THE GREY BOX

Location:Vadodara
Plot Area:3500 SQ.FT
Built-up Area:3500 SQ.FT
Programme:Commercial
Status:Completed
Completion Year:2021
Photographer:Tejas Shah

The Grey Box is an office building set on a plot of 3500 sq. ft. amidst the city of Vadodara. It is surrounded by bungalows and other offices on all sides presenting a very mundane envelope to look upon every day.
The clients are Chartered Accountants with a desire of a very professional workspace. While penning down their necessities, they expressed their requirement of an office building with one floor housing their own office and the other left for future expansion. They further manifested an office which has clear demarcations of public, staff and cabin areas along with a scope of additional interactions in each zone.
The design of this office started with an attempt to explore ways to cohesively respond to the client’s professional requirements as well as to try bringing in that character which responds to the surrounding vanilla urban fabric. What is achieved in the end, is a simple, minimal design language carried throughout the architecture and interior journey of the project.
The building in itself is a realm of pure geometry comprising of three floors stacked one above the other with ample parking at the ground level. The façade is a pattern of solid and void masses with well-considered proportions. The openings in all functional spaces form the voids and the blank walls taken against staircase and other utilitarian spaces form the solids. This mass is completely done in grey texture paint with a dash of vertical stripe pattern added in the balconies to break the monotony and generate a little character.
A typical floor plate of this office building, comprises of a logical flow of proportionate spaces to receive the clientele in a natural manner. Involvement of multiple partners gave rise to a public area accommodating a reception, waiting and conference room. Further, one enters the semi-private staff area leading finally to the director’s cabins. This hierarchical zoning opens grounds for different kinds of interactions in individual spaces.
The interior with its plain white walls and white built-in furniture echoes the spirit of the client’s profession. Tactfully designed wooden furniture pieces are introduced to add warmth to the spaces. Its heterogeneous texture juxtaposes the neutral whites. The material palette in general is kept natural, devoid of any cosmetic layering, to enhance realism and comfort. A functional approach was taken towards furniture design, which was then aesthetically conceived keeping the emphasis on line formations, voids and proportions.
Sober interior lighting, help in forming a calm, serene work environment. It is made sure, that each functional space has elongated openings to bring in ample daylight. A layer of greens between the inside and the outside add life to an otherwise simple office-like setup. This design approach, generates an interior which is isolated yet connected to the exterior environment.
Workspace is more like a second home. It is that single space where we tend to spend most hours of the day. The strong lines, solids and voids used in this office, showcase the simplicity of design whereas the grey geometric façade makes the built form more inviting. The combination of wood, white and grey in the interior creates the right contrasts between cold, warm, light and dark. There is an inherent truthfulness in the use of materials, in the play of geometry and that of light in the exterior as well as the interior of this project, which helps in creating a lively ambience for an otherwise classic workspace.