Beyond Design Architects craft an immersive office and client experience centre for a popular modern furniture solutions company – AFC Modular Furniture — a space that offers an array of many moods across every floor. The experience centre provides a discerningly ingenious backdrop to display the dynamic modular pieces.
Commercial cues
The overall structure comprises of ground, plus two floors. The site around this commercial project was blessed with lush greenery, which made the architect visually incorporate indoor green elements into its interiors. The designing team also ensured that plenty of sunlight should enter the space. “When the client approached us to design furniture display centre-plus-office space, we were thrilled to see the architectural space,” expressed Alhad Gore, Principal Architect, Beyond Design Architect.
The overall idea of creating the display area was to provide a muted colour scheme for the display floor, walls and ceiling – all of which would put a spotlight on the products. “Hence the design ideology is based on focusing on the products with the overall space acting as the backdrop,” explains Alhad.
The office areas possess a few bold-coloured furniture, graphics, and a lean, sophisticated look, making the workspaces look vibrant and lively. In terms of material pallet, the architect adds, “We decided to keep it rustic — using hardened concrete flooring and not doing any false ceiling in the open office area, whereby one can still see the decking slab.”
Future flexibility
Being a client experience centre, the display products are bound to change over a while, and hence, the commercial space was designed to be flexible enough to accommodate changes that would cater to the needs of the future.
The interior landscape of the project has a unique background-foreground balance, making it all about the user’s experience and comfort.
An alluring walkthrough
Upon the entrance, one can view a double-height lobby with a striking reception and a waiting area on the right side of the room. The lifts and staircases are conveniently placed on either side of the entrance. The backdrop of the reception space consists of a small continuous hexagonal-shaped backdrop, all in a deep grey shade which continues the trail of the double-height ceiling. The elevated ceiling enhances the overall entry experience of the user. “We attempted not to block any natural light to appreciate the products in a better way,” avers the architect.
The waiting area facing the reception has white and ochre yellow sofas with a carpet lying on top of the dark grey flooring. The visitors can make themselves comfortable in this space, with a clear view of the site entrance. This lounge area holds green potted plants around the space, prominently connecting the indoors with the outdoors.
The high-raised ceiling consists of metal roofing sheets (UPVC sheets) that were kept exposed, along with drop lights falling directly from the ceiling at frequent intervals. The reception table has an unusual stone-cut framed table, which adds depth and dimension to the overall space. The reception furthermore leads to a cut-out (internal atrium) with indoor fountain palms. Stone pebbles are laid onto the soil bed in which the plant rests. The atrium overall gives it a visual ‘green break’ to the eyes.
On the left of the passageway leads to a break room (toilet area) and a lift lobby area. A green wall display adds additional depth to the break room passage. The right zone of the atrium consists of two meeting rooms, a six- and a four-seater, respectively. Each of these cabins has a thick glass partition wall, which overlook the see-through atrium.
Detailed displays
The clear grey-toned passageway further leads to the main ground floor display areas, consisting of chairs, height-adjustable displays, and chair displays. The chair display area has a graphic chair wall backdrop drop with a wooden chair display stand on both edges to highlight the display. A unique circular display section is carried through this section. The three flat circular lights dropped off the ceiling, throw a spotlight on these chair displays. The floors are also painted in circles, placing the chairs right on top.
The display area also holds a cabin table display and workstation display area, supported by a compactor and locker display. Overall, there is plenty of space for visitors to carefully walk through each product to analyse and get a feel of them. The display zone ends with a future furniture zone, cabinet display, and screens to demarcate the same.
Unveiling the first floor
Upon entrance, the lofty atrium holds a ‘featured furniture section’ to its right for an eye-catching display.
Visitors can walk straight and come across a break room door towards their left with small display storage leading to the main first-floor display area. The space leads to a 1.8m wide passageway alongside an office furniture display in the centre. The left section holds a small training room with a 12-seater capacity and a screen display. The remaining left cornersection specialises in ‘educational furniture,’ followed by a hostel furniture display. There is a 1.8 m walk space for users to make the most out of this experience centre.
Passing through the second floor
Upon the office floor entrance, the visitors get mesmerised by the open floor plan, huge floor plate, and muted hues. The modern carpet gives a water droplet effect, enhancing the waiting area even more. The ceiling has a circular cut-out drop, followed by three pendant lights subtly falling further down to highlight the waiting area.
As visitors sit down, they can view the two meeting rooms, which have a transparent wall partition. The rooms on the right consist of two meeting rooms – a four- and a six-seater. The four-seater meeting room holds a clear glass partition wall with minimal tables and neutral colours. The walls carry coloured art pieces on a beige background. Graphics and branding are very carefully thought out, and the same was integrated into the design right from the concept stage.
The six-seater meeting room has a decorative wall that has ‘Get inspired’ written over it with a hand-painted book backdrop. The shelves are filled with white artefacts and books. The overall space gives a cosy, welcoming vibe.
The false ceiling holds textured grey dots with a white background. The fall lights throw light perfectly in the centre line of the conference area.
The room is completed with a pop of colour with a sage green sofa and green planters on the table. After passing through the meeting room door, a 1.5m passageway leads to the pantry section, cafeteria and washrooms towards the left. At the end of the passage falls a 1.8m wide door leading to workstations, which are complimented with some low-height storage units.
The workstations have a beautiful wallpaper as a backdrop, with motivating words such as ‘synergy’, ‘unity’, ‘alliance’ etc. written on them. The workrooms have sage green desk divider boards which complement the sage green high-rise chairs in the ‘collab space’. The diamond-shaped pendant lights and an undulating and distorted hexagon effect false ceiling put the limelight on the central collaboration area.
The cabin hues
The passage ends with a door towards the right, providing an entrance to the MD’s cabin. The cabin reflects the muted grey theme with wooden furniture accents within the cabin. Plants deck up the lounge area of the cabin with dark and light-coloured grey sofas. Moving inwards, a striking fall light drops down from the false ceiling highlighting the manager’s desk. To accompany the desk, the wall behind holds a wooden display unit, which is filled with artefacts. The MD’s cabin also has a beautiful view of the surrounding area.
The second-floor plan is completed with a finance area right beside the MD’s cabin and a door leading to the back emergency exit