Idam Heritage is a professional consultancy specializing in heritage conservation, documentation, and research. Established by architects Nikhil Varma and Hetal Pandya in 2003, the firm brings together over two decades of experience in heritage practice and architectural services.
The firm’s expertise lies in the systematic documentation, assessment, and management of heritage assets, integrating technical proficiency with a comprehensive understanding of cultural and historical contexts. Idam Heritage provides end-to-end consultancy solutions tailored to meet institutional, governmental, and private sector requirements in the heritage domain.
Our core leadership team comprises:
- Nikhil Varma, Architect and Design Consultant, with additional experience providing strategic advisory services in technology and EdTech sectors.
- Hetal Pandya, Architect and Principal at Tabula Rasa, with extensive experience in design and heritage conservation projects.
- Shailesh Upadhyay, overseeing the execution of heritage projects from inception to completion, ensuring compliance with defined objectives, timelines, and quality standards.
At Idam Heritage, we combine architectural expertise, research-driven methodologies, and project management rigour to deliver outcomes that are both contextually informed and operationally efficient. Our approach is rooted in accuracy, accountability, and respect for heritage value—ensuring every project contributes meaningfully to the preservation of our shared built legacy.
Architect Nikhil Varma
CEO, Co-founder
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
Co-founder
Hetal is a graduate from School of Architeture, CEPT. She studied old houses of Bundi, Rajasthan, for her thesis with Prod. R. J. Vasavada, who was her guide. She also worked on various heritage projects with Prof. R. J. Vasavada including the measured drawing of Shree Jagannath temple at Puri, Orissa, and several sites in Gujarat. She co-founded Idam Heritage and has continued to engage with the heritage documentation and research work of Idam Heritage.
Hetal also 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.
Shailesh Upadhyay
Director Projects
Backed by decades of experience in cement & construction management across India and the Middle East, Shailesh brings a meticulous, results-driven approach that turns complex project requirements into successful, high-quality outcomes. He is currently managing a temple complex construction and a 10 bigha upcoming spiritual campus at Indore..
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!”
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. Nikhil Varma has been providing consultation for Museums and important projects of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India since 2020.
We are based in Bangalore and Indore, and are able to operate easily from Bangalore, Indore, Ahmedabad and Delhi. Feel free to contact us.
