This 3100 sft building on a 30'x40' north facing site has the house of the architect on ground and first floor and her studio space on the second and third floor level with a separate access on the NE corner.
The adjacent buildings on the western and southern side sit on the compound wall leaving no room for privacy.
The spatial planning of the office is done in such a way that the main studio with 10 work station has been placed in the northern side of the office space, taking full advantage of northern light and view towards the tree lined interior road. The north side 20’x8’ sliding aluminum glazed window with an external protective layer of perforated sheet shutter panels and sliding / folding mechanism allows natural light and ventilation to the studio space.
The entire width of the studio space acts as a covered verandah thinning the line between the inside and outside.
The perforated metal shutter not only allowed them to dispense with MS grills and enjoy the borrowed greenery of Bangalore streetscape but also gave a minimalistic yet very dynamic facade which can be altered as required.
The two levels of the workspace has been visually connected with a central cutout over the waiting area. The layout has been designed to facilitate an open studio culture, creating spaces which will encourage interactions between the team members and the principal architects.
The waiting area has a vertical unit which physically separates it from the studio space and also acts as a display board and magazine rack.
The two units on either side of the reception area demarcate the conference room in the SW corner and the studio space in the northern side. Both these units though physically separates the spaces are visually porous and doubles as storages and book shelves.
The paneling to encase the pantry and printing area is done in pine wood over ply base. The space under the stairs going to the upper level has been utilized as the material library and server rack. The conference room has a deep unit with flat file drawers to store large drawing sheets and stationeries.
The office design is an attempt to bring natural material palette to coexist with each other. The textures of the materials are always contradicting yet they tend to exhibit certain sense of visual cohesion.
The sal wood posts accentuate the relatively bland and light grained finger jointed rubber wood planks. 4mm shadow gaps has been introduced between two layers of materials of same or different kind adding a character to the surfaces.
The upper floor which opens out to a terrace space has been left for future expansion.
We see the interior design of this office as an extension of the architectural aesthetics of the building and at every possible juncture; we have tried to keep the materials in their natural form as much as possible. The furniture units are more like objects kept in the foreground of the building shell from inside.
