Tap “Unlock Door” on your phone!   Did you know, you can go completely touch-free in your office spaces by automating your doors and blinds, too? In our last blog Automation in Offices, we addressed retrofitted automation. In this blog we’ll be focusing on contact free solutions for areas that do not always allow retrofit automation. The foundation of automation – is an electric connection. What do you do when you do not have an electric connection but want motorized blinds and automated doors? Small changes to make  – but it’s worth it!   Floor Spring Doors Floor Spring doors are your everyday push-to-open doors. These doors can be fitted with the Dorma Porteo technology – in which a pulling mechanism is fitted on the top of the door and attached to an electric connection. It can then be connected to a phone, remote or a sensor-switch and the door will swing open

What do you require to create one?   The importance of providing deep work zones in offices for focused working was the topic of our blog Deep Work Zones – here we’ll show you how to create the sanctuary for deep work – the pod! Pods are like small closed-off rooms that can be located anywhere in an office space. Equipped with electric points, suitable furniture and most importantly – acoustic insulation, the use of pods has proven to dramatically increase productivity and efficiency.   So this takes us to another question – should the use of these pods have a time limit? We think that might be a good idea – and recommend installing a timer! What do you require to install a pod: – Available area should be about 1.5m x 2.1m, though it can be done in less – Good acoustic panelling on walls as well as ceiling – Carpeted flooring to absorb sound – Ergonomic

For increased productivity in offices! Suggestions from an Interior Designer Good looking offices can also be very unproductive. Several studies in the recent past have related to how offices are planned and designed without thinking of the outcome from a productivity level, and how employees feel about their workspaces. Distraction seems to be the biggest challenge, followed by frustration, isolation and depression. Deep work zones are the answer to all this and more. “Human beings, it seems, are at their best when immersed deeply in something challenging. ”― Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World Deep-work zones are essential for thinkers, strategists and planners. These are also essential for when some employees require total quiet time to focus on something. I like to feel that we have earlier solved this problem by creating, in the open office plan (that now we know does not work, but that’s a

Why interior design uses your corporate identity to create an impact As interior Designers, we are often at a loss when our clients give us the logo to be used only as a backdrop for the receptionist! You see, the brand “message” talks about who you are, what you stand for, and why people should trust you! We just translate that message into the interior design so that you can create an impression. Why?The visual identity of an office is the “first impression” created for anyone who enters, be it your clients, investors or potential talent you’re looking to hire. That is why it is of utmost importance to focus on how you are making them feel. If you are a law firm but the colors in your interiors are funky and playful – chances are you’ll be taken less seriously. Whereas on the other hand if you are a design

Post-Pandemic Office Spaces The CoVid-19 has forced us to take a long hard look at life as we knew it. Everything has ground to a halt – it has never happened before in history! There is an opportunity here – this, now, is the time to make changes – something we would not have had time to do earlier. The Bubonic Plague in the late 18th century led to The Renaissance, and Coronavirus is bringing in the new world NOW! Together we have to ensure that we learn from this Act of God. In this blog you will read how you can adapt your workplace to the changing times in the wake of this pandemic. The world has come to a stand-still and offices are shut – what does the future hold and how can you be prepared? Here are some ideas to create a “safe” office for the future: Reduce touchable

Why don’t open plan offices work? It’s a design problem. I’ll take you through how you can increase the productivity in your office by focusing on three major aspects of a happy office! Through the ages, workplaces have evolved from cubicle-farms to open-plan layouts and stayed so since the early 20th century. The concept of open-plan offices was based on Frank Taylor’s ideology of creating maximum industrial efficiency. Created as a catalyst for collaboration and increased productivity, have open-plan offices really lived up to the expectations of employees and companies? The answer is, no! While the idea of creating an open-plan layout at first sounds promising for growth, communication and collaboration – it completely ignores the human and the social requirements of each employee. Crammed up in rows like cogs in a wheel, the workforce often feels suffocated and distracted! Every employee is different, the way they function, think, act

[vc_row content_text_aligment="" css=".vc_custom_1474288085355{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}"][vc_column][vc_column_text] Somewhere, sometime, there might have been some logic in the lowest bid being the best. In my experience, however, it is the mindless granting of contracts to firms that may be aggressive in bidding, but may take short-cuts in the execution. This causes unnecessary expenditure in the redoing of work that should have been done well in the first place. Many years ago, while I was doing Sunil Mittal’s residence, he asked me to step in and do their corporate office in Mehrauli – apparently the L1 had backfired, and they were in a mess! There was no question of another L1. We went in, audited the work, took much of it apart, and redid it to last, at a higher cost than their L4! A waste of time and money for Bharti Airtel Ltd. In my own office, it has taken us 2