The Clients aspired for an office which is modern, but at the same time it looks and feels luxurious. They also had a tight budget in mind with a fixed timeline of three months. In terms of areas, they required two executive cabins, two work halls with a capacity of six people each, a reception area with waiting space, a store room for documents, a server room, a pantry and two restrooms.
The office space is located on the 12th floor of a conventional office building. It is a rectangular volume with one of the shorter sides having full sized windows.
The allocation of areas started with the symmetrical placement of the two executive cabins, allowing them to get the view of the cityscape. The work halls are placed next, as there was a requirement that they are visually connected with the executive cabins. This also allows natural light to trickle down to the work halls. Restrooms, pantry and server room are kept on either sides of the main entrance, to ensure that heavy services do not run deep inside the office space. The entire volume is divided by a spine-like central corridor which starts from the main entrance and ends with the entry to the executive cabins. This division is tactfully concealed by the strategic placement of a vibrant reception and waiting area.
Vibrant colour and artificial light give a welcoming sense when one enters the office. The randomly placed warm white LED strip lights guide one to the naturally well-lit work areas with subtle colour tones.
The tight budget and the fixed timeline of 90 days (including design and execution) was a big challenge. But, it led to sound decisions like the sourcing of work hall desks and chairs from well known office furniture brands, so that quality could be maintained without compromising the overall project timeline. The other major challenge was that of an RCC beam that runs exactly in the centre of the space, as the office is made up of two office units joined together. This also led to the design decision of having an open false ceiling, which allowed for some play in how the entire space was perceived by visitors. This open false ceiling also allows easy maintenance of the server lines that run from the server room to the work halls and executive cabins.
Because of the project timeline, all internal partitions are ply walls and clear / frosted glass partitions with powder coated aluminium framing. The ply walls are either cladded with premium texture laminates or painted. The open false ceiling over the reception area and the central corridor is made of locally assembled powder coated aluminium louvers.
The inspiration board comprised of a montage of spaces that used subtle tones as backdrop to a vibrant colour which acted as the accent. In the same vein, the overall volume of this work space is divided into several loops of colour, each of them connected to a specific function. Bright ochre, being the firm’s corporate colour, is used as the ‘welcome’ back-ground for the reception and waiting areas, while black and different shades of grey are designated for working spaces, services and storage. The executive areas are white with contrasting black furniture and gold accents, which form a subtle yet elegant connection with the colour of the company logo.
Location
Rajkot
Client
EPP Securities Pvt. Ltd.
Photographs
Dhrupad Shukla
Year
2021
Principal Architects
Celia Fernandez Duque
Ronak Gangdev
Status
Completed
Junior Architect
Yash Vaghasia
Project Contractor
Harmy Interiors
