After over two decades of experience in the field of heritage in various capacities and running professional services, two active architects in the field, established Idam Heritage. Idam Heritage draws from our years of experience in Heritage Documentation and Research. We are essentially a team of two architects: Nikhil Varma and Ms. Hetal Pandya. Nikhil also practices design in general, providing consultation to tech and more recently to EdTech area. Hetal runs her practice of architecture as Tabula Rasa.
We have been undertaking measured drawings for over two decades – drawing Temples, Temple complexes, Forts, Stepwells, Gates, Basadis and Residential architecture – in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka.
Our work
Our work includes documenting and creating archaeological reports for Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Indian Archaeological Society (IAS) project funded by Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR). We have worked for royal patrons like the King of Udaipur documenting the Shri Eklingji Temple complex. We have contributed research papers in this field, lectures on Museum Design at National Museum Institute (NMI) New Delhi. Guidance has also been provided to several students’ Thesis and Seminars, MA Museology at NMI.
Technology in heritage documentation
We continuously explore technology for use in Archaeological Documentation and Conservation. It is important to gauge and use technology to bring out reliable and consistent quality in our work in Heritage Conservation. Our field experience helped to evolve on-desk methods and added technological advancements, including software and hardware. Nikhil Varma presented a paper at CIDOC 2015 on documentation methods for architecture (archaeological sites) as evolved and used in practical documentation work. Again in CIDOC 2020 he presented about the dangers of misuse of technology “Careful with that axe Eugene!”
Architect Nikhil Varma
A practitioner of “design”, Nikhil has led and mentored design teams in technology startups and corporates. He has lead heritage documentation projects and carried out documentation work along with Hetal. his earlier learning and experience comes from his days at School of Architecture, CEPT where he studied architecture and working with Prof. R. J. Vasavada. He did his further studies in Urban Design at Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien (Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna). His European experience of 1996-97 has drawn him more keenly into pursuing research and propagation of Indian heritage.
Nikhil Varma has been a visiting faculty for MA Museology, at NMI since 2003. He delivers lectures on museum architecture, design and applied technology (Museum architecture course).
Since 2020, Nikhil Varma has been providing design and curation consultation to National Museum Institute (NMI) New Delhi for their national projects. Projects include: The Kedarnath development project (Uttarakhand), and the upcoming museums in Red-Fort area, New Delhi. He also provides review and feedback on other projects of NMI, including Parliament museum, New Delhi and the museum at Vadnagar, Gujarat. All these projects are currently ongoing.
He also conducted workshops on architectural documentation for students and teachers of architecture. These were conducted with Prof. R. J. Vasavada, who initiated these in INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage)
Architect Hetal Varma
Hetal runs her own architectural practice Tabula Rasa from Bengaluru (Bangalore). She specializes in residential architecture and end-to-end turnkey interior design projects. She is interested in Indian Heritage, crafts, history, art, ecology and sustainable environmental practices – many of her buildings are made of mud-blocks and filler-slab-construction which have a much smaller carbon footprint compared to conventional construction. Some of the projects can be viewed on www.tabularasaindia.com. She has continued to engage in our documentation work over the years.
This website is to share some of our work. We are based in Bangalore and are able to operate from Bangalore, Delhi, Indore and Ahmedabad. Feel free to contact us.
Architect Nikhil Varma, Architect Hetal Varma
