Auronova Office by The Design Chapel Ar.Preshita Shah Gupta

• Project name:Auronova Office
• Designed by:The Design Chapel
• Principal architect: Preshita Shah Gupta
• Client:Auronova Consulting Solutions
• Design team:Kajal Kamath  and Pradnya  Pawar
• Location:Vikhroli, Mumbai
• principal Designer:Preshita Shah Gupta
• Project cost:11 Lakh Rs.
• Photography:Sivaram from Growthwise

The Design Chapel is a young Mumbai based multidisciplinary studio founded and headed by Interior Architect Preshita Shah Gupta (B.ID) with a bachelor’s degree from the School of Design (SID) C.E.P.T, Ahmedabad. The studio specializes in commercial, residential and hospitality interiors with an experience of over 5 years in the field. 

The clients, Auronova Consulting Solutions are engaged in the business of providing consulting services to banks and other financial institutions. Their previous office space was boxy, divided by cubicles and private work desks allowing little to no opportunity for interaction, inspiration or collaboration. We as designers therefore wanted to give them, a space which wasn’t hierarchical, but uncluttered and welcoming. A space where everyone was part of the same wider experience.

The idea for the new office therefore was to create a “de – territorialized” plan where boundaries between people and spaces as well as those between work and play are blurred. We wanted to move away from the archetypally accepted notion of how a finance office should look and feel like. To break this instead of going for a formal, glossed over, minimalistic design language we narrowed down on a rustic industrial themed aesthetic where yellow, grey and black along with rugged wood forms the primary color palette

The brief from the clients was to accommodate a team of 12 people, workstations with a conference room and a small pantry. What we gave them additionally was also a small waiting area for visitors and breakout zones where lunch, discussions, informal meetings and deliberations over coffee could happen.­­

The rustic wooden pantry table with benches thus becomes the central nucleus of the entire office. This is where all the significant conversations and creative brainstorming happens. These chats over chai can also overflow to the alcove by the window overlooking the lush green Vikhroli hills. The comfortable seating designed here allows for some quiet reflective time.

Materials like wire mesh, black dyed ropes holding suspended ceilings and shelves, metallic bolt heads, exposed electrical cables, filament bulbs, rustic wooden flooring and surfaces form the masculine slice of the design language whereas the bright yellow and limited edition prints of Malevich in bold colours voice the feminine fragment of the aesthetic. All of these elements come together to create an office space where finance finally becomes fun!