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Five Cross Architects An international office established at the threshold of Advocacy, Research and Collaborations.

Thresholds and partitions at Hamilton Studios.One of the most creative interventions was connecting the Yellow Studio Ro...
25/09/2026

Thresholds and partitions at Hamilton Studios.

One of the most creative interventions was connecting the Yellow Studio Room to the Blue Reception Room. The geometry was carefully completed and corrected, with a sliding-folding partition introduced and infilled with diamond-textured glass—an abstract response to the pixels of a photograph.

The threshold then becomes more than a partition: from either side, it frames the space like a picture-perfect shot.

Come to Hamilton and experience it in person. The photograph really doesn’t do it justice.

Hamilton Studios, Mumbai
Est. 1928 | Restoration + Refurbishment | Five Cross Architects

Photo Credits - Hamilton Studios and Five Cross Architects

THE YELLOW ROOMA threshold between movement and gathering.Neither merely a corridor nor a room of pause, the Yellow Room...
26/08/2026

THE YELLOW ROOM

A threshold between movement and gathering.
Neither merely a corridor nor a room of pause, the Yellow Room forms the connective heart of Hamilton Studios—leading into its common spaces and the activities that bring them alive.

Its restoration retains the original rhythm of the wall panelling, arched window and chequered floor, while a restrained palette of warm yellow and white allows light to travel through the space. The services remain visible—quietly acknowledging the building’s evolving life rather than concealing it.

Here, architecture becomes a frame for passage, encounter and exchange: a space one moves through, yet one that invites a moment of pause.

Hamilton Studios, Mumbai
Est. 1928 | Restoration + Refurbishment | Five Cross Architects

Photo Credits - Hamilton Studios and Five Cross Architects

THE BLUE ROOM — HAMILTON STUDIOSSome rooms remember more than others.For decades, this was the reception room at Hamilto...
22/08/2026

THE BLUE ROOM — HAMILTON STUDIOS

Some rooms remember more than others.

For decades, this was the reception room at Hamilton Studios — a place of waiting, conversation and anticipation before stepping in front of the camera. Its walls carried photographs, its tables gathered prints and papers, and generations of visitors sat on the familiar dark wooden chairs before their portrait was made.

When we first encountered the room, very little had truly disappeared. It had simply accumulated — photographs over photographs, objects over objects, and the quiet traces of a studio that had continued working since 1928.

The refurbishment began with looking closely.

The old wall panelling was retained and repaired. The furniture was conserved and returned to the room. The patterned stone floor, timber windows, cabinets and objects that belonged to Hamilton remained part of its everyday life.

What changed was the way the room could be read.

The earlier green gave way to a pale Hamilton blue; the walls were quietened, the lighting recalibrated, and selected photographs were brought together as compositions rather than decoration. Nothing was made to look artificially old, nor was the room stripped of the imperfections that revealed its age.

At its centre, the table and chairs remain.

Around them, the room continues to do what it always did — receive people, hold photographs, tell stories and prepare someone for that one moment in front of the lens.

A room from 1928, still at work

ONE SHOTHamilton Studios became one of the most important learning grounds for our young practice.At the heart of its st...
19/08/2026

ONE SHOT

Hamilton Studios became one of the most important learning grounds for our young practice.

At the heart of its story is Sir Ranjit Madhavji, the pioneering force behind Hamilton Studios, whose camera became witness to a changing India.

Across generations, Hamilton did more than make portraits. It quietly assembled a visual memory of a country and its people—picture by picture, portrait by portrait, legend by legend.

To work within such a legacy taught us that conservation is not always about returning a building to a particular moment in its past.

Sometimes it is about learning how to see what is already there.

To observe before intervening.
To reveal without overpowering.
To introduce the new without losing sight of the old.

We were not trying to recreate Hamilton Studios of 1928. We were looking for a way for its character, memory and photographic legacy to remain visible within a working studio of the present.

A lesson that has stayed with Five Cross Architects ever since:

Conservation begins with learning how to see.

And perhaps, in photography as in architecture, sometimes you only get one shot.

Make it a sure shot.

Hamilton Studios, Mumbai
Est. 1928 | Restoration + Refurbishment | Five Cross Architects

Photo credits : Hamilton Studios and Five Cross Architects

THROUGH THE LENSAt Hamilton Studios, photography became a way of thinking about architecture.Guided by the photographic ...
19/08/2026

THROUGH THE LENS

At Hamilton Studios, photography became a way of thinking about architecture.

