Firm： SJK Architects

Type： Commercial › Showroom

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2014

Mahindra and Mahindra approached us to create a cutting-edge design studio where they would style their newest vehicles. The studio would be the designer's domain, holding special status and pride of place in the company, and frequented by the company's top management as well as by their international collaborators. The brief described the need for the studio to have an 'overwhelming sense of design', an 'emotive' quality that could 'energise' and inspire thoughts', 'evolve' with time, and feel 'true to its origins'.

The site identified for the design studio was within their 64-acre Mahindra and Mahindra factory campus in Kandivali, with its low-lying sheds and lush greenery - an oasis reminiscent of Mumbai of the bygone decades amidst the concrete jungle surrounding it. It is perhaps the last of industrial campuses that occupied land on the highway of what was previously the outskirts of a fast-growing city.

The site consisted of five existing sheds, a total of 25,000 square-feet in size, nestled amongst similar-looking, contiguous sheds. The character of the site was, thus, distinctly 'industrial'. The buildings were not the latest, spit and polish, prefabricated steel types. Rather, these sheds were relatively old – made with hand-held tools using standard rolled steel sections that were fabricated, welded and bolted at site to create the buildings, identical for most part but with the anomalies and imperfections that arise out of being handmade.

We assimilated the influences of site, context and brand identity to conceptualise a rugged, raw space that uses natural light, celebrates its industrial and metallic context and compliments it with a neutral concrete backdrop. Neutrality was essential since the car and its styling are the ultimate protagonists in the space; the studio has to be the backdrop and not the competition. The use of metal sheets for design elements such as doors and screens was inspired by the extensive use of the material in the automobile industry and further impelled by Mumbai's rich tradition of metal works.

As we started work at the site, the buildings were stripped down to bare the structural system, which was retained with all its imperfections, and strengthened. Then, as we added new walls and other elements of design, we allowed the structural system to be celebrated, leaving it visible and ensuring that the new design adapted to it; each played its honest role – the existing structural system grounding the space to its origins, and the new design layers belonging to the 'now'.

As we stitched the old and new together, the need for the studio to 'evolve' and 'be true to its origins' influenced the treatment of material and detail of the project. We attempted to use all new materials, concrete and plaster for walls, and 'raw' metals – in an honest, exposed and bare format. This proved challenging – every step had to be planned and rehearsed, for every scratch, dent, or unsightly weld would be visible for all to see. Each metal we used – corten steel, mild steel, stainless steel and galvalume, in its raw state holds its own and contributes to the story like an orchestra.