07/10/2026
Adapt and Reuse: Building with what exists.
How do you make an 18th-century palace cafeteria feel new while keeping its history intact?
At the City Palace Museum in Jaipur, the answer began by taking something away. An intermediate structure, a toilet block, was dismantled from the courtyard, creating clearer sightlines and opening a new passage between the museum and the city.
As a second layer, accumulated plaster and paint were removed to reveal the original stone and lime masonry of the palace structure. Rooms that were previously concealed behind doorways were opened up and connected through verandahs, allowing the existing structure to accommodate new programmes.
The intervention combined repair, restoration and reprogramming to make the historic fabric usable as a contemporary public space: a balance of what was revealed with what was added.
๐ท: Edmund Sumner
Design Team: Ambrish Arora, Arun Kullu, Priya Jindal, Christopher Miller, Sanjay Kumar