Nipun Prabhakar, Dhammada Collective
Nipun Prabhakar, architect and founder of Dhammda Collective, offers a compelling vision for sustainable alternatives that challenge conventional development paradigms. Established in 2021 in Bhopal, Dhammada Collective is an interdisciplinary design and research group dedicated to designing spaces that serves as both functional areas and cultural testimony.
The name “Dhammada,” derived from “Dhamm-Ada,” encapsulates the studio’s guiding principle: Commitment to societal well being. Rooted in this philosophy, their practice focuses on sustainable architecture, participatory design processes, cultural preservation, and supporting local artisanship, particularly in Tier 2 cities and rural communities often overlooked by mainstream architectural practice.
Prabhakar’s journey to founding Dhammada was shaped by formative experiences that extend beyond conventional architectural training. After earning his Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in Bhopal, he worked as a Spic Macay fellow and Cornell South Asian fellow, developing a multidisciplinary approach that spans architecture, design, and photojournalism. His documentation work with indigenous communities has appeared in prestigious publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post, while his collaborative research with institutions like MIT and Cornell has helped expand the boundaries of architectural practice.
Perhaps most influential in shaping Dhammada’s ethos was Prabhakar’s work with the Hunnarshala Foundation, where he contributed to post-riot housing reconstruction in Muzaffarnagar and post-earthquake rebuilding in Nepal. These experiences solidified his belief in community-led architecture.
Today, Dhammada Collective functions as a collaborative ecosystem. While Prabhakar serves as its visionary leader, the core team includes partners Nilesh Suman, an architect and town planner, and Simran Channa, an architect and designer. This nucleus expands through regular collaboration with professionals across disciplines, filmmakers, UI/UX designers, social workers, and researchers, creating a network capable of addressing complex challenges with nuanced, holistic solutions.
Abir Pothi talks to Nipun Prabhakar
As Nipun Prabhakar continues to build the Dhammada collective, he joins DTalks to share his experience and philosophy of architecture.
Q. How would you describe your signature design aesthetic, and how has it evolved while working in India?
Nipun Prabhakar: Our aesthetic isn’t a predefined ‘style’ but rather emerges organically from our core principles: collaboration, context, sustainability, and cultural relevance. It’s an aesthetic rooted in honesty, celebrating the inherent qualities of materials, especially local and reused ones, and reflecting the hands and processes involved in making. We value texture, imperfection, and spaces that feel grounded and narratively rich. If I had to put a label, perhaps “Contextual Resourcefulness” or “Process-Driven Minimalism” might come close.
My journey, particularly experiences like working on post-riot housing in Muzaffarnagar and post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal, shifted my perspective dramatically away from the architect-as-sole-creator model taught in school. Working directly in and with Indian communities, especially in rural and Tier-2 settings, has been the primary driver of our aesthetic evolution. It’s less about imposing a design and more about co-creating, listening to the community, understanding local materials (like basalt stone for the Kund under the Mahua Tree), and adapting traditional techniques (like ‘Danga’ walling in the Kuklah School). The aesthetic is shaped by necessity, available resources, local skills, and the aspiration to create spaces that resonate deeply with the community’s identity, rather than following fleeting market trends. We prioritize revealing the true nature of materials over superficial finishes.
Batik Rug. Courtesy of Nipun Prabhakar
Q. What influences and inspires your current work? Could you share some movements, designers, or elements of Indian culture that have shaped your practice?
Nipun Prabhakar: Our primary inspirations are the communities we work with—their resilience, knowledge, and aspirations—and the artisans who carry invaluable generational skills. The resourcefulness embedded in vernacular architecture and traditional practices across India is a constant source of learning – how people build with local materials, adapt to climate, and foster community through space. We’re also deeply influenced by the process of making itself – the dialogue between hand, material, and design.
Participatory Design, Sustainable Architecture, and Critical Regionalism align with our ethos. Rather than specific ‘star’ designers, we draw inspiration from practices like Hunnarshala Foundation, Design Jatra, which emphasizes community empowerment and artisan collaboration, and individuals who champion context-specific work.
My background in photojournalism also influences how we see and document the built environment and societal issues intertwined with it. The core idea is respect for local traditions while looking towards the future, integrating appropriate technologies (like VR) to support, not replace, the work of hands.
Indian crafts, folk traditions, epics, and community practices also inspire me daily—whether it’s a mud house in Kutch, a Baul song, or a woven Charpai. They remind me that design is a way of living, not a luxury.
Exhibition design for Hunnarshala foundation’s retrospective at Sharjah Architecture Trinniel. Courtesy of Nipun Prabhakar
Q. Could you walk us through your creative process? How do you move from initial concept to final execution?
Nipun Prabhakar: Everything begins with listening—carefully, openly.
Before design, we immerse ourselves into the everyday life of the community or site—spending time observing, conversing, sketching, documenting.
We often conduct participatory workshops—drawing sessions with children, talking circles with elders, walkabouts with artisans—to understand hidden needs and desires.
From these interactions, patterns emerge: spatial, cultural, emotional.
