From erstwhile school to a haven for artistic endeavours, a 150-year-old Bengaluru landmark gets a second life
Buildings that have reverberated with the voices of multiple generations carry a quiet magic—a magic that lingers long after those voices have faded. Architect Bijoy Ramachandran of the multidisciplinary design practice Hundredhands knows this to be true, as he also knows that sometimes, that magic can take time to uncover. “We had to look deep,” he says of Sabha, the studio’s maiden conservation and adaptive reuse project. The initiative was helmed by civic evangelist and former honorary director of the Bangalore International Centre, V. Ravichandar, with whom Ramachandran had previously collaborated. “He and his wife, Hema, had started a family trust and were interested in restoring a Colonial-era school in Bengaluru’s Cantonment and reimagining it as a hub for artistic expression,” explains Ramachandran, who worked closely with cultural strategist Raghu Tenkayala on the project. “He played an instrumental role in bringing together the RBANM Educational Charities, to which the school once belonged, and Ravi’s family trust.”
