The International Interior Design Association (IIDA; Chicago) has named Upali Nanda as the recipient of its 2026 ICON Award, which recognizes extraordinary service and contributions to the profession of interior design, according to a news release.
A partner and executive vice president at HKS (Detroit), Nanda is being recognized for her research on the impact of design on human health and her advocacy of evidence-based design.
She serves as the firm’s global sector director of innovation and executive director of the Center for Advanced Design Research and Evaluation (CADRE), a nonprofit founded by the firm focused on evidence-based and culturally responsive design research and advocacy.
In addition to her practice, Nanda serves as an adjunct professor of practice at the Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, where she teaches an experimental Health by Design seminar. She’s also a published and award-winning author, including her book Sensthetics: A Crossmodal Approach to Designing for the Senses, and numerous open-source whitepapers and peer-reviewed journals.
In 2014, she was named the HCD 10 Researcher in Healthcare Design‘s annual awards program.
Nanda will receive the ICON Award during IIDA’s annual meeting June 7 in Chicago. For more information, visit iida.org.
