Adaptive Reuse & Heritage Landscapes
We reimagine derelict structures and historical sites, blending their original soul with contemporary needs. Our approach creates new, functional spaces that respect and celebrate the layers of history already present.
The award-winning KLE Centenary Museum at night. Our design extended the museum's program into the surrounding landscape, creating a public plaza with pavilions and water bodies that has become a landmark in the city.
For the KLE Centenary Museum, we restored a dilapidated colonial building and created a new plaza in front. The landscape design, featuring a lotus pond, connects the new pavilions with the original heritage structure.
The Rishi Pavilion at the KLE Museum serves as the primary entry path. The landscape becomes performative, guiding visitors along a curated journey past the busts of the institution's founders.
This render shows the reimagined glasshouse, part of our adaptive reuse plan for an 18th-century palace complex. The project turns underutilized spaces into a recreational destination with markets, nurseries, and restaurants.
An aerial view of the master plan for the palace complex. A new, curved structure embraces the existing heritage buildings and trees, creating a series of courtyards and public spaces that connect the old with the new.
A ground-level view within the reimagined palace grounds. The design carefully preserves existing trees, making them focal points within new public plazas and walkways.
Our landscape strategy for a 12th-century stone temple uses redeployable and reusable elements. This approach respects the archaeological site by creating an impermanent, flexible environment around the permanent stone structures.
About this collection
We treat every heritage site as a dialogue between the past and the present. Our interventions, whether at a 12th-century temple or a colonial-era campus, are never about imposition. We use a thinking hand process, employing physical models and site analysis to understand the existing logic before introducing interventions that are often reversible, respecting the site's original integrity while adapting it for modern life.
Adaptive reuse is rarely about just repairing a building. It is about analyzing what a site already offers and deciding what it needs to become functional in a modern context.
When we worked on the KLE Centenary Museum, we faced a dilapidated colonial building. The challenge was not just restoration, but extending the program into the landscape. We introduced new pavilions that dialogue with the heritage structure, creating a plaza that facilitates public movement and engagement. The design creates a scripted path, where water features and specific material palettes guide visitors through the history of the institution.
In other cases, permanence is not the goal. For a 12th-century stone temple site, we developed a redeployable landscape strategy. We chose to use non-permanent, modular elements like planters and seating panels that can be moved or reconfigured. This respects the ancient stone structures by ensuring our intervention remains ephemeral and avoids structural conflict with archaeological foundations.
Our process involves:
- Contextual Analysis: We document existing structures for retention, adaptation, or demolition, using Nolli maps to study built-form versus open-space ratios.
- Material Strategy: We prefer honest materials that weather well and contrast respectfully with historical fabric, such as wood, stone, and concrete.
- Micro-climate Design: We utilize water bodies and strategic shading devices to make forgotten spaces habitable again.
Whether it is transforming an underutilized 18th-century palace complex into a commercial hub or designing a memorial pavilion, our goal remains constant: creating environments that are sensitive to the existing rhythm of the site while enabling new community interactions.
Thirdspace
We are Praveen and Namrata, the duo behind Thirdspace. Based in Pune and Belagavi, we spend our time sketching under trees and exploring how buildings can live second lives. We do not just design; we listen to the site's history and help it evolve for the future.
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