The Dawn Office

Design Firm: ADDA Architects
Principal Architect: Mayank Parekh
Location: Surat, India
Project Typology: Workspace
Photographer: Ishita Sitwala

A 2800 sq. ft office space witnesses a complete overhaul in the heart of Surat, allowing modern sensibilities, minimalism, and pragmatic design to assume centre-stage. With its inherent relationship with natural light, The Dawn Office redefines the paradigms of workplace design with an overarching aesthetic and heightened functionality.

Embedded in the nucleus of the Adajan district of Surat, the conceptualization and execution of The Dawn Office is a creative exercise in the realm of reimagining workplace infrastructure at the grass-root level. The design journey traversed seven months, wherein the blank canvas of this office space was visualized in a renewed light of stated and neoteric design with its every weave. The clients hailed from the sphere of real estate, where the legacy of the industry had been passed down painstakingly amidst succeeding generations. The brief that drove the project emphasized the need of creating an office environment that stayed true to the company’s innate endowment whilst uplifting the firm’s identity with an upbeat and young persona.

The relentless repercussions of the Pandemic also sculpted the present-day narrative that needed to preside over the construct of a work environment, creating spaces that placed its employee’s wellbeing at its nucleus. The programmatic needs at The Dawn Office had to be curated around these norms while staying tethered to the overruling design identity. The former space’s configuration was composed of private offices and shared areas that didn’t function optimally. This fragmentation between the public and private spaces did not allow its users to take advantage of the spatial and operative capacities.

“We had the pleasure of engaging with a client who was extremely perceptive and involved at every step of the design development process. As a team we were able to create an office space that entwined collaborative spaces with safety protocols; all while staying strongly rooted to the stripped-down aura of The Dawn Office,” shares Ar. Parekh.

Minimalism was the leitmotif of this office space, where the pared-down ethos was layered tastefully with accents of colour, bric-a-brac, lighting, and only essential ornamentation. Daylighting is pivotal as the office’s East-facing orientation creates the morphing interplay of light indoors across the day. This feature allows spaces to come to life and engage the sciography created across zones of the office while framing views of the verdant outdoors. Partition systems created in glass and black metal punctuate the layout, initiating a visual dialogue between various internal zones and with the outdoors likewise.

The palette of materiality and colours at The Dawn Office form the integral spine of the design. Neutral and umber tones bathe the canvas of the office, wherein the colour white and few pops of hues make a debut in the form of decorative elements and bespoke furniture. The design interventions at The Dawn Office employ a sustainable approach, in which a cohesive material palette has been upcycled and used rhythmically to create an uninterrupted visual flow. The demeanour of a quintessential workplace has been recalibrated, detaching from the obsolete idea of an office solely being for purposes of isolated working.

“The Dawn Office is cognizant of its connection with the verdant surroundings and the impact it has on its end-users. Blurring the boundaries between the indoors and outdoors, the large glazed fenestrations on the eastern façade allow sunlight to penetrate the built volume across the day,” explains Parekh. Minimalism reigns the design brief, ensuring that the ideology of ‘less is more’ is implemented intrinsically. The transition spaces anchor high lintel fenestrations which look into the expansive terrace garden that is an extension of the office, lending itself to outdoor experiences and recreational activities.

The spatial layout of the office capitalises on the strategic positioning of cabins and workstations that soak in the eastern-facing views of the lush greenery and dappled sunlight that dots the indoors from morning to dusk. The office opens into a quaint reception space that is doused in contemporary light wood tones which envelop the walls and ceiling ubiquitously. A curved-edge terrazzo and laminate-clad focal table anchor the space, offset by a sleek charcoal-hued sofa in the lounge and an intricate pooja niche that hosts sacred Shlokas on a rose gold metal backlit panel. Indoor greens have been sprinkled across the floor, which breathe life into the nooks of the office.

The primary cabin occupies a larger fraction of the floorplan with its position along the end of the axis corridor, from where it enjoys views of the outdoors along two peripheral walls. The customised furniture in the cabins allows the pieces to be tied-in with the design grammar of the office whilst responding to the needs of each end-user. The colossal desk was created using ivory terrazzo at site and renders the cabin with a geometric identity with its sinuous edges. Concealed built-in storage in wooden tones and abstract art prints earmark the cabin, thus resonating with the design palette of the office. A snug discussion corner by the window hosts brilliant scarlet red sofas that create an engaging milieu while interacting with the framed views of greenery.

The second official cabin is crowned by a baffle ceiling feature that adds visual dynamism to the space. The storage is integrated as an inconspicuous part of the walls that encapsulate the space, enabling pragmatic storage whilst staying true to the clean-lined look of the cabin. The blue-grey tones of the furniture in the seating nook by the window introduces a sense of vitality into this cabin. A deep navy-blue colour reigns supreme in the third cabin that lies at the axial end of the circulation corridor. With a homogenous design palette, this cabin also looks into the outdoor landscaped terrace, creating an engaging ambience within the workspace.

The Dawn Office has successfully reinterpreted the brief at hand, creating a workplace that is bolstered by end-user comfort, productivity, and an unrefuted relationship with nature. Conscious design that finds its bearings in minimalism has enabled the office space to present its inhabitants with a welcoming environment that has a robust design image.

This piece was published on Archello and Office Snapshots.