Situated in West Bandra, Mumbai’s most celebrated cultural neighbourhood, Turner House, our first project on site in India, reflects the vibrancy of the city while creating opportunities for a new way of working.  

Having just returned from a recent site visit, Stephen Proctor reflects on the projects design approach and influences. 

The building will not only serve as the headquarters for developer Raiaskaran but create a dynamic hub for many businesses to call home. Like Bandra, Turner House will be an eclectic coming together of activities under one roof including offices, retail, a cafe, restaurant as well as spaces for art and relaxation and even a secret garden landscape.

Stephen explains: “As a practice we are interested in ideas of identity and character and a considered response to context. Not in a global architecture of endless anonymous glass facades which neither respond to climate, culture or context.”

The design is firmly anchored in the history of the site. At street level, the original 19th century villa of Turner House becomes an integral part of the design, maintaining its sense of scale and visual impact within the West Bandra streetscape and helping to anchor the new building as it emerges above the verdant tree-line and leafy canopy. 

The body of the building draws inspiration from the verticality and slender structures of Mumbai Gothic architecture. The facades are designed to capture and maximise the panoramic views of Mumbai but similarly the elevational compositions respond to the multi directional importance of the building as viewed across the city landscape: “A refined and hopefully timeless coalescence of old and new.”