In the heart of Kolkata, a 50-year-old family bungalow has been quietly transformed into something both timeless and contemporary. What was once an intimate home for a Rajasthani family who migrated to the city generations ago, is now a renovated office. It is also the working headquarters of a company secretary firm led by a member of the same family. Rather than sell, abandon, or redevelop the structure, the family chose instead to honour its emotional and architectural legacy by turning it into a workplace. This decision sparked a unique adaptive reuse project that became as much about architecture as it was about memory, belonging, and continuity.

 This Renovated Office Was Earlier a 50-Year-Old Bungalow | DR&W: Design, Research and Workshop

Adaptive Reuse Meets Emotional Inheritance

The original home, modest and intimate in scale, carried decades of layered memories. This spatial memory was critical to the brief. The challenge was to integrate the programmatic needs of a contemporary office. Open workstations, private cabins, meeting rooms, and collaborative zones were introduced without compromising the emotional integrity or architectural character of the bungalow.

In this renovated office, the designers thoughtfully removed walls to create larger co-working and discussion areas. Where they demolished walls, they introduced infill stone flooring to mark the memory of the original layout. Thus, subtly revealing the old domestic grid beneath the new plan. The goal was not to overwrite the past, but to build upon it.

Central Core

At the core of the building sat a staircase—a vertical spine of the home. The designers reimagined and extended it into a wooden amphitheatre, serving both symbolic and functional purposes. This became a gathering space for meetings, informal celebrations, and daily rituals. The designers punctured key walls to encourage greater interaction between levels. This also draws the landscape into the heart of the building.

A Tactile and Emotional Materiality

The designers embedded sustainability in every gesture, rather than applying it retrospectively. The brief called for minimal waste and maximum reuse of existing materials.

Material Palette

The designers retained the old stone floors and repurposed broken marble from demolition into mosaic patterns. They removed, restored, and reinstalled every wooden window. They also stripped the old railings of ornamentation and reinterpreted them with a refined Art Deco touch. The new fenestrations opened up the building to light and air, creating a healthier and more vibrant working environment.

Art as Narrative, Space as Archive

The designers shaped the internal colour scheme with intent: neutral, calming tones define the work areas, while pops of colour around the stairwell and shared pods introduce spatial variation and emotional texture.

One of the most powerful elements of the renovated office was the integration of art—not as embellishment, but as narrative. The family, being long-time collectors and patrons of art, asked us to curate the interiors with pieces drawn from across the country and their own heritage.

South Indian leather puppets, Jain miniature paintings from Rajasthan, heirloom fans, embroidered carpets crafted by the client’s great-grandmother—all now punctuate the interiors, turning the office into a living gallery.

The presence of these artefacts made the space instantly personal. They served as conversation starters, sources of inspiration, and cultural bridges for a diverse staff. In this way, the design helped every employee find a sense of ownership and connection with the space.

An Elevated Future: The Extension Wing

To accommodate future growth, an additional wing was constructed atop the original terrace—a new concrete structure delicately placed atop the old.

Rather than obscure its presence, the design made a virtue of contrast. Exposed concrete ceilings, bare plastered walls, and Kota stone and concrete terrazzo floors marked this wing as unmistakably new, yet in respectful dialogue with the original structure below.

A semicircular stained-glass window, formerly part of the terrace wall, was integrated into the new elevation—joined by a line of glass bricks to create a luminous interface between old and new.

The renovated office is populated with antique furniture and rugs, converting it into a container of memory—a quieter, more reflective zone within the larger office.

Landscape as Sanctuary

The design extended into the periphery of the site, transforming the setbacks and boundaries into an immersive landscape. The driveway, rendered in Kota stone and concrete, provided a tactile continuity with the interiors. Along it, a linear planter bed with tall greens introduced a sense of scale and calm.

The front garden—once a neglected setback—was reimagined as a lush, accessible urban oasis. Divided into three planting zones, the garden featured a small pond, a Saraswati idol placed in reverence, and a variety of tropical plantings arranged by height. A meandering pathway led through the space, with amphitheater-like steps inviting quiet conversation and pause under flowering bougainvillea.

Even here, sustainability guided the choices. Marble pebbles from the family’s farmhouse were used as infill, and the compound walls were clad in black Kadapa stone—a humble yet elegant material. A new black metal gate, minimal and modernist, framed the entry to the revitalised property.

Conclusion: A Living Archive of Place and Purpose

This project is not just a story of adaptive reuse—it is a meditation on continuity. It shows how buildings can evolve without erasure, how memories can shape modernity, and how sustainability can be emotional as well as environmental. Every corner of this building speaks—of what was, of what is, and of what will continue to be.

In a time of disposable architecture, this project stands apart as a careful act of care, of memory, and of making anew—a house turned office, a home turned archive, and a legacy built to last.

Fact File

Designed by: DR&W: Design, Research and Workshop

Project Type: Office Architecture Design

Project Name: Anjaneyam

Location:  Kolkata

Principal Architect: Jay Shah

Team Design Credits: Aditi karia & Mansi Gohil

Contractors: Right Angle- Sean and Jeffrey

Photograph Courtesy: Vivek Eadara

Firm’s Instagram Link: DR&W: Design, Research and Workshop

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