Embassy of Netherlands

Crossing pathways, connecting the four corner offices of the Embassy, meet in the centre of the hall. Four equally sized places are left over where we identified different seating to provide for various meeting options. Informal low seating for two, meeting table for six, comfortable couch seating for four and informal high counter with bar stools cater to a wide range of the requirements for internal and external meetings.
The layout is designed creating a passage way to all four entry with a division for various seating with low height podiums to create barriers between spaces.

Lighting for this room was one of the most challenging which we faced. Since the roof/ceiling was in the shape of a hexagonal cone of approximately 20 foot height, lighting up the roof as well as the space below was something which needed to be done with a lot of thought process. Because a single mistake could either make the space either too bright or have a number of dark areas. Finally, we developed the idea of placing white high gloss convex discs of different sizes suspended to the centre of the ceiling and wooden boxes with lights throwing light beams toward these discs thus, highlight the entire space.

The existing space of the lobby is in the shape of a hexagon with openings on four sides. The look and feel is bare/cold with a few ceiling windows emitting natural sky light, few display units along the sides of the walls and basic light boxes to highlight the walls and arte-facts. The flooring is made up of different slabs of grey marble which makes the room look cold and busy.

The Elevations show the multi-function of the light boxes created. The throw of light beams from the top of the boxes to the discs in the ceiling and the same light that is reflected downwards once it hits the discs. Thus, highlight the roof/ceiling & the centre of the room. There are lights not just of the top of the light box but also on the base and on the sides that are facing the wall. This is required in order to highlight the walls as well as the area below.

This Podium/division of space was designed to divide each area creating a barrier above below eye level. Purpose of this design was to make it a multipurpose unit. Firstly, to be used as storage cum seating and to add greenery with arte-facts. We added two shades of carpets light/dark grey to bifurcate the passage area from the seating which enhances the look and feel of the space. Carpet being a great material for acoustics helps in reducing certain percentage of the sound.