Fact File
Location: Kolkata
Size: 163800 sq m
Principal Architect: Abin Chaudhuri
Photography by: Suryan Dang & Edmund Sumner

This surreal corporate office—designed by Abin Design Studio for the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group’s headquarters in Kolkata—is a spatial narrative experiment through craftsmanship. Resembling a contemporary museum, the space is a celebration of life and art, with a large central atrium that juxtaposes monumentality with intimacy and a subdued material palette with larger-than-life focal elements. Alluding to the river ghats, where everyday life meets spirituality, the ethereal workspace is decorated with colour, artwork, and bespoke statement pieces crafted from back-painted glass, leftover carpet rags, and other unique materials. Grand steps at the forefront of the atrium further the design reference to the river ghats, as they augment the art and form a pathway to the repository of invaluable literary treasures.

The client is an avid patron of the arts and an enthusiastic collector, and it was his willingness to let the studio transcend the boundaries of “container” and “content” that resulted in a workspace that houses artefacts and human aspirations alongside a bustling corporate environment. The central core diffuses into multi-planar spaces, with natural light washing across the full-height atrium and filtering into seamless working spaces, segregated vertically as required in the hierarchy of corporate offices. Partitions between the plethora of conference rooms have been re-imagined as “library shelves” to facilitate content display. Each floor features a distinct design language, which can be gauged from the different treatments and finishes on the corresponding reception desks. “Despite being physically separated to justify functional efficiency, the spaces are visually connected, transcending boundaries of closed office habitats and celebrating art and life through accessibility and ownership with a sense of pride,” the studio said of the unique spatial layout.