Sunil Lokhande

Efficiency of any commercial building is attributed to various strategic measures being adopted at the design stage. Innovative procurement strategies, integrated design and streamlined construction methods can help overcome barriers to make it high-performance building. Lokhande says that inclusion of best-in-class energy-efficient equipment with lifecycle benefits of efficiency investments, window area for daylighting, increasing space efficiency through modular and open-office space design are key cost control elements.

“Usually the design of any office building is standard, working around a larger floor plate. With changing business needs, multiple smaller space blocks, supported with utilities, would help businesses optimise the scalability in phases without relying much on buffer spaces. With agile work concepts coming into practice, it is necessary for developers to provide solutions in offering spaces to suit the dynamic requirements. The open office system allows for smaller cubicles, which feels much larger than an enclosed cubicle of the same size,” points out Lokhande.

Catering to the short-term space requirement can be supported through easy availability of work around incubation space with plug and play option.  Accommodating occupier’s requirement at design and planning stage would enable optimised utilisation of space and value-based investment. The current cost-centric approach in the industry calls for establishing the facility to complement the post occupancy measures in making operations efficient and sustainable.