featuring

zEN OFFICE

Project type: Corporate setup
Location: Mumbai, India
Area: 6500 sq ft
Name of Interior & Architecture Design Firm: reD Architects, Mumbai
Design Team: Apoorva Shroff, Rajiv Parekh
Photography Credits: Fabien Charuau
Styling credits: Samir Wadekar

About

Deep in the midst of Mumbai’s business district is tucked a little whisper from the island nation of Japan. Perched atop a high rise far from the visceral stimulants of the city below, is an intervention that unfolds into a one of a kind office environment.

Image: Meeting room

Designed for a Japanese Investment bank, the office is a showcase of zen that is quite opposite to what the busy city offers, translating into a veritable escape for its workforce. Zen Office, as the project is named, welcomes Japan into the Indian geography, celebrating its welcome simply through the passage of design.

Manifested in contemporary form, colour, texture, the all-encompassing fabric of the office not only delivers “an island on a floor plate” but a unique user journey that introduces a culture that is refreshing and quite unfamiliar to the region.

Images: Above: Main Entrance; Below: Floor plan & Sections

Reception

Image: Office Entry

The experience resonates from the onset of the journey at the office entrance, dressed delicately in Japanese inspired timber-clad spaces with hints of neutral polished cement.

Image: Reception Desk

Through its passage, one is drawn magnetically towards the aura of the reception generously illuminated with natural light. It is at this point the source of the light is discovered, filtering through a framed vista from the office epicentre.

Central Court

Image: Central court

The epicentre that is pivotal to the office imitates the virtue of a town square court where communities come together.

Image: Kitchen island & Coffee bar

It is perfectly enhanced with the best aesthetics to encourage workspace interaction important to the office’s moral structure, accomodating a casual yet idyllic dining ambience with an island kitchen & coffee bar.

Image: Dining arrangement at the Central court

Within a 20ft high court, the space is amplified with daylight through the skylit coffered ceiling and uninterrupted views of the cityscape beyond. This aesthetic is taken up a notch with a checkered effect produced by grey cross-stacked bricks that scale the high walls of the court. The 3-dimensional depth conceived by the brick walls showcases an element of dynamism in the everchanging light intensities.

Within an all-encompassing grey drenched space, accents in warm timbers seen on the hardwood floors and veneers, pops of teal furniture and portions of wall partitions, and potted greens together bring the space to life.

Image: Lounge space within the Central court

An open office concept gradually unfolds from the epicentre, radiating in all directions to create a fabric of meeting rooms, conference room and workspaces all around. The design language of the epicentre court sets the aesthetic tone for the rest of the office manifested in everchanging expressions.

Meeting Rooms

Image: Board room & Meeting room

Glass-enclosed meeting rooms and a board room branch away from the epicentre, taking a hint of inspiration from its aesthetics. Vibrant accents are brought to the fore, seen on the abstract silhouetted timber shelves in the board room, hardwood floors, furniture; teal walls; and wall-mounted arts.

Workspaces

Image: Open layout workspaces

The workspace of Zen Office manifests an open concept arrangement accomodating motorised workstations pitched into groups. The aesthetic language takes a subdued approach, drenched monolithically in a palette of dark grey walls and perforated acoustic ceilings, toned up with warm hardwood flooring, laden with refreshing indoor landscaping and vibrant wall art. Large glass fenestrations that veil delicately along the edge and levitating linear light fixtures brighten up the workspace anatomy, delivering a comfortable ambience for its workforce.

Zen Office in all of its compositions conceives an environment that is an artful amalgamation of contemporary corporate space design infused with zen-like qualities. An idyllic vantage over the city of Mumbai that translates into a calming refuge for a fortunate group of working individuals.