Designer offices do inspire

When PharmaNet, a New Jersey-based company, set up its Mumbai office in Andheri earlier this year, it had a clear mandate: the workstations should have the same ambience as every other PharmaNet office across the world.

This one-point brief involved importing carpets from the Netherlands, conference tables from Germany and chairs from the United States, just to ensure that PharmaNet executives feel at home.

In the 5,000 square feet Bloomberg office at Nariman Point, half the space — a whopping 2,500 square feet of prime real estate — has been allocated for the cafeteria alone. The larger-than-life meeting bar is as much about understanding the needs of employees as it is about showcasing its culture to visitors — a big departure from the days when the pantry would be squeezed into 50 square feet in some corner of the office.

This is the changing face of the Indian office space, where design aesthetics play a crucial role in ensuring   workplaces that don’t just soothe but inspire. “In modern business, people are the prime assets and companies are aware of this,” says architect Ninad Tipnis, adding that the sharp surge in the number of international companies has contributed to giving Mumbai’s offices a truly global look and feel. “A contemporary office in Mumbai is very close to, or in some cases even better than, an office in London or New York. We are at par with the West, both in terms of design and function,” says Tipnis.

The transformation of the Indian workplace began in the mid-90s, when the IT industry took off and clients from the West came visiting the offices of their counterparts in India. “What followed was the adapting of the best from the West within the local context, striking the right balance between tradition and globalisation, between aspiration and reality,” says Pune-based architect Amala Sheth.

Technology too has hugely influenced the appearance of the modern office, especially in new-economy businesses like IT, media, banking and financial services. “Connectivity is the key. An executive sitting in Mumbai is connected through technological tools to his counterparts across the globe,” says Krupa Zubin, principal architect, ZZ Architects.

And as distances have shrunk, so has the executive’s workstation. “Meeting rooms have done away with the need to allocate visitor space for every desk. Executives are encouraged to use the conference rooms for interactions even with colleagues, so that the workstations can be kept compact,” says ZZ’s Zubin Zainuddin, adding that cabins and cubicles are being knocked down to make way for more efficient and interactive hot desks.

The changing face of the Indian office has been smartly chronicled in Corporate Offices in India, a compendium launched earlier this week. Dhwaj Shah, chief strategy officer of White Flag Communications, the publisher of the book, says, “The key lies in keeping teams comfortable and providing them with a work environment that boosts their creativity. We see offices investing in landscaping, recreational amenities and meeting alcoves. These conveniences remarkably diminish work stress and increase productivity.”

According to Shah, office designs of organisations like Google and Facebook prove that when the office environment is fun, people do not feel the pressures of work so much.