Shaw Contract Design Awards 2023: Featuring Shifting Fields and Living Systems collections. Designed by SWBI Architects.
An acquired taste for fine interior design
Design approach
India’s largest food service company had acquired a large three-storied structure in NOIDA, India for its new office. The building was to house kitchen labs, workspaces, conference rooms, and social spaces.
The need was to design an interior-fit-out plan that made a brand statement of the client’s standing in the Indian food industry.
Given the complex demands of the project and industry-specific features needed, the choice was narrowed down to SWBI Architects; a firm known for its sustainable design solutions and international industry practices.
Sanjay Wadhwa, Principal and Design Head at SWBI Architects, led the team on this project.
The team members studied the requirements in intricate detail and mulled over the possible design approaches that combined the articulated (and otherwise) needs aesthetics and energy efficiency.
Urban, highly-connected and playful workspace
Taking inspiration from the client’s corporate mission statement of ensuring health, hygiene, and responsibility towards nature.
Creating microenvironments
In the course of finalizing the design, the team took inspiration from the client’s corporate mission statement of ensuring health, hygiene, and responsibility towards nature. The output had to live up to the client’s exalted standing in the industry.
Apart from standard work cubicles, SWBI’s plan envisaged creating microenvironments around each utility element, factoring the energy and movement associated with the space.
For instance, the Work Café is an engaging space to meet and greet colleagues over coffee or assemble for an event. It can directly contribute to employee collaboration, engagement, and well-being. It is also a place to display the company’s products.
Likewise, the communication staircase establishes the vertical connection between people and activities. Appropriate light installations ensured the necessary illumination in the social hubs, meeting rooms, or touchdown spaces.
" Organizations will need to rethink the purpose of the office from simply a place to work to become the hub for building social capital and fostering a sense of purpose and belonging.
Moving forward, organizations will benefit from creating multimodal
spaces that support collaboration and focus work equally.
Net net, a well-designed, eco-friendly office environment = healthier, more productive employees."
- Sanjay Wadhwa, Principal and Design Head, SWBI Architects
Highly connected and agile space
The design firm chose over ten different styles from Shaw Contract’s Shifting Fields and Living Systems collections for the project’s flooring requirements.
The variety of colours and patterns adorned the different sections of the office, giving a visually arresting and integrated look to the floor, along with stability and underfoot comfort.
Net result: The output is a fresh, highly connected, and agile office space that supports WFH as well as WFO, and above all, a joyful happy environment. An environment that invigorates spirit and energy.
• Design: SWBI Architects
• Project Location: NOIDA, India