PROGRAM:

9,500 sq.ft. Consulate Offices with Public, Consular and Staff areas spread across an entire floor of a high rise in Nariman Point, Mumbai.

CONCEPT:

The Consul General expressed three points of emphasis; Transparency, Convenience and Efficiency. As a Consular Office, issues of safety and security remain paramount. Apostrophe worked with the key Liaison officer for the Chinese Consulate to create a design vocabulary that prioritized these issues. The principal elements consisted of creating interconnected compartments for Visitor areas / Staff working and recreational areas and the key Consular Offices. The connecting corridors between these compartments and the partition walls of the offices became a multi-layered skin that allowed varying levels of transparency and also become functional with addition of niches and pockets that held various programmatic elements such as storage, display, equipment, etc.

MATERIALS:

This multi-layered skin was created with wood panels and translucent polycarbonate sheets molded onto a structural frame of aluminum purlins. The other primary materials were wood cladding and matt-satin finish tile flooring. Lighting (diffused, recessed, reflected, direct, and accent) was a central aspect of the overall spatial composition. Materials were finished both to create a warm atmosphere and also for the right acoustic qualities that were desired in the respective spaces.