The Earth Centre (TEC) by Vista Spaces represents a fundamental shift in how we perceive workspaces and their role in urban settings. It is a workspace designed to function in a manner that values and encourages the well-being of people, the city and the environment.
Situated in the premium Whitefield area of Bangalore, TEC is more than a building - it is a carefully curated environment that integrates sustainability, cultural engagement, and human-centric design principles. The project transcends conventional office infrastructure by reimagining the relationship between work, leisure, and community, thus setting a precedent for future workspaces.
A workspace designed for openness, interaction, and future adaptability
Whitefield today represents the paradox of Indian urbanism: a rapidly expanding tech corridor with soaring towers, traffic congestion, and gated communities, yet lacking public life and a sense of connection to the ground. The Earth Centre offers an intentional counterpoint. Instead of walling itself off or reaching vertically, the project embraces the ground and engages with the neighbourhood, bringing to Whitefield a model of ground-up development that builds civic and ecological value rather than simply capital value.
TEC is conceptualised as a porous, interactive urban entity, emphasising fluidity, with the public plaza acting as an extension of the city, encouraging pedestrian flow and interaction. The architectural layout is designed to accommodate modularity, flexibility, and future adaptability, ensuring long-term relevance in the evolving landscape of workplace design.
Built for the Future – adaptive & impactful workspace
Sustainability at TEC extends beyond numbers and certifications. It adopts a nuanced, multi-layered approach that prioritises long-term ecological and social impact. The adaptive reuse of materials, including reclaimed terracotta debris in boundary walls, underscores the commitment to responsible resource management. Water features, both aesthetically pleasing and functional, contribute to passive cooling and soundscaping, thereby enhancing the user experience while mitigating urban heat island effects.
TEC redefines sustainability by maximising spatial efficiency beyond conventional office hours. Public interfaces such as an interactive open space, recreational zones, and a digital sustainability dashboard ensure that the complex remains vibrant and utilised throughout the day and into the evening. By integrating multi-functional spaces that cater to professional, cultural, and recreational needs, TEC exemplifies the concept of ‘true sustainability’ - a built environment that continuously contributes to the urban fabric rather than remaining a static, single-purpose entity. The energy-efficient strategies incorporate smart lighting, natural ventilation techniques, and climate-responsive building materials to minimise environmental impact while enhancing occupant comfort.
A Skin That Breathes Earth - materiality and construction
Materials across the landscape are chosen for their provenance, tactility, and performance. Rather than imposing a singular style, the project embraces sustainability and material knowledge. Designed as a rainscreen facade, its envelope comprises three tiers- a structural blockwork base, an insulating air cavity, and an extruded terracotta cladding. This layered wall system significantly improves thermal performance, reducing heat ingress and thereby lowering the building’s cooling demand by 150 tonnes.
At the heart of this system is the use of terracotta - not as a flat tile but as custom-moulded panels with a flared profile that create a dynamic visual depth. These panels are not only aesthetically pleasing but also functional, generating a dynamic play of shadows across the façade while emphasising its earthy tactility. Fifty per cent of the terracotta used is recycled, making this one of the few buildings in Bangalore to adopt such a high proportion of post-industrial terracotta. This porous terracotta screen contributes to a cooler microclimate, which is particularly important in Bangalore’s increasingly warm urban fabric. This strategic deployment is also a deliberate move toward circularity and low-carbon construction. Recycled terracotta has significantly lower embodied energy than freshly manufactured materials.
Complementing this, the project integrates sustainable detailing even at the entrance, where a gabion wall by CoolAnt, features construction debris and broken terracotta infill, reasserting a commitment to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Water cascading over these gabions and other landscaped water features is entirely recycled greywater, treated on-site. Beyond aesthetic appeal, these features cool the precinct and help mitigate the heat island effect, enhancing thermal comfort across the site and creating a comfortable micro-climate.
Closed-loop water Systems - a conscious reuse approach
Water is treated as a cyclical and regenerative resource at the Earth Centre, embedded in its ecological systems and core infrastructure. The project employs a closed-loop water recycling strategy, which significantly reduces its dependence on freshwater. Greywater from baths, sinks, and laundry is filtered and treated through a robust on-site STP (Sewage Treatment Plant), then redirected for landscape irrigation to sustain architectural water features. Stormwater is harvested through bioswales and permeable surfaces to recharge the groundwater table, reinforcing the site's hydrological resilience. Visible elements, such as the saturated gabion wall and mist-sprayed lobby pool, serve as passive cooling systems that help mitigate the urban heat island effect. Integrating decentralised wastewater treatment systems (DEWATS) offers a low-energy, low-maintenance, and scalable model for urban contexts, easing the burden on municipal infrastructure. In an area grappling with water insecurity, these measures are not supplementary but essential, positioning water reuse as a symbolic and functional commitment to sustainability and circular design.
Human-Centric and Experiential Design
TEC places human experience at the core of its architectural language. Recognising the evolving needs of professionals, it incorporates diverse spatial typologies, from high-energy, collaborative zones to contemplative retreats. The terrace level, equipped with yoga decks, reading nooks, and sports courts, offers a dynamic counterpoint to traditional office settings, promoting holistic well-being. By embedding these within the project, TEC acknowledges the shifting paradigms of work-life integration and offers a blueprint for future work environments that prioritise both productivity and personal well-being. Integrating biophilic design elements, such as green walls, water features, and balcony gardens, reinforces the connection between occupants and nature, thereby reducing stress and enhancing cognitive function.
