Q: What are the various evolving trends in office spaces?
Effective remote working is challenging the need for office spaces to be large. Offices now tend to shrink in terms of physical space, housing fewer people at one point in time. All large corporate organisations have effectively attained work efficiency in a hybrid model of working. Offices are transforming into places of meetings to host inevitable physical interactions. There will be a transition in offices from being spaces where people work at their desks to interaction hubs. But unlike the open office concept where all the space is combined as one, multiple small meeting cabins with fewer workstations shall dominate.
Q: What are the different aspects considered while designing modern seating solutions?
There are primarily 3 aspects that need to be kept in mind while designing modern seating. One, ergonomic comfort should be the primary aspect to design. For best productivity at work, comfort in body language is to be carefully designed. Secondly, spaces are becoming multivalent, and the seating arrangement today should be able to accommodate that change. Flexibility is key to this aspect. Thirdly, it needs to be designed to facilitate gatherings.
Q: How has technology affected the treatment of seating arrangements?
The office seating was designed for better ergonomic performance to allow comfortable long-term seating. Now the vocabulary of seating is becoming more fluid. Spaces that can allow to work comfortably and gather comfortably. It is more closer to becoming an open concept where people do not have a designated workstation. Offices are now becoming open cultural hubs where people can work anywhere with their laptops. It can be an outdoor court of your office space, cafes, and open lobby seating, so to state. There is a wide cultural shift in terms of work hours. They are flexible and target based. This allows flexibility of movement and need-based space utilisation.
Q: What are the latest additions in the company’s portfolio for this segment?
The latest addition to this segment in our portfolio is the Apollo corporate office. The planning largely facilitates two large atriums for socializing and functions are the cultural hub. It is an 8-storey building with lower floors dedicated to the staff for working and meeting, while the upper floors are dedicated to the cabins of executing members. The highlight feature of the building is the two atriums. One lower atrium is the entrance foyer which is designed in a monolithic concept and flows into showroom for the company. The upper atrium features a hanging glass meeting room with a skylight and is an exclusive experience for the upper corporate hierarchy.
Q: How have you been able to differentiate from the competitors in this segment?
Our major point of differentiation is customising the brief to accommodate the vision of the creator. We do not shy away from detailing each space differently to tailor it to the needs of its inhabitants—however, we have expertise in tying up these customised spaces into one language. It has an overall larger picture that is cohesive, while when focusing on certain aspects, the detail in the customisation shines.