Akshat Bhatt, Principal Architect Architecture Discipline: When I visited the site — a former rice granary in Gurugram — that had to be converted into Motherland Joint Ventures’ main office, the idea that struck me was to retrofit it to reflect a combination of the existing ethos and the creative palette of Motherland while ensuring minimal structural damage.
Spread over an area of 3,000 sq ft, the site’s north and west sides were blocked by adjacent warehouses. This led to an increase in the size of all existing doors and windows and addition of new ones to augment the natural daylight to spread across equally.
Functional add-ons to the space include an industrial-grade screed floor finish. The hall was lit by three long rows of industrial box type light fixtures that are mounted on timber batons running along the longer span.
The client’s vision of an office was to have a multi-purpose workshop to support the real estate company’s creative work, so we made spaces for cabins, meeting areas, and work spaces.
The colour theme was based on the idea of a straight-forward layout and retention of industrial aesthetics with minimal structural change — a frugal yet sophisticated outlook.
The exterior of the office has been painted white, while doors and window frames have been coloured black. The interior walls have been planned to reflect charcoal blackboard painted in juxtaposition with the external white paint.
All partitions were made from painted timber that was carpentered on the site. For walls, acoustic glass was used to ensure noise cancellation because all cabins are in a row adjacent to each other.Doors were made of steel and window frames in Georgian geometries with metal flashing. Stainless steel ledge walls are used to create partitions for meeting spaces.
The acoustic ceiling has been designed using wood and wool panels with a layer of micron insulation because it helps prevent heat and cold from coming inside.
Within the cabins, there is air conditioning. The hall doesn’t have ACs, but through some smart ideas and frugal engineering, we have tried to make the place comfortable in peak summer as well as winter. A layer of bubble wrap and aluminium foil insulating panels have been topped on the asbestos ceiling to reduce heat gain in the building. Fire grade industrial lamps, suspended using metal cables have been used to light the cabins.
Apart from the cabins, there are washrooms, pantry and storage space in the same line. On the opposite side is a blank black wall. Furniture used for the spaces was mostly old pieces that were refinished.
An installation by Prasad Raghavan – The Ship of Tarshish, made using metal and plastic, has been placed in the hall area to add a colour element.
It is a cargo ship carrying bright containers. Motherland orders a lot of material from India and abroad for its real estate projects, and the idea was to reflect that.
Key Features of the Redesigned Space
❶ Aluminium foil bubble wrap insulated ceiling
❷ Chain link suspenders
❸ Timber batons
❹ Steel doors
❺ Acoustic glass walls
❻ The Ship of Tarshish installation, by Prasad Raghavan
