DSC Corporate Office
Over the years, D.S Constructions limited has emerged as one of the leading infrastructure companies in India and was conferred the President of India’s “Building the Nation” Award in recognition of its contribution to the construction industry. When DSC built their corporate office in Gurgaon, they approached Archohm to design its interiors.
The building shell comprised of nine floors of 6,000 sq.ft. out of these, one was to be dedicated for services and recreation, one for entry, waiting and meeting, five for corporate workspaces and the top two as management floors.
Beginning with a simple brief, ‘to reflect the company’s role and vision’, Archohm decided to take user experience to another level. From a dramatic construction entrance to an intimidating tunnel lined with interactive displays, visitors were taken through designed experiential spaces.
As one approaches the building, a cluster of strategically placed steel reinforcement bars, create a path that leads straight to the entrance. These bars are symbolic to the client’s role as a prominent construction company. When lit at night, they transform into a captivating piece of art!
Trying to make maximum use of the rectangular space given and in an attempt to increase display area, a diagonal was created which, divided the central ground floor space into two tapering ramped tunnels. The space thus created acted as a dramatic build up which, rose into to the double height reception.
Unlike a usual office layout, on entering, a person is led along a display corridor with visuals of artwork on one side and a black glass screen with television insets concealing a series of meeting rooms on the other. The meeting rooms are flexible in size and carry a coordinated   colour theme within white interiors. Doubling up as a museum, this corridor was designed to be intimidating, bold and informative. 
Every space in the building has been designed, keeping in mind the image and ethos of the client resulting in a highly user centric approach.
As a part of the exhibit, a model display table has been created with an under lit top. This table is aerodynamically shaped and softened at edges with the use of Corian molding for a seamless finish.
The reception table is made of a monolithic 'kadappa' black stone with carved in niches for storage and wire management. A red graphical inlay of the three arcs from the company’s logo dominates the otherwise dark table. This Is in line with the dark corridor entrance with complete black surfaces and spotlight accents.
Emphasis was laid on creating a vibrant and transparent work culture with open plan layouts clubbed with exclusive and insulated management floors. Combining corporate and design aesthetics, no stone was left unturned to bring in a top of the line environment that exuberated both power and status.
Being a construction company associated with bright fluorescent colours, the five corporate work floors were given their own colour identity. At night, every floor appears as a band of different colour making the façade a playful sight.
The two top floors are marked with a completely different look and feel. From blacks and whites, one transcends to beiges and browns. Extensive use of mint stone brings in a rough and artistic feel with deep browns bringing in a sense of formality to the space.
The chairman’s office is a massive naturally lit volume that has a wooden inner skin with large designer classics of furniture expressing extreme opulence. The main table is a clean raw piece of specially oiled wood, 25 feet long that has been made in Italy. The same wood was used to carve out four visitor chairs to bring in continuity and represent grandeur and power.
The raw concrete wall that acts as a backdrop, contrasts the fineness of the wood adding a ‘construction’ bent to the space. Pure wooden Italian furniture tailor designed and made for the space brings in a sense of scale with rich white leather sofas dominating the volume .
The famouse ‘Eames lounge chair’, ‘Herman Miller Aerons’ and the ‘Ronald Schmidt television stand’ punctuate the space with their classic appeal. The area then extends itself vertically to a private lounge that envelopes a large terrace garden and a meeting room. This garden acts as an intimate space for private gatherings and events. All the bathrooms in this zone are marked with a high element of design with European fixtures and furniture.
Another interesting feature is the board room table which is an exclusive and fundamentally solid heavy stone table that brings in a certain focus to the room and gives the room its individual feel.
The total budget of the project reached approximately 1040 lakhs with the highest priority being services, especially electrical for, the office required the best lighting solutions provided through Swiss , Regent Lighting. The air conditioning and ventilation have been automated with sensors using Japanese (Daikin) solution and variable refrigerant technology (vrv) to optimize power and cooling. For sanitary all the plumbing was done using German (Kohler) products. Automated roller blinds control this naturally lit office aptly supported by ‘green’ lighting solutions. Art and graphics were created to complement the spaces with themes related to construction and history of the client. The next important area was furniture and seating. Italian workstations and Herman Miller seating solutions were predominantly used.
The overall project nutshells a technology driven office building, with a client sensitive building that uses design to create an inside – outside dialogue of the company’s work and vision.