This Mumbai office with transitional design finds hearth in an old Art Deco building

It’s always interesting to see what kind of spaces architects design for themselves, as opposed to working towards a client’s brief. No arguments, no persuasion, no discussions needed…except maybe with themselves. So the office which Deshna Kasliwal has designed as a shared space for her husband and herself, reveals some of her design credos. In this instance, it is mainly adaptive reuse.

Located in a venerable Art Deco building in South Mumbai’s Churchgate, the office is located within the embrace of its wrap-around corner façade. “It’s also where we always wanted to be…near Marine Drive, with the clock tower, High Court and Taj Mahal hotel visible from our balconies. Since we haven’t enclosed them, the views are quite spectacular,” says Deshna. The 3,000-square-foot redesigned space evinces Deshna’s acknowledgement of its old bones. There is an unmistakable respect for the age-old structure and its heritage value, the result being a conscious choice to mix traditional touches and modern solutions.

Also read: In an old Art Deco building, Dara Mehta’s South Mumbai home is an art collector’s paradise

However, Deshna is young. So a serious, no-frills space comes as a surprise. The 12-foot-high ceiling is black throughout. “This was necessary because of the many awkward beams which traversed the top of the space, some of them even diagonal. A few invaded the space below for more than a foot, so we would have lost too much height if we had attempted a false ceiling,” says Deshna. One would expect the vast inky expanse to create a brooding effect and weigh down heavily on the spaces below. But no, it doesn’t. Enough natural light from the windows suffuses the innermost areas of the office to counter that.