What the studio does, how it works, and what the words mean — for anyone deciding whether their land is the kind of place we can help.
The name is rooted in the Sanskrit word Bhuvan, meaning the world — the realm between sky and earth. The studio takes its scope from that idea: designing with land, water and the living systems between them, rather than treating a site as a surface to be decorated.
Ecological restoration is the practice of assisting the recovery of a degraded ecosystem — rebuilding its hydrology, biodiversity and soil health until it can sustain itself again. At The Bhu.Van Project it means weaving restoration science together with design, on degraded landscapes across South India.
The Bhu.Van Project is an ecological restoration and landscape architecture studio based in Bengaluru. It works on habitat restoration, watershed management, regenerative farm landscapes and context-responsive architecture, helping places regain strength through thoughtful planning and field-based experience.
The studio is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, and works across India. Projects have run from the high-altitude valleys of Ladakh to the tea gardens of the Nilgiris, and from the remote forests of Arunachal Pradesh to the urban landscapes of Ahmedabad.
Nikhil Udupa, a landscape architect and ecological restoration practitioner with over fourteen years of experience in research-based spatial planning and sustainable design. His expertise covers nature-based solutions, watershed and natural resource management, wildlife habitat design, master planning and disaster-resilient regional planning.
Five practices: ecological restoration, landscape architecture, resilient watershed management and land master planning, sustainable architecture, and academic engagement. Most projects draw on several at once, because a degraded landscape rarely has only one thing wrong with it.
Landscape architecture designs how a place is used and experienced — biodiverse, barrier-free and regenerative spaces rooted in local material, water and culture. Ecological restoration repairs how a place functions, rebuilding hydrology, soil and habitat. The studio treats them as one continuous practice rather than two services.
Fragile ecosystems and protected areas, productive estates and farms, institutional campuses, community commons and urban developments. Scales run from a few acres to entire watersheds — from a 60-acre farm landscape in Rayalaseema to 1,500 acres of forest in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve buffer.
Every site is treated as a living system with its own memory and potential. The approach is guided by rootedness, resilience and renewal, integrating scientific research, local knowledge and participatory processes to arrive at design that is specific to the place rather than applied to it.
Use the Get in Touch form anywhere on this site, or write to nikhiludupa4@gmail.com. It helps to include where the site is, roughly how large it is, and what you have noticed going wrong with it — erosion, water loss, invasive species, or simply land that no longer holds life.
Still unsure whether a site is a candidate? and describe it.
