Idam Design is an independent studio founded in Bangalore in 2012 by Nikhil Varma and Hetal Pandya, both architects trained at CEPT, Ahmedabad.
The studio’s work spans UI/UX design, heritage research, cultural publishing, and interactive narrative. These are not parallel tracks, but connected directions that inform one another over time. Field documentation feeds India Nearby; its research informs the development of Secret of Kavaledurga. Digital design work sustains and structures the practice.
What connects these is a method. The work begins from direct observation — of use, of context, and of history — and develops through research, making, and iteration.
The People
Nikhil Varma
Nikhil Varma is an architect, heritage researcher, and design practitioner working across interface design and systems. He led design for Nokia’s Symbian S60 smartphones in India from 2008 to 2012, and earlier headed UI design at Kyocera Wireless India.
His heritage work has been active since 2003, producing measured drawings, archaeological documentation, and research studies for the Archaeological Survey of India, the Indian Archaeological Society, and institutional museum projects. He has also been associated with the National Museum Institute, New Delhi, as Visiting Faculty in Museology.
At Idam Design, he leads interface design, systems thinking, and the development of the studio’s primary initiatives, including India Nearby and Secret of Kavaledurga. His work connects interface design with long-term research and field-based understanding.
Hetal Pandya
Hetal Pandya is an architect and the principal of Tabula Rasa. Alongside her architectural practice, she has been closely involved in heritage documentation and field research through Idam Heritage for over two decades.
She has contributed to heritage documentation and research as part of Idam Heritage across multiple long-term projects.
She is a core part of India Nearby, contributing to research, illustration, and visual development. Her work shapes the initiative’s visual language, colour systems, and material expression, and informs how its content is interpreted and communicated.
Her architectural work and research practice together inform a grounded understanding of material, context, and use.
A note on scale
Idam Design is a small studio that works selectively. Projects are taken on with the intention of giving them sustained attention.
The studio’s self-initiated directions — India Nearby and Secret of Kavaledurga — are central to its work. Client engagements and independent initiatives are developed in parallel, each supporting the other.
Idam (इदम) — this, here, the present.
The studio’s work begins from immediate experience, and develops through careful observation, making, and sustained attention over time.