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Custom Design Stories upends the rigid office norm, reimagining workspaces as fluid, people-first ecosystems with The Shift
- Project Name: The Shift
- Area: 22,000 sq. ft.
- Location: Gurugram, Haryana
- Design Firm: Custom Design Stories
- Principal Designers: Aditya Tognatta and Ananya Sharma
- Photographer: Vaibhav Katiyar
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_ cds_diary/
Working environments are rarely static; they thrive on collaboration and creative exchange. Why, then, are they so often confined within the rigidity of conventional office setups?
For a real estate firm long familiar with such norms, Aditya Tognatta and Ananya Sharma, co-founders of Custom Design Stories, along with project lead Smruti Thergaonkar, envisioned The Shift as a confident switch toward a contemporary workplace. Spanning 22,000 sq. ft. in Gurugram, the office is centred on openness and multi-modal working with a curated palette of materials and finishes that embody the client’s premium ethos. The evolution begins with the office’s spatial organisation. Spread across three levels, the office unfolds as a gradual transition from public zones to more composed work environments. The lowermost level accommodates reception, display areas, meeting rooms, workstations, and a cafeteria, serving visitor-oriented functions. The intermediate floor extends the workstation zones while introducing collaborative and informal zones. Above this, a mezzanine is structurally introduced to form a third level exclusively dedicated to the organisation’s promoters.
Across the workstations, an open-plan logic emerges. Department heads are accommodated within semi-enclosed zones to preserve openness and visual continuity across the floor. Light and vistas, once reserved for key personnel, now move freely through the floor. “No two people work alike,” says Aditya. “One key design intention was to acknowledge the firm’s neurodiversity. For some, focus settles in quieter corners; for others, it emerges through interaction.” This translates into a spectrum of spatial typologies. Private focus zones and acoustically controlled cabins support concentration, while informal gathering spaces enable collaboration. Semi-open breakout spaces and flexible seating clusters offer an adaptable middle ground.
Meeting rooms, often in high demand, are addressed through a multifunctional approach. Alongside dedicated client meeting rooms, cafeteria booths, phone booths, and smaller seating clusters support both external discussions and internal collaboration. Together, these settings ensure that conversations, whether formal or spontaneous, are never constrained by space. Material and colour form the next layer of the office’s narrative. The reception, once a passive and purely functional pause, is recast as a refined threshold. A marble-clad wall with brass inlay, paired with teakwood flooring and bespoke furniture, anchors this first point of arrival in measured elegance.
As one moves inward, materials become spatial markers. Vinyl flooring laid in a directional pattern defines workstation areas, introducing movement and visually broadening the floor. Oak worktables reinforce this openness, offset by the yellow tones of semi-enclosed cabins. Elsewhere, colour becomes a measured source of vibrancy within the office. Blues shape collaborative zones, while purples settle into the cafeteria. The intermediate level’s conference room is conceived as a layered envelope, with green-stained veneer walls wrapping an inner glazed partition. A signature client master plan is rendered as a ceiling graphic, grounding the space in the scale of the firm’s developments.
The mezzanine emerges as a double-height volume shaped by light and uninterrupted views. MD cabins are organised around skylights, drawing out the textures of wood-panelled and stone-clad walls. Beyond, the executive lounge opens beneath a laterally vaulted ceiling, where bespoke furniture composes an elevated setting. HVAC challenges introduced by the room’s generous vertical span are addressed through displacement ventilation, operating near floor level without visual or acoustic intrusion. “Because the system runs at a lower level, the ceiling remains clear of fixed services,” says Smruti. “This enables the workplace to evolve, allowing worktables, partitions, and seating to be reconfigured as needs change.”
“With The Shift, we wanted to move away from the office as a purely function-led container and create a space that feels adaptive and collaborative,” shares Ananya. By acknowledging evolving work patterns, the office steps away from a singular workplace model to become a dynamic ecosystem shaped by use.
