Workspaces are shifting from traditional to conventional design catering to the varied requirements of the employees. Arrivae gets in touch with expert to point out the intricacies that enfold the conventional theme.
Client Expectation: Servomex (Mahape) was relocating from existing office to a new location and wanted the grey and blue colour scheme that was part of the logo used in the office.
Uniquely Yours Solution: The office space was planned keeping the colour scheme of the logo in mind. Used a little bit of grey as per the proportion of the colour in the logo.
Architect Omkar Mathkar
What was the design concept used in the office project?
We used a mix of open and conventional theme for the project. The office was spacious (10, 000 sq. ft.), so the open theme was incorporated wherever possible in the project. There were certain areas that the client did not want to incorporate the open theme. For example, it was specified that the accounts section had to be enclosed.
What was the colour scheme used for the project?
The external colour scheme was dark grey with a little bit of orange and white. We refurbished and repainted the entire office structure adhering to the colour scheme of the logo, including the internal and external sections. In a nutshell, from designing to planning to painting the compound walls, the colour scheme was adhered to in the entire project.
How did you manage to complete the project in a short time span of 30 – 35 days?
Right from planning to execution, we took care that there was no delay in any of the processes. The contractors’ staff cooperated well and this aided in taking things forward smoothly. Since this project was executed on a very low budget, the expense incurred to execute the project was quite low. Keeping the simplicity factor in mind, the entrance was designed in such a way that workers could be checked in this zone. Similarly the lobby was not quite big (approximately 150 sq. ft).
Did location pose any hindrance to the project?
As the new office was located in a remote zone, the people working on site would vacate the site as early as 6:30 or 7:00 pm. This was one challenge as no workers were available on site after seven. Constant interference of snakes during the work was another challenge faced. However no one was hurt by the snakes. There was only one instance when snake catchers had to be called in. The new office that was getting refurbished was vacant for four years and therefore intrusion of animals was experienced. Lack of infrastructure and non availability of transport was another hindrance as the old location was accessible whereas the new location was in the remote zone.
Was accommodation of the staff an issue in the project?
There was low density of people working in the spacious office. Therefore there was no hassle in accommodating staff in the office. We designed the office space for 100 people but only 55 people were accommodating it.
Could you give us some details on the furniture used for the project?
Considering that this was a time-bound project, all the expensive furniture was shifted from existing to new location. Workstations were new and done on site. For low height partition, we used a combination of wood and glass.
Did you face any technical challenges while executing the project?
The mezzanine was supposed to be constructed at around 28 or 30 feet. This was supposed to be a seamless structure without any support. To overcome this challenge, we took help from a structural engineer and combined it with personal inputs and executed it accordingly.
Was there any specific requirement from the client that you had to take care of?
Servomex wanted a few things like motorized gauge, rolling shutters and gantry that is used to lift things down from one space to another in the workshop area. We could not provide the gantry as the budget (18 – 19 lakhs) for gantry was out of the scope of the client.