The clients, Auronova Consulting Solutions are engaged in the business of providing consulting services to banks and other financial institutions in the area of risk management. Their previous office space was boxy, divided by cubicles and private work desks allowing little to no opportunity for interaction, inspiration or collaboration.
We as designers therefore wanted to give them, a space which wasn’t hierarchical, but uncluttered and welcoming. A space where everyone was part of the same wider experience.
The idea for the new office therefore was to create a “de – territorialized” plan where boundaries between people and spaces as well as those between work and play are blurred. We wanted to move away from the archetypally accepted notion of how a finance office should look and feel like. To break this instead of going for a formal, glossed over, minimalistic design language we narrowed down on a rustic industrial themed aesthetic where yellow, grey and black along with rugged wood forms the primary color palette.
The brief from the clients was to accommodate a team of 12 people, workstations with a conference room and a small pantry. What we gave them additionally was also a small waiting area for visitors and breakout zones where lunch, discussions, informal meetings and deliberations over coffee could happen.
The waiting area gets separated from the main workspace with a powder coated M.S wire mesh frame in L sections. This industrial material has been repeatedly used in the space as dividers between workstations and as an artwork too. A cityscape made from the cable of the suspended light above highlights the wall behind the plush sofa. The workstations are all custom designed by the studio with an M.S. frame structure and manufactured in the studio’s workshop.
The conference is a grid box of glass with aluminum powder coated frame structure allowing ample light to filter through. The rugged textured wood for the conference table contrast beautifully with metallic nut bolts, used as an industrial detail in the paneling. Preshita here has tried to achieve the marriage of the organic and the engineered, the bold and the refined and the masculine with the feminine. The design language recognized as industrial – chic.
We made the most of the 11’6” height of the empty shell by keeping the ceiling and all the services exposed with lights suspended from the RCC ceiling over workstations and seating areas. The bare shell is painted in grey and with focal walls accentuated with the Auronova yellow.
Rising property prices and resultant rising office rents, particularly in Mumbai, led us to formulate and provide a layout which makes more efficient usage of the available space, creating more informal, flexible and multi-purpose spaces.
The rustic wooden pantry table with benches thus becomes the central nucleus of the entire office. This is where all the significant conversations and creative brainstorming happens. Hanging filament bulbs from a wooden ceiling suspended by ropes gives this little space a fun, casual, quirky vibe. These chats over chai can also overflow to the alcove by the window overlooking the lush green Vikhroli hills. The comfortable seating designed here allows for some quiet reflective time.
