Sometimes design poses a unique challenge. For the Unicol head office, we were granted an unusually narrow space with inadequate lighting and inexplicably small height. The challenge was to design a comfortable office that had to be elegantly impressive and truly transparent. You may ask, “What do you mean by truly transparent?” It’s a space where there are no opaque boundaries, where one room bleeds into another and the connection never breaks.

We had a plethora of corridors and we took each corridor very seriously, playing with it endlessly. To begin with, we gave a grand entrance. An intricately patterned marble floor welcomed you in. The beautiful entry portal was lined with photos of their engineering plant, perfectly framed within molded panels. Sleek brass inlays added just the right hint of luxe. We primarily chose a monochromatic color scheme but decided to use their logo’s color in the doors and in accents. A custom installation was designed in-house by; the installation was an engineering genius just like Unicol itself. I can totally walk up and down this entrance all day long, would you join?

Then came the challenge of designing the narrow workspace. We consciously decided to split the staff area into two zones bifurcated by a walking aisle – one side had the open work hall and the other side had the managerial offices. The work hall oversaw the magnificent entrance while still keeping the workspace private. The managerial offices, which had to be truly transparent, were fully glassed rooms with black metal lattice that provided depth and intensity. The expansive glass façade also ensured that the precious light sources were utilized to their fullest potential. At Najmi Bilgrami, we loved to play with a fusion of different design styles, and create unique spaces which can be called as modern contemporary.

Choosing the finishes package and the color scheme are truly one of the most important decisions in the design process. It completely sets the mood of the space which directly affects how people feel. We chose a lot of Earth tones for this project. First of all, the brand itself draws raw ingredients from mother nature so why not go there for inspiration? Also, earth tones provide a sense of comfort and tranquility, and this compact space benefited from that. We worked in a lot of detail to add the magic touch. Custom brass shelving with black metal supports, and the funky pendant lights brought the project to life.