Guided by the photographic experiments and extraordinary eye of Ajita Madhavji, we began looking at the building as a photographer might:

Light and shadow.
Frame and depth.
Foreground and background.
Exposure and restraint.

What should remain in focus?
What should quietly recede?
What deserves to be revealed—and what is best left untouched?

Old surfaces were retained alongside new interventions. Light became material. Openings became frames. Details were composed rather than decorated.

Restoration and refurbishment gradually came together within the same frame.

Hamilton Studios, Mumbai
Est. 1928 | Restoration + Refurbishment | Five Cross Architects

Photo Credits - Hamilton Studios and Five Cross Architects

HAMILTON STUDIO | 1928WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY DAY 2026Established in 1928, Hamilton Studios has spent nearly a century looking...
19/08/2026

HAMILTON STUDIO | 1928

WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY DAY 2026

Established in 1928, Hamilton Studios has spent nearly a century looking at the world through a lens.

For Five Cross Architects, it became one of our earliest works—and one of our most formative.

When we began working with Hamilton Studios, the question was never simply how to restore an old photographic studio. It was how to intervene in a place whose very identity had been shaped by light, portraiture, composition and memory for nearly a century.

Partially completed in 2025, the project became an exercise in understanding what it means to work with an institution where the building itself is part of the archive.

Hamilton Studios, Mumbai
Est. 1928 | Restoration + Refurbishment | Five Cross Architects

Photo Credits - Hamilton Studios and Five Cross Architects

It is with profound sadness that we mourn the passing of Professor Tomoko Masuya of the University of Tokyo, a distingui...
14/08/2026

It is with profound sadness that we mourn the passing of Professor Tomoko Masuya of the University of Tokyo, a distinguished scholar, mentor, and a deeply valued part of the early journey of Five Cross Architects.

Professor Masuya played an integral role in one of our earliest and most meaningful research collaborations—the Mission for Indian History and Archaeology. Her scholarship, dedication, and generosity of spirit contributed immensely to the project and to our understanding of the responsibility that comes with documenting and preserving architectural and cultural heritage.

On a personal level, I remain deeply grateful for the warmth with which she welcomed and hosted me during my time in Tokyo. Her guidance extended far beyond the project itself; it was marked by kindness, patience, intellectual generosity, and an unwavering commitment to scholarship.

For a young practice finding its footing in the field of architectural research and conservation, her encouragement and trust meant more than can easily be expressed. Her contribution will remain embedded not only in the work we undertook together, but also in the values with which we continue that work.

We remain forever indebted to Professor Masuya for her guidance, dedication, and kindness. Her absence will be deeply felt, but her scholarship and the lives and work she influenced will continue to carry her legacy forward.

Our deepest condolences to her family, colleagues, students, and the entire academic community at the University of Tokyo.

May her soul rest in eternal peace

We are grateful to see the conservation journey of Abbey 301 documented beyond drawings, photographs and the building it...
09/08/2026

We are grateful to see the conservation journey of Abbey 301 documented beyond drawings, photographs and the building itself — through the wider cultural archive of the city.

For us at Five Cross Architects, Abbey 301 has been an exercise in careful observation, repair and restraint: understanding what must be conserved, what can be adapted, and where the architecture must simply be allowed to speak for itself.

As the building returns to active use, its conservation continues to be tested, observed and refined — reminding us that heritage is not a finished object, but something that must continue to live, perform and adapt.

Thank you Mid-Day for documenting this ongoing chapter of Abbey 301.

ConservationArchitecture BuiltHeritage

Abbey 301 carries stories beyond its walls.Long before its ongoing conservation, the building found a place on screen in...
04/08/2026

Abbey 301 carries stories beyond its walls.

Long before its ongoing conservation, the building found a place on screen in 1972’s Jungle Mein Mangal—a reminder that heritage survives not only in measured drawings, photographs and archival records, but also in cinema, where architecture becomes part of our collective cultural memory.

Every film frame, like every archival drawing, captures a moment in a building’s evolving life. Conserving heritage is therefore also about recognising and preserving these layered narratives that connect place, people and time.

BuiltHeritage ConservationArchitecture FiveCrossArchitects CulturalMemory Architecture

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