M9 is an architecture, interiors, and product design studio based in Bangalore, India, founded in 2016 by Nischal Abhaykumar and Jesal Pathak.
The studio works from a single conviction: every project contains more possibility than is immediately visible. Rather than imposing a predetermined style, M9 begins each project by understanding what already exists — the site, the brief, the constraints, the culture — and designs toward what that project most authentically wants to become.
This approach has produced work across an unusually wide range of scale and typology: a circular memorial complex in rural Karnataka, a garden restaurant built inside an industrial structure in Bangalore, an eight-seat noodle bar that became a cultural destination, senior living interiors, university buildings, and product design including a candle holder that reveals the form of a traditional Indian stepwell as it burns.
M9's work has been published internationally by ArchDaily, Dezeen, and Monocle, and recognised by the Kohler Bold Design Awards, the Monocle Design Awards, and the Architizer A+Awards. In 2024, Nischal Abhaykumar was selected as one of three joint winners of the Norman Foster Foundation's Kharkiv Freedom Square Revival competition, judged by a panel including Norman Foster, Moshe Safdie, and Beatriz Colomina.
The studio remains small and independent by intention, taking on a limited number of projects at any time in order to give each one full attention.