Mianzi designs bamboo products that aim to revolutionize the way bamboo is seen and used by bringing eco-friendly yet inventive and aesthetic bamboo-built options in furniture, lifestyle products, bicycle, and architecture in near future. Founded in 2018 by architect and industrial designer Shashank Gautam, this pioneering venture has embarked on a mission to “sustainabli-ze” industrialization. Gautam, armed with experience in plastic and metal design from SPA Delhi and IIT Bombay, brings a research-led, systems-driven approach that fuses heritage craftsmanship with cutting-edge innovation.
Under the strategic leadership of Sugandha Varshney, whose data-informed creativity has delivered over 50x revenue growth and positioned Mianzi as a sustainable design leader, the company has transformed into a market pioneer. Complementing this dynamic duo is Ananta Varshney, the operations strategist whose architectural training and systems expertise have streamlined production processes, halved manufacturing timelines, and created agile, transparent factory systems that preserve craft integrity while enabling scalable growth.
This formidable team intimately works with local artisan communities in gender-neutral environments and empowers traditional craftspeople through thoughtful integration of time-honored techniques with modern technology. Mianzi brings forth products by stepping out of the accepted parameters of product design, bringing life to fresh ideas that previously seemed improbable. They take multiple design elements that are considered to not fit together and merge them diligently to create a neoteric design. Thus, treating the environment and the resources it has to offer with a playful perspective of exploration, constantly designing and shaping it, and reinventing it in a manner that can elevate lifestyle without affecting the environment.
Their earth-friendly, empowering, and inventive approach has already garnered prestigious recognition, including the Trends Excellence Award for Best Furniture Design (2019), Elle Decor’s Young Talent of the Year (2019), Lexus Design Award for Best Furniture Design (2019), Ambiente Talents Good Design Award (2020), Design X Design’s 20 Under 35 recognition (2019), and the International Bamboo Design Competition’s Best Product Design Award (2021).
As part of DTalks, founders of Minazi get into a conversation of their design philosophy and entrepreneurial journey.
Shashank Gautam
Sugandha Varshney
Ananta Varshney
Q. How would you describe your signature design aesthetic, and how has it evolved while working in India?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: Our design aesthetic is rooted in “hedonistic sustainability”—the belief that sustainable products need not compromise to provide sensory delight and aesthetic pleasure while being environmentally responsible. By leveraging bamboo’s natural flexibility and strength, we create designs that are both functional, thoughtfully crafted and visually appealing.
We learned from our artisans the heritage associated with the raw material and trained them to combine it with contemporary trends so as to break the monotonous identity associated with traditional sustainable materials. Working in India has enriched this aesthetic by allowing us to integrate traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design, resulting in products that resonate globally while honoring local heritage.
Artisan Exhibition Pod. Image Courtesy: Minazi
Q. What influences and inspires your current work? Could you share some movements, designers, or elements of Indian culture that have shaped your practice?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: Our inspiration stems from the fusion of traditional Indian craftsmanship and modern design principles. Movements like hedonistic sustainability and designers such as Dieter Rams and Thomas Heatherwick influence our approach to minimalism and functionality. We have closely seen and have been part of traditional crafts and rural engineers. Elements of Indian culture, particularly the resourcefulness to spot unique solutions mostly by hand that are practically effective, inspire us to create designs that are both innovative and deeply rooted in cultural context.
Coronal Loop. Image Courtesy: Minazi
Q. Could you walk us through your creative process? How do you move from initial concept to final execution?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: We believe every material has its inherent characteristics, if we could harness them smartly, it adds on to the value of the product. Our design philosophy lies in constantly exploring a myriad of possibilities through our concept of Polygamy. With different necessary bosons for revolutionary design, MIANZI is focused to expand the barriers of feasibility by playing with different raw materials and combining them together with Bamboo as the base material, to model fresh perspectives. Further, prototyping valuable sustainable designs that accommodate conceptual aesthetic mintiness and practical desirability by coalescing the right mix of raw materials with Indian heritage of crafts tradition, technology, modern design elements, advanced contemporary aesthetics, and minimalism.
