There can be many projects in a designer’s life in which they can full fill all their design desires and get satisfied with their outcome. But it is too rare for a designer to come across a project which is so self-involved and designed purely out of affection. This project is a proper example of such a case.
Architect Vibha Chauhan has put her sole in this project, being it Mr. Hiren Chauhan’s workspace; as she adduced, “This project took a lot of my efforts as it taught me more as a person. My client, who is also my husband, had a yearning from the space and being it an itty-bitty space it called for a test of my knowledge. The office is a minuscule, not much more than 360sq.ft. on the mezzanine floor” Ameliorating her husband; she comprehended, “Hiren is the one who established his dream company on his own spine. Standing in his age, he worked a long-term idea in matter of some months. To match him; I sweated my brows to get a charge out of his springtime to tape in the office environment”
Hiren’s company, HV ENGINEERING, operates in the prime industrial zone at Vadodara, so his office had to be relaxing and friendly. The place was bought raw, with a half mezzanine floor about 130sq.ft. Rest of the floor, about 230sq.ft., was extended by the architect using a frame structure of MS box pipes. The frame structure is fastened on the adjoining walls and covered with MS sheet, which gets concealed in the carpet. Further, for supplemental support, MS box pipes were vertically added to forbid the mezzanine floor from sagging; which easily got translated in the design. Here the working space gets divided from the rest; as the meeting area, dining area and toilet are allotted on the ground floor and the working space is on the mezzanine floor. The staircase is beautifully placed at the end of the space to play with its sciography.
Office spaces often tend to advocate between formal and informal situations, making it difficult to draw a line of difference between the two. Retaining his family morals; it is the protagonist’s healthy philosophy that he conducts himself with all his confreres as one and the same. Keeping the latter in prime focus, the conceptual got to see the light of the day. She narrated the concept as the following, “His visual contact with all his friends, as he states them, had to be transparent and easy. So, the office is literally designed with an open plan, where the partition just provides material and vocal security.” She added, “Apart from that he is very picky with his chair, sofa and other little furniture items which are used to enhance the space.”
Something that must play well in a working environment is the incidental conveyance which smoothens the work play. Perceivably the place of work is left out transparent, parallel to the master’s cabin and along with it, it makes the office communication easy going for all. The ground floor is deep-seated in blues and peace as it is a multi-functioning area, which incorporates a meeting area, a dining area, a future pantry area, a toilet and staircase at the end. The ceiling is painted and left exposed with the structural members of the mezzanine floor. Whereas, the flooring on the ground floor is of epoxy with the shade that’s picked from the company’s logo. The blue space her is lightened up with some plantation and a wooden staircase.
Being it a mezzanine floor, the height of the space was also a barrier along with the area, because of which there was no possibility of a false ceiling or a way to hide off the beams. Rather than taking it as a snag, Vibha boldly flaunts them in ceiling as well as flooring. Though the ceiling is painted and left bare whereas the flooring is covered with a carpet. Here the beam in the flooring, gets prominently hidden with two stepped sliding door partition for the cabin. The light fixtures parallelly runs throughout the workplace and cabin, brightening it up.
Even with such a small working space, as painted by our designer, the area accommodates about twenty people, visitors included. The allotment of seating is left simple and somewhere keeping the hierarchy in mind. The furniture is designed and placed in such a manner that it covers all the flaws the space could bare because of the electronic connections; which includes land line, biomatrix, computers, etc. Alongside, being a great architect and designer herself, Vibha is also getting a grip in the field of product design. Showcasing her talent, she has tailored the stands on which pots are placed with the concept of triangulation. Smart with her ideas she works with the scrap leftovers from her spouse’s workshop and even gets her products ready there.
As the company had some preconceived colours, similar tinge ran through out the space. The colour palette was chosen thoughtfully, as it had to go with the swag of our engineers as well as loosen the tensity of the draining working hours. Sanity while working doesn’t come only with little burden of work but it can also be clinched on with the environment you are working in. Cool and light toned colours are consciously used to visually subtract the minuteness of the space. Despite of the space lacking length and size the main functions of the company get beautifully covered within, leaving space for movement. And she concluded, “This is one of my projects which I can never get over with and it will go on till the end of time.”
Other participants:
Structural Consultant: Hv Engineering
Electric Consultant: Mr. Mahendra Solanki
Text credits: Id. Khushnaaz Medhora
Materials used:
1. Mezzanine: MS Box Pipe, MS Sheet,
2. Flooring: Epoxy, Carpet
3. Partition: Glass, Ply, MDF
4. Furniture: Wood, Ply, MS Rods, Laminate, Fabric
5. Lights: 3 in 1 LED