A distinguishing feature of TEC is its commitment to cultural engagement. TEC is envisioned as a dynamic cultural hub that hosts curated events, art exhibitions, and performance spaces, enriching the creative community. The inclusion of a museum store, event spaces, and a permanent installation gallery demonstrates the project's commitment to art as an integral part of work-life integration. The gallery space dedicated to artist Tota Vaikunta is a critical site for contemporary artistic engagement. By embedding art within the workspace, TEC disrupts the monotony of corporate environments and fosters a culture of creative exchange. Inspired by global cultural institutions, TEC’s approach mirrors concepts seen in renowned art and design centres, establishing it as a key player in the cultural and creative economy.
TEC’s inclusivity extends to considerations of accessibility and urban mobility. The open plaza, integrated pedestrian pathways, and controlled yet welcoming access points demonstrate a commitment to equitable urban design. The careful orchestration of private and public realms within the project signifies a paradigm shift in how corporate spaces interact with their urban context.
Digital and Smart Infrastructure
TEC embraces technology not as a superficial enhancement but as an intrinsic element of its design philosophy. The translucent digital screen on the building’s facade is an interactive medium, displaying live sustainability metrics in an accessible, graphical format. From air quality indices to water conservation statistics, the screen transforms data into an experiential feature, reinforcing environmental consciousness. Furthermore, adaptive workspaces equipped with Wi-Fi-enabled benches and intelligent lighting systems reflect the evolving demands of a digitally native workforce. Integrating data-driven insights enables real-time monitoring of energy usage, air quality, and occupancy patterns, thereby optimising operational efficiency. TEC’s commitment to technology encompasses touchless entry systems, smart elevators, and AI-powered building management systems that enhance the user experience and streamline workspace functionality.
The Everyday Landscape - unscripted and uninterrupted
The project is deeply rooted in nature, strongly emphasising the integration of terraces and forests throughout the site. The terraces, both on the terraces and balconies, play a crucial role in creating lush, green edges to the building, while the forest foreground in front of the building and along the driveway brings the outdoors inward. The site circulation is carefully considered for the landscape; the vehicular access is streamlined and segregated from pedestrian movement, which remains closer to the building. Pedestrian-friendly materials and levels help guide people while minimising contact with traffic. An abstract leaf form has inspired the design language; ovals are used across the site as drop-off zones, mounds, or decks on terraces, creating a cohesive visual identity.
Despite a tight building footprint, the available ground area has been optimised to accommodate multiple zones: Zone 1 is the Interactive Forest, featuring dense mounds where people can sit and engage; Zone 2 is a Nesting Ground along the boundary wall, designed for birds and biodiversity with minimal human interaction; and the Middle zone is a Community Space for employees to interact. The upper-level terraces act as elevated forests, densely planted to create a tropical, layered edge to the structure. At the heart of the building lies a central pedestrian plaza, serving as a relaxation and interaction zone for employees between Blocks A and B. The terraces utilise a two-layer planter system to create depth in compact spaces, allowing for tree growth in specific pockets. The planting scheme follows a tropical and mixed strategy, emphasising colour, texture, and varying heights to maintain visual interest and sensory richness.
A deliberate effort has been made to use native and habitat-specific species. While a few adapted species, such as Tabebuia, are included due to their prevalence in Bangalore, most of the planting is native or locally suited, with minimal use of non-native or exotic species. Palms and high-maintenance ornamentals have largely been avoided, and plans have been revised to align more closely with climatic relevance and ecological appropriateness. Throughout the design process, close collaboration has been maintained with the architectural and structural teams to ensure that sufficient soil depth and green space are achieved, despite the challenges posed by basements and large building footprints. The result is a landscape that feels immersive and organic, unlike typical corporate campuses. The planting palette has been tailored to the site's sunlight availability, featuring a mix of high-, medium-, and low-water-requirement species, making it both resilient and low-maintenance in the long run.
Beyond the Workday - Designing for an Urban Lifestyle
The Earth Centre is not conceived as a residential enclave -it is a self-contained urban ecology that responds to the evolving rhythms of modern life. Recognising that cities no longer operate on a strict 9-to-5 model, the plan integrates spaces that support continuity between work, leisure, and care. Curated restaurants and cafés activate the streetscape, offering social energy throughout the day and evening. Wellness facilities, including yoga pavilions, walking trails, and meditation zones, encourage pause, reflection, and holistic health. Child-friendly zones and dedicated crèche spaces allow young families to find balance within their immediate environment. These programmatic insertions are not amenities in the conventional sense; they are spatial commitments to contemporary urban well-being. By layering activity zones across age, function, and time, The Earth Centre fosters a lived experience where daily life, productivity, and personal care are co-located and seamlessly intertwined.
At The Earth Centre, post-occupancy sustainability is not treated as an afterthought but as an integral part of the project's architecture and ethos. The development is designed to evolve, adapt, and improve with time, prioritising long-term environmental performance through systems and materials that reduce operational energy, minimise maintenance, and nurture a regenerative relationship with nature. Time is treated as a material, one that enhances habitability, allows architecture to mature with age, and supports a living, breathing sustainability rooted in seasons, growth, and long-term resilience.
Products / Vendors
Terracotta - Faveker
Sanitary ware / Fittings - Kohler
Lighting - Klus Design, Linea Light, Media Facade
Elevator - Fujitec
Consultants
Structural- Innotech Engineering Consultants Pvt Ltd
Electrical - Power Design
Landscape - Lanarach Studio
HVAC- Airtron Consulting Engineers Pvt.Ltd
PHE & Fire Fighting: Sampath Kumar Associates
PMC - Colliers International
Façade - Vistara Facades & Fenestration LLP
Contractors
Civil - NCC Urban
Façade - Truewall Specialities Pvt ltd
