Is it possible to find the comforts of home at your workplace and still be productive? The young media company Inshorts believes so. When they set out to design their Noida office, this is the design brief the company gave to Edifice Consultants. With a creative and young team as well as a 24×7 operations, the brief called for a setup that would energise the young crowd, aid the open office culture and work well within tight budgetary constraints of setting up the office.
Founded by former IITians, Inshorts’ required a space that imbibed the familiar and relaxed vibe of a home — the reception as the drawing room, the cafe as the dining room, etc. Of course, the challenge was to translate this brief into a high-energy office space. Besides factoring in insightful feedback from the company’s existing office, the design also had to address other spatial requirements such as team briefing spaces, and unique measures such as acoustic barriers between gaming areas and work areas, among others.
The first step was to take into account the building’s orientation,which had its service cores on its shorter east-west sides. The largely open floor plate faced the north-south sides, held between the cores. While imposing views characterise the southern side, the northern side overlooks the commercial hub and neighbouring buildings. Given this orientation, the south end of the office is designed as a deck and functions as an alternative working environment. The setup promotes and encourages informal discussions. So as to benefit from the diffused light coming from the north, formal worktables that double up as meeting spaces, are placed towards the north and the centre.
Conceived as the living room, a comfortable lounge area sits in between the reception and the main workstation area. “Together with a comfortable sofa seating set around a floor rug, it brings in the element of the home within an office,” the design team shares. The rust-orange partition, acting as an accent wall, pairs wells with the lime green furnishing and wooden furniture. Further in the periphery of the office space, we see swings, rocking chairs and high chairs clustered to create informal spaces.
When it comes to work spaces, an elongated, partition-free open workstation — almost resembling a big dining table — caters to six teams of six to eight members. This set up is designed to facilitate team work and discussions; a relaxed and personalised zone unlike conventional workstations. The office is also interspersed with different clusters of alternative work areas. The engage area is the more public zone of the office. It blurs the office interiors and renders privacy to the more exclusive and restricted areas. A newsprint graphic of collage by employees of Inshorts functions as a screen in this area. Tabletops are made from wooden planks, resting on a simple mild steel frame to give a comfortable yet rustic feel.
What’s a home without a bit of greenery? Indoor plants such as the quintessential money plant, mother-in-law’s tongue, peace lily and areca palms are positioned to purify the air. Tall movable plant lattices have been planned on the southern deck, which act as space dividers and also shade the deck when the blinds are rolled up. The metal lattices houses 200mm-diameter self-watering pots of money plant creepers. But the main indoor landscaping strategy is a collaborative deck, which will be crafted around planted lattices that can be moved around to reconfigure spaces as per requirements.
Despite the many ‘residential’ aspects injected into the office, these additions fit in organically with the work environment. Overall it is an inviting space, filled with familiar comforts but nonetheless professional — as envisioned by Inshorts and delivered by Edifice.
Facade Connection
An existing double-glazed system on the facade with a high performance low e-glass, aids in keeping the internal heat gain in check. The Jaisalmer stone seeps into the office from the lobby over the threshold and the glass entrance to the office aids in this seamless transition. This adds depth to the perception of the space as seen from outside the office and immediately creates a visual engagement. In order to create this engaging visual and sensory connectivity, the columns were masked with sculpted design elements that act as tactical separators. A composition of positive and negative spaces is created for the office where the built volumes define the unbuilt interstitial spaces. Black mesh roller screen blinds have been planned as well to address the southern glare.
Fact file
Project name: Inshorts Media Office
Client: Inshorts Medialabs
Location: Noida
Typology: Interior
Design firm: Edifice Consultants
Principal architect: Sanjay Nayak
Design team: Sanjay Nayak, Nilam Gosavi, Rohan Bhagat and Ritesh Mittal
Built-up area: 530sqm
Photographer: Kapil Karma (Brawn Globus) and Ritesh Mittal