North Light Studio
A furniture maker’s workshop and gallery under one saw-tooth roof, planned entirely around north light.
Project information
- Location
- Pune, Maharashtra
- Year
- 2024
- Type
- Design workshop and gallery
- Area
- 5,200 sq ft
- Scope
- Interior architecture, workshop planning, gallery fit-out
- Status
- Completed
Design concept
Follow the light, then plan
The building came with a saw-tooth roof glazed to the north — the single best thing about it. Rather than fitting a programme in and then lighting it, we mapped the light across a year and put each activity where its light already was.
Machining sits under the deepest, most even light. Finishing sits where the light is warmest in the late afternoon. The gallery occupies the one bay where a shaft of direct sun crosses the floor between two and four.
Nothing separating these zones goes higher than 1.8 metres, so the roof reads as one continuous plane and the light is never interrupted.
Material palette
What the room is made of
White marble
Gallery plinths only, honed to a dead matte.
Black granite
Setting-out benches, flame finished.
Fluted glass
Office and meeting screens, obscuring without darkening.
Architecture
Decisions in plan and section
Roof
Existing saw-tooth glazing retained and recoated; all new services run below the truss line.
Zoning
No partition above 1.8m anywhere on the floor plate.
Dust
Extraction routed at slab level so no ductwork crosses the light.
Interior
Decisions you can touch
Gallery
Six plinths on castors, repositioned to follow the direct-sun band through the year.
Benches
Nine setting-out benches, all at 900mm, all on the same grid as the roof bays.
Materials store
Open racking, timber stacked by species and visible from the gallery.
Gallery
North Light Studio in sequence
Project facts
Project facts
13 months
Duration
7 north-facing
Roof bays
9
Benches
Max 1.8m
Partition height
Demo project — client and figures are sample content
