faculty reflects that philosophy, with instructors who are practising architects, interior designers, BIM specialists and Vastu consultants. Many come from institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, the School of Planning and Architecture, CEPT University and the National Institute of Design. Classes run on weekday schedules for full-time students and weekend sessions for working professionals. New cohorts begin every month, and enrolment stays open to learners in every market the school serves.

The model has found its audience across borders. ASDAV has trained more than 500 students across over 25 cities and delivered more than 200 live sessions, holds a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Google.

The school reports strong outcomes for its graduates, including salary increases in the 200 to 250 percent range, with higher gains among learners who move into specialist Revit and BIM roles.

Built for Learners in the UAE and Beyond

The UAE was part of ASDAV’s story early, with learners in Dubai and Sharjah joining its cohorts before the school described itself as global. When the formal global launch came on 6 August 2026, the announcement placed Dubai alongside Delhi as the school moved from asdav.in to asdav.com.

The school also has a support centre in Dubai, giving its UAE students a local point of contact for admissions, schedules and learner support. For students in the Emirates, that local presence sits behind a fully online classroom, so no learner has to relocate to study.

For UAE students, the practical offer is specific and regional. ASDAV runs a dedicated Vastu Shastra course for the UAE, delivered over six weeks with 18 hours of live instruction, built for people who want to apply Vastu professionally in the Emirates.

Sessions across the catalogue run live in Gulf Standard Time on schedules that allow a designer in Dubai, Sharjah or Doha to attend and question faculty directly. In a region where major construction programmes run on BIM workflows, that combination of live teaching and software depth carries direct weight with employers.

The school has also learned to localise what it teaches. It runs country-specific editions of its training, including the UAE programme and an applied Vastu course for the UK, and its teaching takes in local building codes, regional material sourcing and design traditions worked into modern layouts. For a learner in Dubai, the examples on screen look like the projects outside the window, not a course imported unchanged from another market.

Courses Across Three Disciplines

The architecture track is led by the professional Revit and BIM course for architects. It covers BIM and Revit fundamentals, architectural modelling, smart families, documentation standards, visualisation and multidisciplinary BIM coordination, the full chain a junior architect meets inside a working firm.

The training runs across more than 40 live sessions, with learners building real project files rather than watching demonstrations. Entry-level certifications assume no prior software experience, so career changers can start from zero.

The interior design track is anchored by a professional programme that runs over 24 weeks. Students who want a narrower specialisation can take shorter certifications in residential interior design or commercial interior design. The teaching follows live project briefs, from space planning and materials to client-ready presentations. Graduates leave with a portfolio of completed work, which is what studios ask to see first.

The third discipline is applied Vastu, taught through the Art of Applied Vastu programme, from basic to advanced level. It teaches directional analysis, defect identification and non-structural remediation on real case studies.

Students also learn consultancy workflow and client handling, for those who intend to practise professionally. Alongside the three flagships, ASDAV runs other courses and live masterclasses, including two-hour sessions led by Ahluwalia herself that end with take-home resources and a certificate.

A New Director for the Global Push

The August launch came with a leadership change designed for scale. Shantanu Pandey, the founder and chief executive of the international design and growth agency Tenet, joined ASDAV as Director.

His remit covers international market development, global brand and positioning, discoverability in the search and AI era, programme portfolio and employer partnerships. Ahluwalia continues to run the academic side, keeping curriculum and faculty under the founder’s hand.

Pandey brings an operator’s record to the school. He founded Tenet in 2018 and built it into a Dubai-headquartered agency with offices in India and the UK, delivering more than 450 projects for over 300 clients across more than 15 countries. Its clients include Nike, Microsoft, Gartner, Oracle UAE, G42 and Mubadala.

His stated focus at ASDAV is to make the school the reference point in each of its three disciplines for any professional anywhere in the world deciding where to train, and to connect its graduates to employers through structured partnerships.

What Comes Next

The next phase is about reach without dilution. ASDAV intends to grow its intake across the Gulf, Europe and North America while holding on to the three things Ahluwalia credits for its results so far, small batches, practising faculty and real project work.

Employer partnerships are expected to deepen, so that the path from a live classroom to a studio desk becomes shorter and more visible for graduates in cities such as Dubai. Monthly cohorts across all three disciplines will continue, with the Dubai support centre anchoring the school’s presence in the region.

It is a long way from a Delhi classroom experiment to a school with students in eight countries, and the distance was closed the same way she teaches her students to work, project by project. For a design student in the UAE weighing where to train, that is the heart of Ahluwalia’s pitch. Practical skill, taught live by people who practise it, travels well.