From Thar to XEV 9E, Designing a studio that spans two eras of Mahindra cars: SJK Architects December Newsletter

This newsletter reflects on how SJK Architects designed two automobile studios for Mahindra a decade apart—and how each responded architecturally to the brand’s changing design language. From the bold, upright ruggedness of the Thar era to the sleek, futuristic styling of Mahindra’s Born Electric (BE) vehicles, the studios reveal how architecture can evolve alongside a brand without losing its core DNA.

Era 1 — 2015: The Studio of Crafted Metal

 

Rugged, Sculpted, and the Spirit of the 1st Gen Thar

In 2015, we designed a studio for Mahindra & Mahindra's automobile team within their 64-acre factory campus in Mumbai. We transformed an aging cluster of industrial sheds into a space that inspired creativity where automotive stylists and technicians could collaborate to create “the next great car.” The challenges were to retain the footprint and structure of the original sheds, and build an entirely new facility with studios, workshops, display areas and recreational spaces. 

At the time, Mahindra’s design language was defined by vehicles like the Thar, Scorpio and Bolero—bold silhouettes, crafted, dependable and an unapologetically rugged presence. The design language embodied adventure and authenticity - recalling classic off-roaders while modernizing for premium appeal. Working with undocumented structures, we embraced this as an opportunity for adaptive reuse : repurposing of old spaces and infusing them with new life. The existing steel skeleton was retained, strengthened and celebrated. Roofs and walls were peeled away and rebuilt to introduce light, volume and clarity.

Like the Thar itself—robust yet expressive—the studio embraced material imperfection. Materials were kept raw and honest—exposed concrete, unfinished steel, hand-trowelled plaster—allowing light and shadow to animate the space. Crafted metal details inspired by automobile components, and concrete staircases became sculptural pause points. 

The result was a studio of crafted metal for a premium appeal- that reflected Mahindra’s rugged, utilitarian identity while elevating it into a poetic, atelier-like space where the car remained the protagonist. 

Era 2 — 2025: The Studio of Technology

 

Precision, Performance and the Futuristic - BE & XEV Era

 

Twelve years later, we were commissioned again to design an extension. The automobile industry had evolved significantly, and the tools of the trade had transformed entirely. The brief was straightforward: create a highly tech-equipped space for 1:1 automobile prototyping, including a German robotic arm—the first of its kind in India. Yet the real challenge was far more complex: how do you bridge a highly crafted, poetic Phase 1 with a Phase 2 driven by intense technological demands, on a tight timeline & budget, within the constraints of an industrial shed vocabulary?

By 2025, Mahindra’s design language had transformed. Vehicles like the BE 6 and XEV 9e introduced sleek proportions, sloping rooflines and continuous LED lighting that emphasized a futuristic, aerodynamic character - positioning Mahindra as a future-forward electric brand. Our response was to design a building that exists in three tenses at once: honouring the past through material and spatial continuity, serving the present with technical precision, and anticipating the future through adaptability. The original studio’s palette—black steel, grey plaster and concrete—was carried forward, but executed with pre-engineered millimetre precision. Where the earlier studio bore the marks of handcraft, the extension is razor-sharp and calibrated. Machine precision now complements human touch.

Designed entirely for disassembly, the bolted steel frame allows the building to adapt, relocate or be reused—mirroring the agility of Mahindra’s electric future. The studio reflects Mahindra’s new brand language—sleek, polished, technologically sophisticated & futuristic - without sacrificing the humility and material grounding that defined the first phase.

What Ties the Two Eras Together

Despite a decade between them, both studios function as one cohesive environment. A shared material palette, continuous roofscape, landscaped courtyard and a skylit street connecting the two buildings ensure spatial unity. Across both eras, the architecture remains intentionally restrained—allowing the car, the process of making and the people behind it to stay centre stage.

Together, the studios show how architecture can evolve with a brand—absorbing new technologies and identities without losing memory. Craft does not resist progress, and technology does not erase humanity. Instead, both find expression in space, just as Mahindra’s vehicles do on the road.