An Innovation Hub for a German Automotive Giant in Bengaluru

Rev your engines. This research and development center brings together five previously separate teams under one roof in the C5 Tower at Bengaluru’s prime business hub of Brigade Tech Garden. Vestian was appointed to deliver a 255,000 square foot fit‑out across the first to fifth floors within 120 days, while the landlord’s base‑build works were still in progress.

The shell, a LEED‑Platinum special economic zone block, offered deep floor plates, generous floor‑to‑floor heights, and a glazed north‑south façade — yet came with the logistical tangle of installing a full-scale indoor car-test bay and working to a lean interiors budget.

Early design charrettes imagined a full-throttle motorsport narrative — step seating wrapping the atrium like grandstands, tyre‑mark graphics sweeping across the floors, even pantry niches lined with rear‑view mirrors. While budget and schedule trimmed that vision, key ideas were retained: the first‑floor car‑display and test bay, circulation‑ring lighting, and color‑blocked neighborhood cores still evoke the original Gear Up Garage idea, now pared back to serve day‑to‑day workflows.

Visitors arrive through a precise aperture in the curtain wall where a new vehicular ramp lifts cars directly from grade into the first‑floor reception and the test bay. Labs and wellness rooms enclose the rest of the level in a tight, efficient figure‑of‑eight, letting engineers move from laptop to lift jack efficiently.

One level up, a 942‑seat cafeteria doubles as an all‑hands venue. Lightweight furniture and retractable AV let staff switch from lunch service to company briefings quickly and without additional facilities support. Above, three identical work floors hold between 323 and 454 workstations each, interlaced with amphitheaters, phone booths, and writable scrum alleys — so no desk sits more than 30 paces from a place to huddle, brainstorm or think aloud.

An eight-story central atrium drops daylight deep into the plan; its radius is picked up in custom curved gypsum forms and pendant lighting rings, lending every level a subtle sense of spin and anchoring the community spaces around the void.

Exposed ceilings are treated with acoustic spray to temper background noise, while PET‑fibre baffles double as brand‑colored wayfinding planes. Underfoot, chilled‑water air handling units serve the open offices, while mission‑critical spaces run on dedicated advanced HVAC untis tied into the Building Management System for off‑hour cooling. Automatic CO₂ sensors trigger fresh-air bursts during packed sprint cycles.

All finishes were held within Vestian’s in‑house LEED Gold specifications, including water‑based paints, low‑VOC adhesives and carpet tiles with recycled content, ensuring the project’s environmental performance matches its LEED‑Platinum shell, even without pursuing an additional certification.

Coordination was a sport in itself. The kitchen’s wet core had to be carefully routed around the test bay’s transfer girders. Curved luminaires were prototyped alongside drywall construction. And the façade incision for the vehicular ramp was executed while mechanical, electrical and plumbing rough‑ins were already up and running on the floors above. The project crossed the finish line on day 118 — two days ahead of the deadline — without a single unplanned night shift.

Six months after handover, HR surveys report sharper cross‑team collaboration, quicker sprint cycles, thanks in large part to the writable corridors, and a palpable buzz around the amphitheater town‑halls. The workplace now supports the company’s culture of engineering precision, sharpening collaboration while keeping brand references purposeful and restrained.