Before/After with a side of greens

D’WELL flips a 40-year-old home in Surat inside-out to craft a workspace amidst nature’s lap

19 Mar 2025

Is concrete jungle fatigue a real phenomenon? If traffic records of cars travelling to Manali and Lonavala annually are to be believed, the majority certainly agrees!

It was years of working at a commercial complex that led to a similar diagnosis for the team at D’WELL, a studio offering architecture, interior design and construction management. The antidote? A workspace close to nature, where the sound of birds chirping could drown out the noise of central air conditioning. Where they could bounce ideas off a space uninhibited by walls or constraints.

A stone’s throw away from the city’s urban cacophony, their search bore fruit. Co-founders Jhanvi Mehta and Rakhsit Shah found an abandoned farmer’s house with a grand 12 feet sloping roof greeting them like a tipped hat. With sound bones and an old soul, their diamond in the rough was overrun with neem, mango and almond trees. A little ship-shaping is all it took for it to sparkle anew.

Home to a team and leafy branches peeking inwards like curious onlookers, the minimal 720 sq ft workspace co-exists with the surrounding flora and fauna like an old friend.

"The existing side yard of the house was converted to an office space, with existing fruit trees inside the cabin. In monsoons, the rain percolates inside the cabin courtyard giving a very pleasant feel. Birds come chirping inside the cabin with squirrels running around the office" – Jhanvi Mehta and Rakhsit Shah

Embracing the wild

It was all a classic case of love at first sight. As Jahnvi and Rakshit describe, “We instantly fell in love with the proportions of the space.” A few background checks (and an extensive structural stability check) later, the duo were ready to move out of their commercial complex in the city and embrace what they’d been missing all this while: nature, sunlight and the occasional squirrel scurrying around to the delight (and the fear of some, we’re sure) of all!

The structure itself came with significant pros. A veritable crown, the sloping roof slants from 5.5 feet at its lowest and 12 feet at its highest, contributing in both depth and height. Curved arch fenestrations act as ledges and windows alike. All it took to render any artificial lighting in the day obsolete were a few strategically placed skylights carved into the roof. In a bid to create an outside-first space, the open-air offices on the southeast side boast a breeze that beats air conditioning in a pinch.

An unforeseen challenge occurred when the team came across 80-feet-tall tadi palm tree logs in the plot, which had fallen in a cyclone years ago. Making lemonade out of lemons, the studio crane-lifted a part of the log and constructed an 11-feet-long concrete dining table atop it in the backyard — the perfect place to break bread! The Japanese technique of Shou Sugi Ban has been utilised to bring out each furniture piece’s unique natural texture, an eco-friendly way to preserve wood quality without any chemicals.

Second innings

Architects (and orthopaedics) would agree that great bones go a long way. As a result, checking if the existing load-bearing structure was sound enough was the first and most important step of the restoration process. With good reason, too, as Jhanvi and Rakshit explain, “Initially if you do not get your structure examined in detail, you might end up spending a lot of money to stabilise the structure when you find something critical during the construction process.”

Bones in place, the architects chose to optimise the existing space to the best of their abilities rather than bringing about huge structural changes. The largest space in most homes, the living space became home to the conference room — conversely the largest space in any office. A room in the east that once functioned as storage for produce became the perfect candidate for housing toilets. Eschewing typical pantries, the backyard becomes a communal lunch spot — much to the delight of any fauna lingering around for leftovers!

The home was handled with gloves on. Loose furniture pieces were favoured to avoid overbearing the walls. In a similar vein, the architects chose to reuse the pre-existing material palette — swapping all similar components in favour of their stronger and better quality variants. The walls have been left untouched barring a new paint and plaster job wherever necessary.

Despite the lengthy restoration process, the benefits of a workspace with a green thumb are many. Lower electricity bills, no astronomical rent and happier employees with optimum Vitamin D levels. The modern-day dream, indeed!