Previously few years, Vikram Goyal has been on the forefront of India’s emergence onto the worldwide design scene. His eponymous New Delhi studio, famend for its limited-edition steel repoussé work – now discovered at Nilufar in Milan, The Future Excellent within the USA, and Curio and Abask within the UK – has been showcasing the potential of Indian craft to the world. However Goyal is the primary to level out that he’s neither an artisan nor a designer, however quite somebody who operates in a ‘third house’ – shaping concepts, supplies, and craftsmanship into one thing fully new.
His journey started removed from the world of craft and interiors. Skilled as an engineer, Goyal initially pursued a profession in improvement economics, learning at Princeton earlier than working as an economist at Morgan Stanley. His early years in finance took him from New York to Hong Kong and Morocco. But, regardless of his success, he felt unfulfilled. The company world supplied little room for his deep-seated appreciation of aesthetics, heritage, and materials tradition – passions that, he says, had all the time lingered within the background of his life.
Mesa Trio console by Vikram Goyal which might be debuted at Nilufar Depot throughout Milan Design Week 2025
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
In 2000, amid the dot-com growth, he made a daring transfer again to India, initially exploring alternatives within the rising digital sector. However it was his enduring fascination with indigenous craft and design that in the end outlined his path. As co-founder of Kama Ayurveda, he helped translate centuries-old wellness traditions into a up to date holistic skincare model. Nevertheless, it was by means of his eponymous metalwork studio arrange in 2002 – and its sister model, VIYA, a extra accessible life-style model launched final yr – that he totally embraced his function as a cultural interpreter, bridging the hole between conventional Indian craftsmanship and world modern design.
This brass cupboard for Nilufar, known as Shaded Graphite, showcases the studio’s ‘hole joinery’ method
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
Your studio is thought for its repoussé metalwork and craftsmanship. Are you able to inform us about the way it operates and what units it aside?
The important thing factor about our work is that we work in steel. I began this about 23 years in the past, and whereas most within the area use forged steel—pouring wax into moulds—we work with sheet steel. It is available in rolls, that are then handled and formed into three-dimensional kinds.
I’m neither an artisan nor a designer; my function is to drive the workshop mannequin ahead. We’ve got about 200 folks – artisans, engineers, and designers – who come collectively to create our work. As a result of we have now our personal workshop, we are able to push the boundaries in methods others cannot. When you go to a foundry and ask them to make one thing, they gained’t experiment a lot. However for us, every little thing occurs in our personal yard, permitting us to push the boundaries.
For us, every little thing occurs in our personal yard, permitting us to push the boundaries
Vikram Goyal
One in every of our greatest improvements is on the earth of repoussé. The method begins with an art work, which is positioned onto a steel sheet, then flipped onto a mattress of wax. It’s then heated and chiseled from the again. Since you’re making use of strain from behind, the ultimate end result isn’t seen till the very finish. Solely as soon as the piece is completed do you choose it up and see what you’ve really created.
Goyal’s studio is thought for its pioneering use of the repoussé method, the place steel sheets are meticulously hand-shaped from the reverse facet to create intricate, three-dimensional kinds
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
Your work attracts from conventional Indian craftsmanship however reinterprets it in modern methods. How do you stability custom and innovation?
Conventional sheet metalwork was used to create floor ornament for ceilings, temple doorways, and ritual vessels. We’ve taken that to a completely new dimension. Even inside repoussé, we’ve explored every little thing from chinoiserie to extra summary and minimal designs. Our work spans repoussé, brutalism, and what we name “hole joinery.”
The Move wall sconce options an intricate flowing water motif, crafted in brass repoussé
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
You have lately expanded past steel into different crafts by means of your new homeware model VIYA. What has that course of been like?
It has been exhilarating. And I preserve having to inform myself to cease working so onerous, as a result of I simply get so excited. Discovering cane was incredible – somebody got here to our studio and sat on the ground and began weaving. Six months later we had been supplying cane trolleys to Cabana journal. Then we began working with rope. India has a convention of rope beds [called charpais], so we began making tremendous modern rope chairs. From there, we explored embroideries, block printing and totally different sorts of Kashmiri embroidery (an intricate craft, celebrated for its wealthy colors and detailed scenic motifs). I’ve a group of designers engaged on the studio. I’ve groups of designers devoted to totally different supplies – steel, cane, delicate furnishings – and we simply began working with carpets. So it is an ongoing strategy of discovery.
A craftsperson in Goyal’s New Delhi studio works on a hole joinery piece
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
India’s design scene is getting extra worldwide consideration. How do you see the nation’s function within the world design panorama evolving?
It is unimaginable how so many issues have occurred abruptly: Dior doing its vogue present right here with the give attention to the craft and on the embroideries (On March 30, 2023, beneath the inventive course of Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior offered its Fall 2023 assortment on the historic Gateway of India in Mumbai which coincided with a trio of exhibitions within the metropolis); the opening of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, and now the arrival of Nilaya Anthology (the place Goyal’s studio has a devoted house). I see a rising sense of satisfaction amongst Indians in their very own heritage.
Once I began, my concept was to maneuver past the ‘low cost and cheerful’ notion of Indian design and assist restore its historic place as a world chief in creativity, craft, and innovation. Now, the world is waking up.
For years, our studio was banging the drum for contemporary Indian design whereas customers had been nonetheless shopping for Italian. Now, I see they’re nonetheless shopping for Italian—however additionally they desire a piece of recent India. There’s a rising sense of satisfaction, and that’s shifting demand. On the availability facet, too, extra designers are doing attention-grabbing work. Yearly on the design festivals, I uncover unimaginable new Indian designers who’re pushing boundaries. It’s occurring on each ends – a gradual integration of Indian design sensibility into the worldwide panorama.
India has all the time been a producing powerhouse for world manufacturers, producing every little thing from vogue to carpets to brass. Once I began, my concept was to maneuver past the ‘low cost and cheerful’ notion of Indian design and assist restore its historic place as a world chief in creativity, craft, and innovation. Now, the world is waking up.
A part of Goyal’s Move sequence, this facet desk is crafted utilizing a mix of repoussé and hole joinery strategies
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
What’s subsequent for you and your studio?
Our merchandise are largely India-agnostic. When it comes to materiality, they’ve an inherently Indian high quality—the tones, the colors—however the design itself isn’t historically Indian. My objective is to construct a world model that showcases the depth and breadth of Indian craftsmanship. On the similar time, every design is rooted in an Indian narrative—whether or not it attracts from a delusion, fable, architectural kind, or panorama. Every bit has a reputation and a narrative behind it.
vikramgoyal.com
viyadesign.com
In 2024, Goyal launched VIYA, a extra accessible life-style model with a group of items constructed from steel, cane and textiles
(Picture credit score: VIYA)
Supply: Wallpaper
