- March 8, 2021
- 10:20 am
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Project Specifications
- Project name: RP-SANJIV GOENKA GROUP - CORPORATE OFFICE
- Location: Kolkata, West Bengal, India
- Area: 195,900 sqft
- Cost: 146 USD/sqft
- Date of completion: February 2020
- Client: RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group
- Name of Interior Design, Landscape & Installation Firm: Abin Design Studio
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Project Team:
Principal Designer: Abin Chaudhuri
Design Team: Paromita Chatterjee, Sohomdeep Sinha Roy, Chittaranjan Pal
Project Coordination Team: Jibendra Basak, Monomita Banerjee, Bidyut Chakraborty, Bidhan Poddar, Partha Ghosal - Photography credits: Edmund Sumner, Suryan//Dang
- Project name: RP-SANJIV GOENKA GROUP - OFFICE ROOFTOP
- Area: 10,000 sqft
- Cost: 100,000 USD
- Date of completion: January 2020
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Project Team:
Design Team: Tilak Ajmera, Angshujit Mazumder, Arijit Dhar
Project co-ordination Team: Jibendra Basak, Monomita Banerjee, Bidyut Chakraborty -
Consultants:
SS Metal Fabricators: JSL Life Style Ltd
Landscape Consultant: Supermode
Glazing & Fabrication Consultant: Meinhardt India Group
Louvred structure: Nitson and Amitsu Pvt. Ltd. - Photography credits: Edmund Sumner, Paromita Chatterjee
Today’s notion of corporate workspace design
The impression all of us have of corporate office spaces today resonates with large monotonous open floor layouts, densely packed with cubicles and workstations. Most offices retain a singular language of design as a means to create a consistent sense of corporate culture identity. But is a monotonous design beneficial for company growth and productivity? With multiple studies showing an increase in workplace fatigue, one can only contemplate why organisations aren’t giving a certain amount of consideration to the well-being of their workforce.
Thankfully there are hints to shift away from this paradigm, emphasizing on better spatial interpretations for the workforce that will, in turn, lead to positive growth and sustainability.
Let’s dive into one such example!
The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group
Corporate office
One corporate building tucked into the urban matrix of Kolkata, appears uninfluenced by its peers, taking a mould-breaking approach to defining its identity. The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group – Corporate Office as it is known, leverages inspiration from artform and craftsmanship to create an enriching environment for its stalwarts. Fueled by variety, experimentation, artful expression, and ethnic references, the interior design unfolds into a plethora of everchanging spaces with refreshed visual frames, each one more unique than the next.
Layout
The building is structured around a full-height sky-lit courtyard that forms the pivotal communal space for the corporate setup. Pitched at the x-y termination point of an ‘L’ shaped layout, the rest of the spaces and functions gradually radiate from this point on either side. Scaling the height of the building, corporates are accommodated within a network of open plan workspaces and cubicles in a hierarchical arrangement, with the senior-most seated at the highest floor level.
Design Concept
The design is greatly inspired by the sanctity and profile of temple side river ghats of India, where a certain sense of religiosity meets everyday life. With this inspiration in mind, the interior built architecture renders a terracing profile at its central skylit court that showcases a grand visual of a cascading silhouette of the entire building. The court translates into a beautiful sanctum of sorts, unfolding a breathtaking array of artworks that conquer each terrace in their unique way. Visceral whispers of a riverside landscape are rendered by water features that truly complete the look and feel of the picture.
Although the central court is the ‘pièce de résistance’ of the intervention, one might wonder,
How do the circumambient spaces that unfold beyond, benefit from a central court of this design?
The intervention structures its design on visual and visceral stimulants, which is what makes it so unique.
- The quality of light that filters through the apex skylight is instrumental in putting a spotlight on the space that brings the organization together.
- The court creates a perfect visual and interactive connect between floors, unifying the building vertically.
- An acoustic echo of the water features disperses into every space, instilling a sense of calm.
- Hints of contemporary artworks trickling into workspaces from the core create visual stimulation.
- The silhouette of the court becomes the source of inspiration for other spaces, for example, the library. Its one of a kind design emulates the terracing silhouette of the core but playfully in the opposite direction to create a visual tease.
Materiality
The choice of material palette is key to adhere to the concept. Whilst the circumambient spaces restrict to neutral tones, the bright accented artworks are brought to the fore, to build upon creating visual stimulations. A subtle introduction of timber finishes is used to emphasize key spaces, adding definition and a means to avoid repetition.
The intervention takes its design vocabulary seriously in terms of introducing “variety”. Wherein each floor lobby has its language of artefact inserts, that defines the theme for the floor plate as one delves deeper.
The name of the game is indeed ‘look & feel’, translating into a better more energetic work environment for a healthier workforce. But the story does not end here.
Office Rooftop
The energetic narrative of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group – Corporate office does not conclude within the building, only for its workforce. It artfully dodges the confines of the building, seeping onto the terrace into a jaw-dropping showcase of virtue and vision.
Set as a space to host corporate clientele, the entertainment arena is designed to manifest much more than just its function. Its awe-inspiring entrance foyer encompasses a visitor within a tall cylindrical waterfall feature, setting the right stage for the big reveal.
On exiting this capsule, a grand welcome surprises as a sea of large levitating stainless steel bubbles appear to unfold in the sky. With the space engulfed in the mesmerizing acoustics of falling water, it only makes better sense of the origination and conception of the installation. The sky of bubbles organically navigates the visitor along lush landscapes and more water features to a moat-like glazed dining space. This is where clients and corporates break bread, immersed in the experience of the environment over conversation and ponder.
Knit alongside aesthetics is a deeper message that the composition is created to narrate; speaking of visions, goals and aspirations. With a design intervention set out to change what corporate environments are conceived as today, its only fitting to say that the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group – corporate office has indeed set the benchmark for better spatial conceptions for our future workforces.
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