M Moser Associates Shakes Up A Beverage Giant’s New Delhi HQ

British multinational Diageo looms large over the alcohol industry: The force behind such megabrands as Guinness, Smirnoff, and Johnnie Walker produces 40 percent of the globe’s Scotch whiskey. When the company relocated its India headquarters from Bangalore to New Delhi, it tapped M Moser Associates to design the 83,000-square-foot interior. A sweeping copper-and-oak helical staircase referencing the materiality of distillation stills and liquor-aging barrels connects all three floors—and breaks corporate norms, its level of richness, even glamour, more akin to the luxury hospitality sector than to workplace.

Work clusters and social areas for the 300 employees are distributed along wings to the east and west, with abundant communal zones (a boon for teambuilding) anchoring the upper levels. There’s the Well, a slinky sunken lounge that encourages dialogue and exchange, and the Distillery, featuring a bar with a standout wall clad in thin red Lakhori bricks typical of 16th-to-19th-century Mughal and Nawabi architecture. Elsewhere, Jali screens and handmade tiles also speak to the culture, and human and environmental health permeate everything, from ergonomic furniture and locally sourced materials to real-time air-quality monitoring. The Spring wellness suite extends that sense of care by way of a yoga studio, multifaith room, and quiet zones for the neurodiverse.