Project Thousand Files
Project Thousand Files explores reiterating the mundane with the material sensibility of working in a localized system and connecting to the contemporary.
The clients, a pharmaceutical equipment dealing company dreamed of moving to a new office space from their home office setup for almost 20 years. When we were approached, the clients had a stringent budget and had rented out a 300 sq.m space for their new workspace.
They had been functioning on a conventional system of filing and their documents being kept away in locked store rooms. This became a key for us in conceptualizing the design.
We wanted to bring out the nearly “1000 files” that the client had from being locked away to making them the focal point of the design space. We reworked the whole design to give a fresh energy to their history and revisit it, to refresh their orthodox system of storing files, to find dynamism within the working system.
The site and programmatic conditions also aided the idea of having the file storage in focus and the workstation areas happening around it.
The budgetary constraints drove the design to simpler lines
and materials. We had kept the colour pallet simpler and minimal with conventional cement flooring, a contrasting white wall with a complimenting grey ceiling and exposed birch ply to add a layer of colour into the space.
The whole Indian idea of being dynamic and colourful is brought into the design not by the space but by the people and the flies that populate it.
The use of clear glass adds another layer of transparency and reflection to the whole design.
The main file storage is liberated from being a regular grid shelf and brought to life by computationally setting it in motion while keeping the simplicity and material expression of the bare plywood within which the so called mundane files dance and express themselves through the space.
The 10ft long light fixtures also compliment the subtlety of the design while also dissolving into it. Natural light fills up the space during the day which adds a new gradation of layer into the space.
The entrance doorway with its minimal and natural finish stands as a brief to the whole design.