Our design then grows from these roots, often as iterative, open-ended proposals rather than rigid blueprints.
We also use tools like on-site Augmented Reality to democratize design decision-making, letting masons and residents visualize and contribute to the space as it forms.
Final execution is deeply collaborative, valuing local techniques and collective labor over imposing external standards.
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?
Nipun Prabhakar: Artisans hold generational knowledge that no formal training can replicate.
Collaborating with them is a way to stay grounded—to work with hands, material intelligence, and cultural memory.
These partnerships transform projects from being “for” a community to being “of” the community.
They also bring unpredictability and richness—spaces emerge through conversation, argument, improvisation, and care.
Working across disciplines (with filmmakers, UX designers, social workers, researchers) also expands the language of design, letting us tell layered, hybrid stories rather than monolithic ones. These collaborations make our practice more resilient, relevant, and socially engaged.
A primary school project in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district.Courtesy of Nipun Prabhakar
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?
Nipun Prabhakar: A major turning point in my journey was my internship with Hunnarshala Foundation in 2015, where I worked on post-riot housing reconstruction in Muzaffarnagar. That experience fundamentally shifted my understanding of architecture—from seeing it as a top-down act of creation to recognizing it as a collaborative, community-driven process. It taught me that architecture is not about imposing solutions, but about enabling people to shape their own environments. The idea that building should emerge from the ground up—through dialogue, trust, and participation—became central to my practice and eventually laid the foundation for Dhammada Collective’s philosophy.
Among my recent works, I am particularly proud of Homes On The Move, a project developed as part of the Living Lightly exhibition on India’s pastoralist communities. It explores the ephemeral, mobile architectures created by pastoralists—homes that are packed and moved on the backs of animals as families migrate. This project allowed me to bring into visibility an entire way of life that often remains invisible in mainstream architectural discourses.
Homes On The Move was also personally meaningful. In 2019, I traveled with the Dhangar community, a transhumant pastoralist group, alongside Vikram Hoshing for Living Lightly. Several years later, I had the opportunity to design an exhibition pavilion dedicated to these communities, integrating photographs and memories from that journey.
The most special moment came when the Khatal family—whom I had documented during that 2019 journey—visited the exhibition and saw their photographs displayed for the first time. Watching them recognize their own lives and stories within a museum space was an emotional, full-circle moment for me.
Entry to Dhammada’s studio space. Courtesy of Nipun Prabhakar
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?
Nipun Prabhakar: Challenges include the over-centralization of design discourse in metro cities, limited funding for non-mainstream architecture, and navigating the tension between traditional knowledge and formal codes.
Our approach is to work outside the metro bubble—engaging deeply with rural and small-cities contexts, building slow networks of trust, and seeking alternative models of sustainability that don’t rely solely on large grants or awards.
We prioritize long-term relationships, clear communication, and using accessible visualization tools. We actively document and share our process and the ‘why’ behind our choices through writing, photography, exhibitions, and workshops.
Collaborating with NGOs and institutions helps bridge gaps. Our interdisciplinary team structure allows us to tackle challenges from multiple angles. Being based in Bhopal allows deeper, sustained engagement with central India’s communities.
Q. How do you approach sustainability and eco-friendly practices in your designs, particularly considering India’s traditional wisdom and contemporary environmental challenges?
Nipun Prabhakar: Our approach to sustainability is grounded in radical resourcefulness and a deep respect for traditional wisdom, where sustainability was not a separate agenda but an inherent part of daily life. We prioritize building with waste over simply relying on “natural” materials, because even natural resource extraction has an environmental cost. Minimizing extraction, maximizing reuse, and creating resilient, adaptable spaces form the core of our practice.
We actively engage in material circularity by salvaging and reusing debris—old doors, windows, bricks, timber, and concrete waste—letting the availability of materials shape and inspire the design process. Our teams often map and document local waste streams, from scrap yards to flea markets, to understand what resources are available before we even begin a project. This hands-on, ground-up approach ensures that every project is deeply tied to its local ecology.
Traditional practices and communal building processes inform our work, but not through a lens of nostalgia. Instead, we adapt these methods sensitively to meet contemporary needs, addressing challenges like durability, maintenance, and climate resilience. For example, in projects like the Mandi rural School in Himachal Pradesh, we designed an MS frame system to allow for easy dismantling and future reuse, blending traditional wisdom with modern structural strategies.
Material honesty is a central value—we choose materials that age gracefully, have low embodied energy, and allow for a future lifecycle beyond the immediate building. We avoid unnecessary finishes or treatments that obscure a material’s natural character, allowing the beauty of imperfection and age to surface over time.
For us, sustainability also extends beyond the environmental. It includes social equity—fairly engaging artisans, nurturing local knowledge systems, and ensuring that building processes empower communities rather than extract from them. Preserving cultural landscapes and enabling communities to adapt and thrive within them is as critical as reducing carbon footprints.
We aim to design buildings that are not static monuments, but living, evolving entities—spaces that can adapt, dismantle, and regenerate in response to the shifting needs of their people and their ecosystems.
