A contemporary and layered corporate space for a Banking firm, the Fino Payments Headquarters was designed by ANA in 2019. This state-of-the-art office space was conceptualized and executed in a challenging timeline of 3-months lasting over July to October 2019.
Headquartered in Juinagar - Navi Mumbai, the Fino Payments office was envisioned with the impetus of representing the establishment’s prominence and growing digital presence in the corporate financial service realm. The task at hand was to create an office space that was emblematic of the client’s diverse profile as leaders, innovators and implementers of technological solutions for banks and insurance companies. The contextual familiarity of the site in the urban nucleus, made the office’s locations a prime property to establish the company’s footprint in. The initial few weeks were dedicated towards layout planning and mobilization, the following 3-4 weeks were then utilized to get the design scheme finalized and to sign-off on the material board. The rest of the project’s duration was holistically assigned for execution at the site.
Mumbai’s corporate real estate properties are highly valued spaces to inhabit for any firm and a large floor plate like Fino’s – our design team was entrusted with the core responsibility of making each square foot count. The client’s brief was lucid - they desired a space that was lively, bright and supremely functional. The designed corporate headquarters also had to take into consideration the possibility of the company’s future recruitment and related growth. Hence, spaces needed to harness the ability to be multi-functional and versatile - the flexibility of spaces was of the essence in the design process.
The client’s requirements emphasized needing an open-plan spatial layout within the shell of the structure. The design scheme was conjured based on the recognition of 3 vital zones:
The well-lit and brighter nooks of the office were assigned workstation clusters to encourage productivity and well-being of the employees. The secondary areas were allocated to host essential services pertaining to the office and the tertiary spaces were rejuvenated to anchor collaborative zones and private meeting rooms to bolster teamwork. The design narrative and zoning had to ensure that the end-users across hierarchies felt motivated and inspired to work within the premises.
With an open floor plan steering the design layout, it was essential to simultaneously ensure a maximized number of seats for the employees on board. To address this concern, the designers took to a ‘cluster’ approach while designating workstation locations versus the conventional linear layouts. Each zone in the office was mindfully appointed its position with regards to layout placement, so as not to disrupt workflow and circulation.
One of the pivotal concepts that spearheaded the design development was the ‘Star’ logo the client’s company bears. The logo is formed as a combination of a star geometric form and an upward-facing arrow to signify excellence and striving for success. This ubiquitous design feature has been carried through in various elements like the patterns on the floor carpets, portions of the ceiling across different zones and even in the grouped layout of workstations to introduce geometric play and vibrance into the areas.
Influenced by a crucial sector of biometric technology used evidently by the firm, the concept of fingerprinting was translated into an ingenious design element. Stretched printed fabric along the design theme of fingerprint-mapping, was created as a central ceiling feature in the epicenter of the workspace. This was a core practice that was manifested in the form of a design installation in an unconventional way to create a statement feature.
Wellness, especially in the realm of user-experience and mental comfort played a crucial role in the workspace’s design ethos. To establish this, the team at ANA resorted to the inclusion of the 7-Chakras philosophy via the usage of its related hues and to also reiterate the client firm’s 7 foundational values: Trust, Reliability, Creativity, Communication, Wisdom, Frugality and Empathy. The 7-Chakras are represented via 7 hues that are a part of the spectrum and their hues resonate with specific frequencies, thus enabling a sense of well-being in an end-user.
The materiality and functional systems across the workspace take a ‘glocal and futuristic’ approach. The high-end technologies and evolving spaces are balanced in a wholesome manner against Indian-origin fabrics, the works of local artists and vivid colours and patterns across the floors and columns. The usage of colour in the interior scheme is generous, yet restrained and layered in its identity. The larger components like workstations and fixed furniture are kept neutral and desirable doses of hues are introduced in the form of bold wallpapers, loose furniture and custom murals.
The principle of contrast, emphasis, movement and visual rhythm create the persona of the Fino Payments Headquarters; one where the union of these facets creates an aesthetically tuned workspace, which also optimizes the end-user experience as targeted in the primary design brief.
The resultant office space is responsive towards the aspects of physical and mental wellness that have been a consequence of conscious designing, while also being a testament to ANA’s penchant for intrinsically breathing life into spaces.
Material Used :
1. ACP / Glass / Concrete Glass: Saint Gobain
2. Sanitary ware / Fittings: TOTO
3. Flooring: MTM Carpet
4. Furnishing: Customized
5. Furniture: Spacewood
6. Air Conditioning: Voltas
7. BMS: Edward
8. Lighting: Panasonic
9. Paint: Asian
10. Arts / Artefacts: 3M / Iprint