Makaibari Tea Pavillion. Image Courtesy: Minazi
Q. Your work often involves collaborations with artisans and other creatives. What draws you to these partnerships, and how do these collaborations enrich your design practice?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: Collaborating with artisans allows us to preserve and celebrate traditional crafts while infusing them with contemporary methods and design. These partnerships are symbiotic; artisans bring invaluable skills and cultural knowledge, while we offer design innovation and market access. With a desire to evolve craft to preserve in the fast paced market scenario and meaningfully help artisans, a distinct fascination to observe probable design possibilities, we have created our own methods by tweaking existing industrial machines. We found out ways to make bamboo a successful semi-industrial raw material and we further examined its technical aspects while designing and prototyping. To make the process as realistic as possible, we developed a few industrial machines allowing us to work with bamboo as never before. The machines are based on existing industrial technology yet novel; they are an innovative assembly of different systems to create an efficient tool. There are several small yet effective additions too that help artisans in their process.
Artisans team. Image Courtesy: Minazi
Q. Looking back at your portfolio, which project represents a significant turning point in your career, and among your recent works, what project are you most proud of and why?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: A defining turning point in our design journey came with the award-winning proposal for a zero-carbon footprint building, which was recognized by the Indian Green Building Council in 2009. It was during this project that we first explored the immense potential of bamboo—not just as a vernacular or artisanal material, but as a serious architectural medium capable of delivering structural integrity, sustainability, and beauty. This project laid the conceptual groundwork for what would later evolve into the design ethos of Mianzi.
Among our recent works, two projects particularly stand out. The first is the “Coronal Loop” installation for Amit Aggarwal’s couture show—an immersive, sculptural bamboo environment that blurred the lines between fashion, spatial design, and ecological storytelling. It proved that bamboo, a material historically limited to utilitarian or craft-based applications, could be elevated to avant-garde, experiential art. While Mianzi’s architectural and interior design intervention at the Makaibari Tea Estate in Darjeeling, exemplifies the core of our design vision. Both projects are emblematic of what we strive for at Mianzi: expanding bamboo’s relevance across industries, scales, and cultural landscapes—without compromising on beauty, innovation, or sustainability.
Seashell Lamp. Image Courtesy: Minazi
Q. What unique challenges and opportunities have you encountered as an emerging designer in the Indian design industry, and how are you working to overcome these obstacles?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: One of the most persistent challenges has been reframing the perception of bamboo—a material historically associated with rural utility or low-cost design—as a premium, design-forward, and structurally sophisticated medium. To counter this, we have adopted a research-intensive, design-driven approach that showcases bamboo’s versatility, strength, and potential for industrial refinement. India’s rich craft heritage, combined with a rising consciousness around sustainability and ethical consumption, provides fertile ground for innovation. Mianzi harnesses this intersection—merging ancestral craft wisdom with advanced technology—to not only push design boundaries but to create meaningful livelihoods for artisan communities. By building scalable, high-impact models for craft production, proprietary manufacturing techniques, precise geometries, and collaborations with artisans, we aim to help India lead the global transition toward ethical, circular, and culturally embedded design systems.
Lotus lamp. Image Courtesy: Minazi
Q. How do you approach sustainability and eco-friendly practices in your designs, particularly considering India’s traditional wisdom and contemporary environmental challenges?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: Our approach to sustainability is grounded in the belief that ecological responsibility and aesthetic pleasure are not mutually exclusive. Mianzi challenges the reductive narrative that sustainable design must feel austere or ascetic. Instead, every Mianzi product is crafted to deliver delight, functionality, and environmental mindfulness in equal measure. We employ traditional knowledge systems—such as natural treatments and slow drying techniques—while integrating modern methods like CAD-generated molds and precision-engineered modules. This hybrid approach ensures longevity, modularity, and minimal waste, allowing the products to be flat-packed, easily shipped, and composted at the end of life.
We need to understand, sustainability is not a layer added to design—it is embedded within the material, process, and purpose.
