A compact, modern office in Rajkot that looks and feels luxurious

Playball Studio deftly handle light and colour to carve out a distinctive workspace for EPP Securities.

Curated by: Rupali Sebastian
Photographs: Dhrupad Shukla; courtesy Playball Studio

The site

This workspace is designed for an upcoming securities firm on the twelfth floor of a typical commercial office building in the rapidly growing city of Rajkot. It is a rectangular volume with one of the shorter sides having full-sized windows.

The brief

“The client aspired for an office which is modern, but at the same time it looks and feels luxurious,” disclose architects Celia Fernandez Duque and Ronak Gangdev, who helm Indo-Spanish design practice playball studio. “They also had a tight budget in mind with a fixed timeline of three months. In terms of areas, they required two executive cabins, two work halls having a capacity of six people each, a reception area with a waiting space, a store room for documents, a server room, a pantry and two restrooms.”

The spatial configuration

The allocation of areas started from the shorter windowed side with the symmetrical placement of the two executive cabins, allowing them to get the view of the cityscape. The work halls are placed next, as there was a requirement that they be visually connected to the executive cabins. This also allows natural light to trickle down to the work halls. The rest rooms, pantry and server room are deployed on either side of the main entrance, to ensure that heavy services do not run deep inside the office space. The entire volume is divided by a spine-like central corridor which starts from the main entrance and ends with the entry to the executive cabins. This division is tactfully concealed by the strategic placement of a vibrant reception and waiting area.

The challenges

A tight budget and fixed timeline of 90 days (including design and execution), reveal Celia and Ronak, was a big challenge. “But it led to sound decisions like the sourcing of work hall desks and chairs from known office furniture brands, so that quality could be maintained without compromising the overall project timeline,” they add. The other major challenge was the presence of an RCC beam running exactly in the centre of the space (the office is made up of two units joined together). “This led to the design decision of having an open false ceiling, which allowed for some play in how the entire space was perceived by visitors,” states the duo. “This open false ceiling also allows easy maintenance of the server lines that run from the server room to the work halls and executive cabins.”

The chromatic direction

“The overall volume is divided into several loops of colour, each of them connected to a specific function,” state the principal architects at playball studio. “Bright ochre, being the firm’s corporate colour, is used as the ‘welcome’ back­ground for the reception and waiting areas, while black and different shades of grey are designated for working spaces, services and storage. The executive areas are white with contrasting black furniture and gold accents, which form a subtle yet elegant connection with the colour of the company logo,” inform Celia and Ronak, adding that they find the play of colour and light as the most interesting aspect of this project. “Vibrant colour and artificial light gives a welcoming sense when one enters the office. After which, the randomly placed warm white LED strip lights guide one to the naturally well-lit work areas with subtle colour tones.”

The material palette

Because of the project timeline, all internal partitions are rendered from plywood and clear/frosted glass with powder coated aluminium framing. The ply walls are either cladded with premium texture laminates or painted. The open false ceiling over the reception area and the central corridor is made of locally assembled powder-coated aluminium louvres.

Fact file

Project: Workspace for EPP Securities
Location: Rajkot
Area: 1,250 sq ft
Principal architects: Celia Fernandez Duque and Ronak Gangdev
Junior architect: Yash Vaghasia
Contractor: Harmy Interiors
Glass partitions and aluminium works: Wintech