The third episode of the Room For Dreams podcast confronts one of the most pressing dilemmas in modern urban planning: how to breathe in new life into old structures without erasing their history. Recorded live at Milan Design Week 2026 in cooperation with INDX|GLOBAL, this dynamic session gathers a panel of architects — Kiran Gala, Vivek Gupta, and Carl Bhesania — to unpack the complex realities of adaptive reuse.
Quickly cutting through standard historical preservation cliches, the architects reveal a complex, structural excavation process, walking us through the high-stakes decisions behind what to physically preserve, what to update, and exactly when a feature must be replaced for modern safety and utility. Designing a modern building as an entirely 'bare shell' emerges as the ultimate strategy for navigating unpredictable technological and societal shifts. The panel reimagines the urban landscape through hyper-flexible structures capable of mutating over time, stripping away the need for future demolition when changing demands inevitably alter how infrastructure is used.
What surfaces from this debate is a radical shift away from heavy construction toward a lighter architectural footprint, proving that true sustainability means building as little as possible.
Project info:
podcast: Room For Dreams
episode: 03
theme: Adaptive Legacies
host: Claire Broadka
guests: Kiran Gala of KGA Design | @kirangala_and_associates, Vivek Gupta of Arvind Vivek and Associates | @arvindvivekassociates, and Carl Bhesania of Talati and Partners | @talatiandpartners
collaborator: INDX|GLOBAL | @indx.global
