How AD100 architectural designer Pravir Sethi maximized his new Mumbai studio space

Studio Hinge's new Marine Drive office space introduces design solutions for limited space.

Does the design process change when an architect undertakes a personal project? “Yes,” says

Pravir Sethi

, “I am my own worst client!” The AD100 architect heads Mumbai’s Studio Hinge, specializing in finding multi-purpose design solutions in response to spatial challenges.

When Sethi decided to open a new studio in Mumbai's Marine Drive, he set up a challenging situation for himself: Turn a crammed, barely 330 square-feet rented office space with antiquated finishes into an open studio that accommodates up to eight staff and a principal architect, and can be modified to create private spaces when required.

Operating under a limited budget, Sethi began by opening up the area using a primarily neutral palette with light woods, white or light grey, besides the teal-coloured acoustic vinyl

. This backdrop not only invites and reflects the natural light but also channels attention to the colourful view outside of a garden.

Desks are hung directly on the walls to reduce clutter at the floor level and are purposely placed along the periphery to leave a central open space for group discussions, mock-ups, and other office activities.

Another way of creating a visual lightness was using translucent materials such as polycarbonate ceiling, screens and wire mesh drawer units. Bespoke sliding doors, made of translucent polycarbonate panels that divide the studio into a communal working area and private cabin for the principal architect, are core to judiciously utilizing the limited space while preserving the inflow of light. “When fully open,” says Sethi, “the doors can be viewed as giant inverted commas, which happened more by accident than design, but we think it’s fun!”

The focal point of the space is a custom-built polycarbonate partition, which slides and folds in unusual ways to provide varying degrees of privacy to the cabin area.

The sliding doors, framed in old Burma teak

, curl to conceal a low downstand beam and continue into the false ceiling over the communal area. The polycarbonate panels diffuse natural and ceiling lighting across the communal section. “The grooved and fluted profiles of the timber sections lend an old-world delicacy in an otherwise starkly contemporary interior, an anachronism which typifies the studio’s work,” says Sethi.

Lighting by Tripti Sahni of Studio Trace incorporates concealed and indirect lights for efficiency with optimal visual comfort and reduced strain and glare.

The meeting table doubles as a lunch table and at the fixed end has a series of storage units, which can be opened in different and interesting ways. The cyanotype artwork is by Tripti Sahni.

Most of the furniture in the office was designed by the studio and custom-built, some even up-cycled. The staff chairs, for instance, were assembled from pieces of an installation that the studio did for a sustainability pavilion at a trade fair some years ago. The cane

The principal architect’s desk is an old recycled Burma teak table, taken apart so that half of its base is used as a free-standing chest of drawers while the other half floats off the ground between the white cutout profiles.