Following three workshops for international students past year on Post Earthquake Rehabilitation, Vastu-Shilpa Foundation this year conducted a two month long design studio titled "Habitat design - International Studio- 2003" from 17th February to 16th April 2003. The emphasis of the studio was to understand the urban Indian context, analyse its built environment and evolve innovative design solutions for humane and sustainable developments in urban centres of India.

An institutional insert in existing historic urban core of Ahmedabad and mass housing on a vacant plot in the urban fringe of Ahmedabad city were the site contexts in particular.

Twenty nine architecture students from Aarhus School of Architecture (Denmark), University of Stuttgart -(Germany), and Berne institute of Engineering and Architecture (Switzerland) participated in the studio.

Prof. Balkrishna Doshi, Yatin Pandya and Rajeev Kathpalia conducted the studio on behalf of Vastu Shilpa Foundation while Prof. Juerg Grunder(Switzerland), Prof. Jan Knippers(Germany), Prof. Haresh Pandya (Germany) and Prof. Sukhdevsingh Kailya (Denmark) helped co-ordinate the studio on behalf of the respective schools.