Matka pot Stand. Courtesy of Dhammada Collective
Q. What’s your most exciting recent design or art discovery that’s influencing your current thinking?
Nipun Prabhakar: Recently, I’ve been incredibly inspired by the potential of integrating accessible technology like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) into our participatory design process with rural communities. Our ongoing research collaboration with Oxford Brookes University has demonstrated its power. Seeing the village head in Kuklah grasp the spatial qualities of our school design through a VR walkthrough, leading to consensus, was a breakthrough.
It democratizes the design process, allowing community members who may not read complex drawings to visualize and engage with proposed spaces at a 1:1 scale on-site. This isn’t about technology for its own sake, but using it as a tool to enhance communication, foster deeper collaboration, and make architectural decision-making more inclusive and effective at the grassroots level, where such tools are often inaccessible.
Q. How do you build visibility and reach out to potential clients – what platforms and strategies have worked best for you?
Nipun Prabhakar: Organic, word-of-mouth networks have worked best for me—especially because our work thrives on trust and long-term engagement rather than aggressive marketing.
We maintain a quiet but consistent digital presence through our websites and are also lucky to be contacted by publications like Wallpaper, etc, and other community platforms.
Conversations, exhibitions, lectures, and collaborations have also naturally expanded our circle of collaborators and clients.
At a personal level, I am also a journalist and photographer, so I get a chance to look at architecture through a critical perspective beyond my practice. Contributing articles and photo essays to architectural and mainstream publications (NYT, WaPo, FuturArc, etc.) allows us to share our perspective and projects with a wider audience.
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?
Nipun Prabhakar: Immerse yourself in real contexts. Travel widely, observe carefully, and spend time on ground with communities. Let your practice be informed by lived experiences, not just theory.
Collaborate meaningfully. Treat artisans, builders, and local experts as true partners, valuing their knowledge and ensuring fair engagement.
Understand materials intimately. Go beyond appearances — learn about the life cycles, histories, and possibilities of local, natural, and salvaged materials.
Find your voice. Build your practice around what truly moves you, not around fleeting trends or external validation.Document your journey. Your processes, learnings, and failures are as important as your finished projects — they tell the real story. Practice patience and ethics. Meaningful work, especially with communities, requires long-term commitment and trust.
Question norms. Challenge systems like per-square-foot fees or rigid project models if they don’t align with the kind of work you want to do. Don’t parachute in and out. Quick interventions rarely leave a lasting impact — build relationships instead. Don’t romanticize. Approach craft, rural life, and traditional practices with respect and critical thinking, not nostalgia or pity. Don’t work in isolation. Seek out conversations with peers, mentors, collaborators, and communities — design grows richer through dialogue.
Don’t erase collaborators. Acknowledge and amplify the contributions of artisans, craftspeople, and local experts. Don’t limit yourself to big cities. Some of the most urgent, meaningful work is happening in small towns and rural areas — and often with greater freedom.
Connect with organizations like Hunnarshala Foundation, SEEDS, Sahjeevan, Centre for Pastoralism, TRI, Dastkar, and AIACA that work at the intersection of design, sustainability, and community.
Attend events, local sustainability conferences, and craft fairs to stay connected to evolving conversations around practice. Engage with academic and research forums — they often open up avenues for deeper collaboration and learning across disciplines.
Q. As you look ahead, what kind of projects or directions would you like to explore?
Nipun Prabhakar: I want to explore projects that further blur boundaries between architecture, storytelling, and research.
Areas that excite me include ephemeral architecture, migratory and nomadic housing, documentation of intangible cultural heritage, and developing new pedagogies around community-driven design. Using tech where it’s needed the most i.e at the grassroots in a way that it supports artisans and not replace them.
I also hope Dhammada can evolve into a platform that nurtures future designers both in rural contexts as well as in international environments
Q. For aspiring designers looking to make their mark in India’s design landscape, what wisdom would you share from your journey?
Nipun Prabhakar: I would say: focus on building depth before chasing visibility. It’s tempting to get caught up in trends or social media optics, but lasting work comes from patience, deep observation, and humility. Spend time on ground — live with communities, listen more than you speak, and allow your ideas to be shaped by real contexts rather than preconceptions.
Another piece of advice: collaboration over competition. Especially in India, the richness of any project lies in the layers of people you work with — artisans, builders, researchers, storytellers. Learn to collaborate meaningfully, share credit generously, and remain open to learning from unexpected places.
Treat resourcefulness as a design value, not just an aesthetic choice. In a country like ours, working with constraints — material, financial, social — is not a limitation but an opportunity for creativity and innovation.
There’s no single formula, but grounding your practice in sincerity, adaptability, and respect for the contexts you work within can make all the difference.
Remember Your ‘Dhamm-Ada’: Think about your duty and responsibility as a designer towards society and the environment. Let that guide your choices and actions.
India’s design landscape is vast and dynamic. There’s incredible potential to create meaningful, impactful work if you approach it with curiosity, empathy, and a commitment to collaborative, context-driven practice.
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