Rosebud Lamp. Image Courtesy: Minazi
Q. What’s your most exciting recent design or art discovery that’s influencing your current thinking?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: Lately, we’ve been deeply influenced by the ethos of the Bauhaus school—particularly its insistence on unifying art, craft, and technology. This philosophy resonates with Mianzi’s mission of elevating traditional bamboo craftsmanship into a language of contemporary design through industrial precision. Bauhaus was radical in its time for collapsing the divide between utility and beauty, and that tension continues to inform our thinking—especially as we strive to design products that are at once functional, emotionally resonant, and scalable.
Simultaneously, we have been increasingly drawn to the framework of hedonistic sustainability—the idea that sustainability shouldn’t feel like deprivation, but rather indulgence. This has reoriented how we see sustainability—not as an ethical constraint, but as a catalyst for innovation and joy. It’s driving us to create designs that are not only zero-waste and low-impact but also aspirational—objects people desire not just because they’re “good,” but because they’re beautiful, thoughtful, and deeply human. This synthesis of aesthetic pleasure, sustainability, and social responsibility is, for us, the most exciting and intellectually rewarding design frontier right now.
Q. How do you build visibility and reach out to potential clients – what platforms and strategies have worked best for you?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: Our visibility strategy is anchored in building meaningful narratives—stories that trace a product’s evolution from raw bamboo in a remote village to a refined, globally relevant design piece. Platforms like Instagram serve as visual journals, allowing us to showcase not just finished products but the philosophy, people, and processes behind them. We’ve found that audiences today seek authenticity—they’re drawn to the why as much as the what.
We also use curated platforms like Etsy to reach design-conscious consumers who value sustainability and craftsmanship. Participating in design exhibitions and biennales—from India Design ID, EPCH to international showcases—has further amplified our reach, enabling us to place Indian bamboo craft in dialogue with global design discourse. Collaborations with ethically aligned brands and creatives also allow us to tap into new audiences and cross-pollinate ideas.
Q. From your experience, what are the crucial dos and don’ts for young designers trying to establish themselves in India, and what professional forums or communities would you recommend they join?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: From our journey, we’ve learned that establishing a meaningful design practice in India begins with reverence—for our materials, for the hands that shape them, and for the histories they carry. It’s vital to root your work in India’s extraordinary cultural and material heritage. Our traditions are not constraints but springboards for new thinking. Sustainability, too, must go beyond checkbox ethics—it has to be a lived philosophy, baked into every aspect of the design process.
Engaging with artisans is not just about collaboration—it’s about listening, learning, and co-creating in a way that respects their knowledge and reimagines its future potential. At the same time, we must be critically aware of our audience and our markets. Innovation without empathy or relevance cannot create impact.
To grow meaningfully, we recommend being part of communities and forums that foster dialogue, mentorship, and serious exchange across disciplines. These are the spaces where thoughtful design practices are nurtured and celebrated.
Q. As you look ahead, what kind of projects or directions would you like to explore?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: Looking ahead, we are deeply excited by the potential of bamboo and other regenerative materials to expand into urban infrastructure, public design, and mobility solutions. We believe the future of design lies in dismantling the binary between the artisanal and the industrial. Our goal is to prove that craft, when empowered by research and technology, can operate at the scale of systems—whether that’s a metro station, a pedestrian bridge, or a modular shelter.
We envision a future where design is no longer just about form and function—but about impact, equity, and ecology. We want our work to actively replace harmful materials and processes, not as an alternative niche but as a new global standard for how things should be made.
Q. For aspiring designers looking to make their mark in India’s design landscape, what wisdom would you share from your journey?
Shashank, Sugandha and Ananta: Our advice is simple: stay curious and remain porous to the world around you. Let your imagination be bold, but let your process be grounded—in community, in context, and in care. Learn from the past, but don’t replicate it. Instead, rewire it into something urgent and meaningful for the now.
Work closely with your materials. Let them guide you. And never underestimate the value of humility in design—it’s what turns intention into integrity.
Design isn’t about the object alone. It’s about what the object enables—for people, for culture, and for the planet. Design with that purpose, and everything else will follow.
Makaibari Tea Pavillion. Image Courtesy: Minazi
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