For an Architect, it’s always more difficult designing her own house or doing up her own office space. There are no client-setting boundaries in this case but there’s everything else; a tight timeline, a very stringent budget, and last but not least a statement to make! Now that’s a lot of pressure, more pressure than any ordinary assignment.
Here’s how we set up our own little office in Richmond town Bangalore. We began our hunt for 200-250 Sft space satisfying three basic criteria
1. Adequate daylight and ventilation,
2. Low-rise / Cozy building and most importantly
3. An attached exclusive toilet.
Given the location and budgetary constraints, we eventually managed to sublet two rooms + a bathroom a total of 170 Sft space in a 12-year-old home on Alexandria Street, sharing space with an entertainment company and a beauty salon. Our look & feel aspirations revolved around making the small space breathe, thereby feeling spacious and uncluttered. This defined our pastel green (Logo color) and white color scheme as well as minimal furniture.
Our work with alternate and low-impact materials prompted the use of recycled and up-cycled materials for as many interior items as possible including furniture, work ledges, and lighting.
Recycled tetra pack boards from Saahas were used for our worktop ledges (2000Rs for an 8’x4’ 12mm Thk Sheet) held up by cast iron brackets bought by Kg at KR market (about 300rs/bracket). The leftover pieces of tetra pack board made a planter box, providing rain protection for a weather-exposed external ply partition as well as a lovely space for plants. Both tabletop and planter were coated with matt finish polish to protect from weathering.
The furniture is up-cycled, hardwood second/third or even fourth-hand pieces spruced up with a doorknob or fixing a broken leg. The rest is fairly simple, with doors that wear a distressed green, complimenting the bright green of the brackets and the deeper green of plants and white walls that breathe.
Light is brought in and diffused with a couple of white bamboo shades (Up-cycled / painted mats) and a reused glass partition in the ceiling during the daytime with origami geometric lanterns (600rs/lantern) for lighting at night.
Well, we have been working at our office for more than a month now...The smell of fresh paint is gone, coffee is brewing and it sure does feel much lived in!
Details: Total cost = INR 60k including up-cycled storage unit, meeting table, chairs, work tables, 4 ergonomic office chairs, miscellaneous gutting work, polishing, and painting.
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