A 35,000 sq. ft. AdTech headquarters transformed from an acoustically failing open plan into a sensory-balanced, culture-driven workplace for a young, fast-moving team.
The existing Taboola India office had a problem that no amount of cultural programming could fix: it was too loud. Poor acoustic insulation, an undifferentiated open plan, and materials chosen without consideration for sound had created an environment that actively worked against the focus and collaboration it was supposed to enable. The expansion brief was an opportunity to solve the problem at its root – spatially, materially, and strategically.
The design philosophy reframes acoustics not as a technical constraint but as a core design element – the thing the entire spatial strategy is built around.
The floor plate is reorganised around a neighbourhood-and-hub model. A vibrant central cafeteria anchors the plan as the social and cultural heart, doubling as a high-tech townhall space for the full team. Focused work neighbourhoods radiate outward from it, each with immediate access to huddle rooms and collaboration spaces at a 1:7 meeting-to-workstation ratio. The result is a floor where teams can shift between deep focus and spontaneous discussion without friction, noise spillover, or crossing the entire office to find a room.
Acoustic engineering is embedded at every layer. Double-glazed partitions, sound-deadening membranes at structural junctions, eco-acoustic panels, and ceiling clouds work in concert to control decibel levels while adding warmth and visual texture. The office doesn’t suppress its energy – it manages it, so that the liveliness of a high-velocity AdTech team becomes an asset rather than a liability.
The cultural identity of the space is equally considered. At reception, a full Contessa – India’s first luxury sedan – anchors the space in local nostalgia and contemporary ambition. Meeting rooms carry super-graphics drawn from Indian street culture. Vibrant pastels, biophilic elements specific to the Gurgaon office, and music-friendly informal zones create a workplace that feels unmistakably Indian without abandoning Taboola’s global brand language. Workstations are placed along the glazing perimeter, giving 100% of employees access to natural daylight – a planning decision as much about wellbeing as about performance.
The transformed headquarters demonstrates what acoustic-first design can do for high-energy tech workplaces: not quiet them into submission, but give their energy somewhere deliberate to go.
Design:
Photography: Courtesy of Space Matrix
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