The DCA Architecture and design office situated in BKC, Mumbai is an architectural monochrome with an urban indoor-outdoor experience. Nitin Khatwani , one of the architects of the office, took up this project with an intent to create designs with their own visual logic, building a sense of extension of time and space, leading visitors to explore inside. This office uses architecture based on maximizing space and functionality by stretching dimensions through juxtaposition & geometry.
Project Name: Monochrome Architect’s Office at BKC, Mumbai
Office Name: DCA architecture and design
Lead Architects: Nitin Khatwani, Hussain Dholkawala
Office Website: www.dcadesign.net
Firm Location: Kanakia Zillion, BKC annexe, Mumbai 400070
Completion Year: 2019
Gross Built Area (m2/ ft2): 2000
Project Location: BKC, Annexe
Program / Use / Building Function: Office work space
What once was a long odd profile space on the 4th floor of a commercial complex with only windows at each end and a central beam is now a multi-functional , collaborative office. The existing office had only 2000 square feet of floor area but a height of over 9 feet, this height was utilised to create a flowing, platformed interior while maintaining open, vertical space.
The DCA office is divided into 2 sections, with multiple cabins and a studio on either side, separated by an entrance foyer with a projection wall in the centre. An illusion of a wider entrance room is created by volumetric space detection from the adjacent studio and meeting room. The projector in the foyer room is brilliantly concealed in a wall shared with the studio and is operated from this studio in turn decluttering the foyer room of wires and other electricals. The studios on either side are also diagonally flanked shifting the linear movement through the office.
The right wing of the office is conceptualised by creating a schism to fragment the volume. The resultant space is sculpted by a parabolic sweep in the ceiling that abstracts itself into an inclined wall as it meets the ground. The parabolic sweep enables the surrounding rooms to create niches for project models and appear wider. Sequentially it receives indirect light from these rooms through acrylic tubes installed along the length of the passage, creating a symbiosis.
A miniature wooden stairway instalment in the corridor which ends in a gleam of light, signifies inspiration and enlightenment. This leads to a large conference room that opens to tall arches, miniature statues, artwork, a rectangular boardroom table, brass inlays and colours complimenting the sky overlooking the airport. A skew glass partition separating the Studio and conference, visually widens the narrow end of the conference wall.
A tapering slim metal rhombus suspended from the ceiling, in the left wing, plays with natural depth perception and visually elongates this corridor . An installation of a series of arches lights up end of this corridor. A corner window of the Studio in this wing maintains linear visual continuity through the two ends of the office.
Designers all over are looking for innovative ways to improve the spaces we work in. DCA has designed such an office where the combination of textures, linking architecture with visual arts, care taken at various joints and intricate detailing all indicate a consummate skill which one feels impelled to see.
