The interiors for the software office is conceptualized keeping in mind the client’s quest for a brand new identity for their 18-year-old company.
Project Name: Chimera Technologies
Studio Name: BetweenSpaces
Status: Built
Photograph Credit: Harsh Sharma
Execution Team: D.M Interior
This was conceived in a small garage in the year of 2000 and has since grown in leaps and bounds. In an attempt to give a major facelift to their existing setup and attract millennials to join their setup, the new office for Chimera Technology was designed to manifest youthfulness and exuberance.
The office is spread over two floors. Spatially, the enclosed spaces, the breakout spaces, the ideation spaces, and the waiting areas are organized around a large open workspace on both the floors. The company’s logo is a series of intertwined lines arranged in a hexagonal shape synonymous to a basic module of a beehive.
Taking a cue from this, the partitions enclosing the private spaces like Accounts, HR, CEO’s cabin have the polygonal profile finished in black laminate. The laminate finished partition with toughened glass along the primary work areas contains the fluid roof form that surrounds the open work area. The colorful ceiling creates a vivid experience within this confined workspace.
The open yet formally arranged workstations provide the employees with informal thinking spaces which is an extension of the beehive module of the private spaces. The spacious open common area in the layout encourages collaborative and interactive work culture so that employees are conscious of the office environment and work as a team.
Mimicking the beehive module, a hexagonal pattern has been created in the partition using birch ply strips and mild steel flats to the designed profile. This partition physically separates the waiting areas from the workspaces on the two levels and yet is transparent enough to make it an extension of the workspace.
The colorful ceiling creates a sense of hierarchy in the spatial arrangement. The bold colors of the floating ceiling, despite its rigidity in form, has a free spirit and vibrancy. The colors also identify with the vivacity and diversity of the Indian culture. This project is an attempt at creating an interactive work environment to stimulate a creative and efficient work culture.
Divya Ethirajan
Partner
Divya Ethirajan is the Founding Partner and Principal Architect. She graduated from R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore.
Her Architectural Thesis on Rejuvenation of Russell Market, Bangalore, won all India best thesis award in 2007 at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Architecture (NIASA). Divya has interned with Arya Architects in Ahmedabad and continued working there post her graduation and thereafter with Hundredhands from 2006 to 2010. During this time, she got to work on residential, commercial, hospitality and several award-winning competition projects. In 2010, she teamed up with Pramod Jaiswal to start BetweenSpaces.
Her keen sense of punctuality, simplicity and immense patience has been instrumental in developing the ethos of the practice. You will always find her smiling but don’t get deceived by her silence or her smiles because she is listening to every word you speak, processing it and working on the design solution. She is a multi-tasker.
Pramod Jaiswal
Partner
Pramod Jaiswal is the Founding Partner and Principal Architect. Pramod graduated from Bangalore Institute of Technology, Bangalore. He trained under V.K. Giridhar and worked with Hundred hands from 2005 to 2011. At Hundredhands, he has worked on some of the award-winning projects and competition projects.
Pramod always sensed a huge void of a good teacher back in his academic life and hence started going to architecture colleges since 2010. He has been going as a visiting faculty to BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore and Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, to share his treasure trove of knowledge which he has gathered while working on different kinds of projects in last 12 years of his professional life. He is always ready to share his knowledge should one approach, otherwise there is always Jazz, Hip- Hop and Hard Rock.
He respects complexities and detests complications. With a keen sense of detailing, he is always exploring for an idiom that makes Architecture expressive, meaningful, and sensitive to its context.
