Industrial Design Redefining Commercial Office Spaces in India With the rise in start-up culture and first generation entrepreneurs in India, there has been a new wave of thinking in design language trends
By Ritkrit Jain
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Design language in Indian commercial office space has undergone a sea-change in the last ten years. From the death of cubicle farms to the rise of open floor plans and interactive workplaces, there has been a paradigm shift in interior design owing to the changing tastes and behavioural patterns of professionals, coupled with technological advancements and globalization.
With the rise in start-up culture and first generation entrepreneurs in India, there has been a new wave of thinking in design language trends. With design sensibility changing, most of the top level management and entrepreneurs are world travellers and have worked in international environments, getting exposure from diverse cultures. Consequently, these young business minds prefer office spaces that are designed, catering to the concept of functionality and comfort, integrating different design languages such as those Scandinavian- and Brooklyn-based becoming much more acceptable. This has given rise to the growing trend of industrial design in the last nine years.
The design philosophy combines superfluous with utilitarian, wood, metal, stone, used natural materials with pieces of art and integrating form with functionality. Practical, visually attractive, aesthetic and neutral color palette, this form of style gives way to a wider and more open form of design language. The industrial design is synonymous with brave and bold, innovative and organic, and is associated with young and energetic organisational structures.
Office spaces which had concealed structures are now humbly exposed, achieving a look that seem unfinished, yet appear organized and chic. The design language displays all that lies beneath for a raw and edgy finish. The trend is getting more and more popular as it connects with the contemporary work and lifestyle of today; and growing awareness and acceptance of people towards the world in its original form.
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Industrial design balances by catering to the personality, work-life balance and agronomical behavior of professionals who love the chic look in their offices on the one hand, and equally caters to professionals who do not care much about their office look and design on the other.
The flexible design language of industrial style enables offices to meet the changing dynamics of work environment which is highly dominated by technology today. It creates an opportunity to allocate space, which goes beyond the traditional allocation of work position. Research has shown that an individual's productivity and outcome is highly dependent on the office space and group collaboration. Industrial design takes care of both the aspects in a perfectly balanced way. It just makes the right business sense.
One of the most important aspects of industrial design helps using capex investment judiciously, by aligning better forces between technologies and ambience to create an out-of-the-box experience for habitats. Industrial design does away with conventional way of working; the purely realistic style which is simple, rustic and unrefined helps is saving costs of companies.
This trend will definitely grow over the years in the Indian commercial office spaces. Not just the new and young professionals are moving towards the design trend but India will witness growing popularity of this design language in the coming decade.
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